TROTZ THE FAVOURITE TO WIN HOCKEY'S MOST COVETED JOB

All the Islanders head coach does is win with suffocating, team-first style of hockey

When you consider the amount of top-end talent at Canada's disposal for the 2022 Olympics, it's not a stretch to say that this could be the most entertaining brand of hockey we've ever laid eyes on.

Imagine what it's going to be like to see Sidney Crosby spring loose Connor McDavid for a breakaway. Imagine Mathew Barzal and Mitch Marner playing keep-away in the offensive zone. Imagine the speed, the skill and the never-ending onslaught of highlight reel goals. Sounds good, doesn't it? Now, picture McDavid blocking a shot. Picture him backchecking and finishing a check.

Picture dump and chase, roll four lines, defence-first hockey and low-scoring games.

Still excited?

If Barry Trotz ends up winning the most coveted job in hockey, this could be the style of hockey the country ends up watching next year.

Team Canada isn't going to name its head coach until the end of the playoffs. But the New York Islanders' head coach is among a small group of candidates — including Boston's Bruce Cassidy and Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper — to succeed Mike Babcock in the role as head coach. Cooper just won a Stanley Cup with one of the most dangerous offensive teams in the league, while Cassidy coaches the Perfection Line, which is regarded as the most dangerous offensive trio in the NHL.

If Team Canada wants to run up the score and entertain fans, it will go with either of those two coaches. But if it wants to suffocate its opponent like Babcock did in 2014 in Sochi, when he turned skilled superstars into fourth-line grinders, then Trotz could have the inside track.

“There are no style marks with Trotz,” said one Team Canada executive. “At the end of the day, he just wins.”

Working in Trotz's favour is that he was an assistant coach at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, as well as at two world hockey championships. Cooper and Cassidy don't have that experience. That matters.

And then there is his record. On Tuesday, Trotz joined Scotty Bowman and Joel Quenneville as only the third person to coach in 1,700 NHL games. He ranks third in all-time wins, having also won two Jack Adams awards and a Stanley Cup. No matter the team, no matter the roster, he's done it the same way at every stop: with a style that's as predictable and as monotonous as watching a Zamboni runs laps around the ice.

Trotz spent 15 years in Nashville, often overachieving with a team that had the best defence in the league and the worst collection of forwards. He then went to Washington, where he won a championship by convincing Alex Ovechkin to care as much about preventing goals as he did about scoring them. Since coming to New York in 2018, he has turned the Islanders into the '90s-era New Jersey Devils.

They suffocate. They put defence first. And they win.

“You don't get to that number without being a fantastic coach and a great person,” said Islanders defenceman Andy Greene. “Obviously, the hockey side speaks for itself. His preparation and his attention to detail and just the way he treats the players, it's just been a lot of fun and a great time to play beneath him.”

Fun isn't a way that many fans would describe the Islanders' style of play. Watching ice melt is more enjoyable.

“We think defence first and we try to frustrate you. That's kind of our identity,” said Islanders forward Jordan Eberle.

That sounds a lot like Babcock-type hockey. It's about playing a disciplined system that leaves nothing up to chance.

It's about checking your ego at the door and buying into a team concept.

“Play for each other,” Trotz said of his coaching mantra. “That's No. 1. It's plain and simple.”