On Nov. 1 when the New York Islanders travel to Blueland, the two men on the opposing benches will feel very comfortable coaching against one another, even though they still may be feeling some jitters as first-year NHL head coaches. Both John Anderson and the new Islanders head coach will have faced off plenty of times previously during their AHL days, although I doubt there were ever as many people watching one of their coaching performances as will be in attendance for the upcoming Nov. 1 game.
It seems remarkable, considering how long ago Atlanta hired Anderson, but the final NHL coaching vacancy was just filled this week, as the reigning AHL Coach of the Year, Scott Gordon, was hired by the New York Islanders.
While the hiring has little to no effect on the Atlanta Thrashers themselves, it’s a move that will allow the administration to breathe a little easier. Some criticized the Thrashers brass, after the hiring of Anderson, as simply going for the cheap alternative in choosing a rookie head coach, instead of a more battle-tested coach. However, with the second hiring of a coach out of the NHL’s top minor league during this offseason, that criticism has a less of a leg to stand on.
In the last two years three teams have elected to pluck a coach from the AHL—Washington being the third along with both Atlanta and the Islanders—instead of recycling one of the many former head coaches looking to add to their already lengthy list of former employers. With a new infusion of young talent and the post-lockout rule changes, a trend has begun to bud in which general managers no longer see the rookie coach as just a cheap choice, but also a more “player friendly” approach to the new-age NHL star.
In a vacuum, the reasoning makes total sense. They know how to communicate with younger players, they have been forced to adapt to the post-lockout NHL, and in the case of Anderson and Bruce Boudreau with Washington, they have already coached some if not most of the players on the roster before their first NHL game.
Instead, the sports world is less of a vacuum and more of a rusted bridge or a woman scorned. Any perceptions, true or false, about who is making the decisions will be used to convey a third party’s reasoning for why a particular decision was made.
For whatever reason, though, the early on-ice results have made it hard to argue with the hirings. Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau won the Southeast Division in his first year with Washington, falling in seven games to the Flyers in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
So come November, when Anderson and Gordon meet each other for the first time as NHL coaches, it will be interesting to see if the results continue on the same path that Boudreau started them on. These two men will be invariably linked, simply because of the most recent employer on their résumé, and down the line will be pointed to as the first or the last of this new hiring trend.
Boral can be reached at jboral@scoreatl.com.
Loading ...
