Barring any can’t miss, safer coaches becoming available, I am completely bought in on Todd Nelson after researching and reading more about him.

If this isn’t the antithesis of what players and fans alike have experienced with Newsy, here is Nelson’s answer from an interview I highly recommend reading if you are able to with The Athletic back in 2017 about his coaching philosophy:

“In this day and age, if you wait for something bad to happen it’s going to happen. Why not try to dictate play?… I hate the term, ‘Let’s weather the storm.’ I hate that because you’re in a defensive mode versus ‘We fight fire with fire’… If I get beat, I don’t want to do it in a defensive mode. I want to go after them. If they beat us, I tip my hat to them.”

Later in the article, he talked about how his powerplay sucked the year prior. He had the balls to put 5 forwards on a powerplay unit. It worked. They nearly broke a league record cause of how successful their unit was. Clearly he doesn’t give a shit about going against status quo. More importantly, it sounds like he will seek out his players to consult with them about creative ideas and tinkering. If all of that’s ridiculous to some of you and don’t think that’s realistic in the NHL, tell me then what you thought about Scotty Bowman playing Sergei Federov at D or putting 5 Russians on a line together? We’ve already seen what the alternative is to try and structure a team to death and play it safe.

Systems that are predicated on creating turnovers and offense might sound risky, but I would argue Steve’s built a team comprised of young talent that’s equipped to handle that style of play. Tons of our prospects skate exceptionally well, work hard, and play a well rounded game where they can get back and defend when possession flips anyways. At the very least, it would bring a unique identity to a team that’s starving for one.

I would play with my fucking hair on fire if I were Larkin under a coach like Nelson. Players have repeatedly mentioned how proud they were to play for him. Bring in a guy who’s known for building a bulletproof culture in the room. We need a coach to promote an environment and brand of hockey that players around the league will want to be part of rather than convincing guys to play here by overpaying them.

I am a gigantic fan and hope like hell that we give him the opportunity. Does Steve do it, or does he not learn his lesson where he goes back to the same well and try to force a coach who’s married to the idea that keeping it out of the net is the only thing?

17 comments

  2. If they make a coaching change, which I’m not at all confident they’ll do, my gut says it’ll be a very boring very predictable pick.

  3. I expect Lalonde firing if they lose to or get outplayed badly by the Islanders this Thursday. Really thought Steve would be on that road trip out west to do the deed after last nights latest embarrassment .

  4. I’m with you on this. A lot of the other big coaches out there carry some baggage. Todd McLellan is a hyper defensive coach. Quenville…yeah. Woodcroft had McDavid so any of his success is pretty much partial. If Bostons coach comes free then sure. But a part of this is being realistic. Yzerman is a safe guy, and to be fair, everyone’s gotta start somewhere. I wouldn’t mind this especially if he’s a guy from the system who could be used as an interim.

  6. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I like Joel Quennville. Yes what happened is shitty, but he took his punishment. Plus he would be reunited with Kane.

  7. Petry….holl…..Gus……can any coach improve half our defense?( I’ll cut chariot some slack, give him a competant partner on a 3rd unit and he’s serviceable there). Fighting fire with fire would make games more interesting sure…but does compher at 2c or our 3rd and 4th lines look like we can out fire anybody? After Seider and Ed, there’s even less fire from the back end.

    It’s too easy to beat the wings, because after the first line and first defensive pair, there is such a drop off in offensive and defensive talent. Wear out Seider and Ed and the defense is gone. Shut down the Larkin line, and compher just isn’t enough to pick up the slack. There isn’t enough depth talent to force favorable matchups. Fire with fire would be more fun to watch, but I don’t think it’d change anything in the standings.

    But at this point, with this cap and this roster..,,there isn’t much else left to lose.

    Can’t get a true #2 center or 2nd pair defense with our cap issues right now, so I guess it’s time to look at other systems.

    If Yzerman doesn’t make a huge stride in defensive depth talent this offseason though….maybe it’s time for a new front office. We can not win with 4 defensemen regularly playing who can neither play defense or contribute offense.

  9. I feel like hiring another head coach with very little NHL experience is not the play. That would be 3 in a row. I feel like woodcroft or McClellan would be better options.

  10. I’ve been saying this for a while now. I’d love to see it. Had the pleasure of watching him play his last year of hockey in Muskegon as a player and then his first 3 years as a head coach were also in Muskegon. Back to back cups in that stretch. Career definitely took off after that.

  11. He can learn how to coach in the NHL, but an attitude like this can’t be taught in coaching school

  12. I am a fan, but they are not going to pluck a guy mid-season from someone elses AHL team.

  13. I think we’re gonna have to tank more to get a coaching change sadly. Do you think it’ll happen during the course of this year? We do have a ton of hockey to play and Steve hopefully isn’t just not realizing what’s happening. At least I hope not

  15. Coaching is a problem for this team, but pretending it solves all problems is hilarious. Quite simply we need young talent on D and scoring depth.

  17. Sounds like he’d be an amazing hire, get him here yesterday whatever money he’d require

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