Rink Fries: How the coaches have sucked the excitement out of overtime

A couple of things coming out of the general managers’ meetings in Florida.

I’m not surprised that while 3-on-3 overtime was discussed, no changes will come of it. Are we fed up with the seemingly endless neutral-zone regroups? Well sure, but I don’t look at them as a cause more as an effect. The real problem here is the nature of what the OT has become — possession and precision. You win the draw, you’re much more in the driver’s seat to create scoring chances than in 5-on-5 play, so teams hang on to the puck, find safe, soft areas and only shoot in a high-percentage situation. There is no volume shooting in the extra frame because any shot that misses the net could to turn into an odd man rush the other way. So if you don’t have the shot, you spin back to the neutral zone and attack again.

Now, it wasn’t like this when the 3 on 3 started in 2015. It was endless rushes, sprints and scoring chances. Five minutes or less of high-octane hockey. People LOVED it and why not; it was guaranteed excitement. All someone had to tweet was “OT in (insert NHL city here)” and everybody flipped over. There were Twitter feeds created to alert fans that a can of hockey Red Bull had just been opened. And we all said: “This is great and the coaches have no idea what to do with it.  It’s uncoachable and awesome.”

Turns out it WAS coachable, very coachable, and once the bench bosses got their hooks into it the endless mad dashes ended. 

Womp womp.

Another thing to file under “Coaches ruin the fun in everything.”

Video coaches worth well worth the investment

I spent a lot of time this week talking about video coaches on the 32 Thoughts pod and The Jeff Marek Show as it’s now clear this position is going to grow for all 32 teams. And now that video reviews can save organizations millions of dollars, the need for qualified, brave people with ice water running through their veins is greater than it’s ever been.

Look at last season’s playoffs. Opening round with the Florida Panthers taking on the Boston Bruins. In Game 6, video coaches John Congemi and Myles Fee caught a Jake Debrusk hand pass on a Brandon Carlo goal the Florida bench missed. That goal would have tied the game going into the third period and swung momentum Boston’s way. The message was instantly relayed to Panthers head coach Paul Maurice, a challenge was issued, and the goal came back.

Maurice acknowledged the video coaches after the game, naming them specifically.

Considering the run the Panthers went on after winning that series, how much do you figure that challenge was worth?  How many millions? They had six more home gates after the Boston series, including two whoppers in the Stanley Cup final?

I don’t know how much each video coach makes specifically but asking around in broad strokes it sounds like there are three to four in the $150,000 to 175,000 range, six to seven between $120k to 150k and the rest in the $80k, to 120k area.

I know the Panthers got their money’s worth last season.

Resist the urge to stick with tradition

Was interested in what a few people in hockey said to colleague Elliotte Friedman about too many tweaks to the game (puck over glass, leg over boards, high sticks, goalies dislodging the net, etc) gives the impression the game is in a bad place. I couldn’t disagree more. Hockey, like any other sport or any business for that matter, should always reflect the tastes of today’s sports fan, which is always changing. If you’re not prepared to pivot, you’ll get left behind and your product will get stale. I’d be more worried if the sports went through a lengthy stretch where nothing changed.

I know hockey is a sport that nods at its history as much or more than other sports, but I’ve never felt the game should always live there. And there’s always been a resistance to move the game an inch to the left or right. As author Eliot Schrefer said: “Traditions are peer pressure from dead people.”

College hockey moving to top of pyramid?

As Elliotte reported on Saturday Headlines and we’ve talked about on the 32 Thoughts podcast, there are more and more conversations happening about NCAA hockey removing eligibility regulations and allowing CHL players in. At the recent GM meetings, the league updated managers of the status of the relationship between the CHL and NCAA.

Naturally, this would completely change the hockey development model. As told to me by someone close to the story, this would place college hockey on top of the development pyramid and produce the effect of keeping young players out of the American Hockey League, keeping them with their peer groups longer.

For the CHL this would mean operators saving money on education packages, to say nothing of the value of aligning their brand with that of the powerful NCAA. More D1 schools would be competitive with the big programs as well.

A couple of initial issues pop to mind here. The NHL/CHL agreement would need to be rewritten and what happens to the USHL? That league would factor into any decision here and would there be any chance the league merges with the CHL?

We’ll discuss it more on Monday’s 32 podcast, but here’s a question you should ask yourself about the situation: the NCAA continues to lose court challenges in all their other sports, so why do you think hockey would be any different?  I strongly suspect the decision here will be made by NCAA lawyers.

One thing I do worry about is U Sports hockey. Teams are peppered with former CHL talent and the quality of play is currently outstanding. If U.S. college is now an option for CHL players, there will be an inevitable dip in play at the Canadian university level.

Nash to Team Canada … Hunter to Blue Jackets?

I really enjoyed catching up with Columbus Blue Jackets director of player development Rick Nash on my radio show Friday afternoon. Nash will manage Team Canada at the upcoming world hockey championship. Asked who he considers his mentors, Nash mentioned Jarmo Kekäläinen, along with Jeff Gorton, Don Sweeney, Steve Yzerman, all managers he’s played for (Yzerman with Team Canada at the Olympics in Sochi) and went out of his way to include Mark Hunter in that mix, saying he’s someone he looks up to and “turns to for knowledge.” Now, Nash was Hunter’s first draft pick when he and his brother Dale bought the London Knights in May of 2000, so it makes sense. But with all the talk about Mark Hunter and the vacant GM position in Columbus, you can’t help but wonder.

Quick Hits: Look for the “Roman Josi for the Hart” convo to gather more steam. The Nashville defender has 22 points in the Preds’ 17-game streak and since Jan. 9 leads all blueliners in points … Great to see Cole Perfetti back in the Jets lineup Saturday and doubly great to see him score (albeit in a losing cause) … Pour one out for PWHL Toronto’s 11-game winning streak. It came to an end Saturday at the hands of Ottawa, 5-3. Daryl Watts with the hat trick for Ottawa … Congrats to Saskatoon Blades forward Yegor Sidorov on scoring his 50^th in the team’s final game of the season. The Blades haven’t had a 50-goal scorer since 1986 (Frank Banham with 83 and Mark Deyell with 61).

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