Many of the coaches I mentioned are already employed. I did so to illustrate what I would want in a coach. Defense first. Down the middle of equal importance.Great goaltending, which they have. Everything else flows from that.
Look at any of the coaches that I mentioned, and they have one thing in common. Structure. I don't think Jim Montgomery is a structure coach.
I think that he is, at least at present, an excellent assistant coach.
Offense first. (Quality shots over quantity, which worked in the regular season, but not in the playoffs); no defensive structure.
Zdeno Chara would be head and shoulders above Don Sweeney as GM.
If you know anything about him, he is a fierce competitor and voracious sponge of knowledge. (He took a course at Harvard too.)
Not like Brad, but he will do anything to win. He came to North America from Czechoslovakia, or perhaps by that time the Slovak Republic, which, in itself, was an impressive leap of faith.
He's also an extremely intelligent individual. I believe he knows something like seven languages, something crazy like that.
Beyond that, he trained with his wrestling coach father to become a technically superior fighter and physical defender in the NHL.
When he first came into the league, everyone laughed because he was a gangly giraffe.
Yet, much like Terry O'Reilly, Z *made himself an elite NHL player.* He had a chip on his shoulder. Zdeno is an extremely, extremely competitive person.
He wanted to prove the detractors wrong.
And he did. With class.
He is, to my knowledge, a fantastic human being, who remains an ultimate athletic competitor, and in every other way a striving individual who seeks excellence in all he does.
It has now been a few years since Chara retired.
Do you want to know what his diet was in the latter years of his career?
Plants and seeds.
I kid you not.
Always at the forefront of diet, nutrition, exercise. Let's run a few marathons to maintain a goal oriented perspective. And, you know, for fun.
Chara understands the value of physicality as well as speed and skill; understands what it takes to win and, as Mark Messier would say, the importance of imposing your will on the opponent.
Again, Z has a burning desire to win, and to be the best.
He is relentless.
As captain of the Bruins, he mandated that teammates would be teammates. No cliques, no rookies.
Peter Chiarell, Claude Julien, Patrice Bergeron, and many others on those BBB redux teams came together to create something special.
But no mistake. As Captain, Zdeno Chara was the man who, after initial missteps, created the "Bruins culture" we know today.
He would be a fabulous general manager.
His intelligence, passion, humility, and will to win - to say nothing of the universal regard he has earned around the NHL - speak volumes.
I hope this happens someday.