Carlyle knows tough times
Kadri, Rielly, Gardiner only remaining players from when he was coach
These are tough times for Randy Carlyle and the Anaheim Ducks, a team devastated by injury and underperformance, but that has somehow managed to stay in the playoff hunt in the Western Conference despite arriving in Toronto on a 2-11-4 run.
But, in a way, it’s nothing like the tumultuous four years the 62-year-old spent behind the Maple Leafs bench from 2011 to 2015, an era remembered for the team’s Game 7 collapse in the 2013 playoffs against Boston and a 2-12-0 run at the end of the following regular season, which saw the team tumble out of what had seemed a secure playoff spot.
There was Carlyle’s “just OK” comment regarding the play of goalie James Reimer after a late-season loss to Detroit and the notion that he was out of touch with young players in what was — and remains — an overheated market when it comes to interest in the Leafs.
“All the smiling faces I see here today (in the media) are the same ones that were here four or five years ago,” Carlyle said Monday, before his Ducks faced the Leafs. “There (were) some fun times and there were some tough times. Those are the things you deal with. It was a totally different time, a totally different group of players.
“The overhaul that happened here was something they felt was necessary, and they’ve done a good job with it.”
Only three players remain from the Leafs roster under Carlyle: defencemen Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner, and forward Nazem Kadri.
Rielly has developed into a Norris Trophy candidate as the league’s top defenceman, a trophy Carlyle won as a player. Gardiner is heading for unrestricted free agency and a potential contract windfall. Kadri has found himself under Mike Babcock, and is at his best when checking the other team’s top players. Carlyle had fond things to say about all three.
On Rielly: “Morgan Rielly is a very slick-skating, strong-skating defenceman. He’s the prototype of today’s NHL defenceman. He’s what everyone is looking for. They’re looking for mobility, the minute-muncher, the guy that can go back and carry the puck or move the puck effectively. The surprising part for me in him is the offence he’s been able to deliver on a consistent basis … He was drafted where he was drafted (fifth overall) because of that ability. When I saw him, he was in the infancy of his career, but you knew he was going to be a good player (for) a long time.”
On Gardiner: “With Jake, it was a myth there was some kind of dislike for Jake Gardiner. There was never a dislike. You appreciated the player that he was. And you can appreciate the player he is now. He’s a guy that needed to play 300-plus games before you found out what he really is. He’s a player that can control the tempo of the game. He’s got some dynamics to him. He’s got good hockey sense. But he’s prone every once in a while to make a mistake, as we all are.”
On Kadri: “Naz went through some ups and downs, some ebbs and flows. He was always a competitive player. The one thing we wanted to teach Naz was to play defence. He’s found that. That’s the way he’s most useful. He plays a complete game. It’s more a maturing thing with Naz.”
The three were youngsters under Carlyle, compared to the then-core of Phil Kessel, Dion Phaneuf, James van Riemsdyk and Joffrey Lupul. They are also thankful for what Carlyle contributed to their careers.
“Randy’s a good coach,” Rielly said. “He gave me a chance to play when I was19. That doesn’t happen very often. I have good memories of playing for Randy.”
“He gave me the opportunity, so I’ll always be grateful for that,” Kadri said. “He pushed me. He put me in pressure situations to see how I’d handle it. He was hard on me to start, but fair … He can be a bit of a hardass. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. There’s a fine line. You’re going to lose some players if you’re going to be (always negative). I became a successful player under him.”
“He was definitely an oldschool coach,” Gardiner said. “If you don’t play well, he’ll probably skate you. But he was good for my development. I became a little bit more mentally tough with him. Sometimes it was tough. I had my ups and downs, but he was good with that.”