VOORHEES, N.J. – Some of the best thinkers in the sport of professional ice hockey might be working behind the bench but they aren’t always calling the shots.
Just ask Brad Shaw. With the exception of two brief interim assignments, he’s been an NHL assistant coach for the better part of three decades.
All that time watching pucks go by and not having to worry about players’ feelings has given Shaw, who just finished this past season as Flyers interim head coach, a great perspective on the game.
At Friday’s first of two exit interview days at the Flyers Training Center, Shaw talked about the unique challenge of taking over a team from John Tortorella on March 27 which had already all but been eliminated from playoff consideration for a fifth straight year but still managed a 5-3-1 mark in its last nine games with Shaw at the helm.
Several players said Shaw is a thinking man’s coach, a bright strategist who sometimes imagines the game with ideas outside the box.
“I’ve been told I see the game a little bit differently than some other guys,” he said with a wry smile. “I don’t feel (now) it’s the only way I’ve ever seen the game. I think I have a good ability to put myself in the players’ shoes in certain situations.”
It should be noted the 60-year-old Shaw played 11 years himself in the NHL for a total of 377 games, including seven seasons with Hartford, three with Ottawa and parts of one with St. Louis and Washington.
After that, assistant coaching stints with the New York Islanders, Vancouver, St. Louis, Columbus and Philadelphia.
So he knows how to approach players when they mess up.
“Maybe I understand the mistake at times a little clearer,” Shaw said. “Understand the why of the mistake. It doesn’t take away from the fact the mistake was made. I think you can focus on the mistake itself or focus on the process leading up to the mistake.
“Maybe I deal with that (process) more than some other coaches. I think that’s where the coaching and the teaching can have more effect instead of at the actual point where you thought that mistake was made.”
After three difficult years under Tortorella, the Flyers looked like they have held their sticks a little less tightly the past couple weeks.
“I had meetings with the players this morning and they were saying that exact thing (a thinking man’s coach),” Shaw said. “I’m like, ‘I’ve always seen the game through my eyes.’ Maybe that’s how it gets the correction across a little clearer or gets them to the point where they can solve it themselves.”
The Flyers seem to have taken to this approach. It’s just too bad the coaching change wasn’t made sooner to see if the players’ response was sustainable.
“That’s the goal, you provide the concepts,” Shaw said. “Don’t paint the whole picture. Rules make you fast but they also make you predictable. They can also limit how much you are learning on the ice.
“Concepts allow guys to fill in the blanks. And I think it allows them to not necessarily play any slower or be less predictable. They make decisions based on the concepts that are put forward.”
Shaw says he will be having a meeting with general manager Daniel Briere sometime next week and might get some clarity on his future with this team.
If he doesn’t get the permanent head coaching gig, he’s not foreign to his former post as associate coach.
As for when the Flyers might be able to end this five-year playoff drought, Shaw nodded his head.
“I don’t think we’re that far,” he said. “Talked to ‘Sanny’ (Travis Sanheim) about that this afternoon. He’s sad, he said “at one point it felt like we were a long way off. But we were three wins away from a playoff spot.
“Then you remember the points we gave away or could have done a better job. I don’t think we’re far away. We need to get better in every aspect. Special teams, goaltending, defense. Some of that’s going to be from within, growing.”
