I forgot that the Devils hired Brunette as assistant coach to help with offense, while the Flyers hired Rocky Thompson.
What is wrong with Thompson. If it wasn't for his reputation as a fighter, his resume would be exactly what people here want.
CHL, AHL, and NHL coaching experience.
Served as head coach of the Chicago Wolves for three seasons before joining San Jose. In 2019, he took the Wolves to the Calder Cup Final, and overall he had a 113-71-29 record behind the bench. He also coached the Windsor Spitfires for two seasons, winning the Memorial Cup in 2017. He helped the Saint John Seadogs repeat that unique feat as an advisor this year.
Five years ago he supported cutting edge strategy based on analytics, he's anything but a dinosaur
In the mid-1990s, Rocky Thompson patrolled the blueline for the Medici...
oilersnation.com
What was in the presentation I asked?
“It was broke up into three parts: Skill, principles and adjustments,” replied Thompson
“With any offense you need skill. If you have low skill or if the individual or the team has no skill it is not that you can’t produced offence, but it is really difficult. Skill is an important factor.
“And then if you do have skill, what are certain areas of the ice that skill players can take advantage of to increase their scoring percentages?
I had a whole bunch of analytics done by Steve Valiquette (former NHL goalie), who has his own analytics company, but
back then (2015) coaches looking deep into these things wasn’t that common.
“The principles, and I’m sure everyone has watched the Michael Jordan documentary and the triangle offence, well I was calling mine two-on-one support offence. But when you really break it down, you can see the triangle in that same structure. I brought up old clips where you could see this offence existed no matter what era you played in, and it was generated from these principles. The speed and skill has changed in different areas, but the principles have always been there and I was able to show that and outline why they are important offensively.
“Finally, just showing adjustments. When you are doing something offensively, it could work against a certain team or a certain D zone structure, or the way a team plays gaps, but you have to be prepared as a coach to make an adjustment and not just keep hammering a square peg in a round hole.
Jason Strudwick: The game has evolved a lot, and not much of it is about speed. How has your thought process of how hockey should be played evolved from when you played and then started coaching?
Thompson: I like how the rules have changed my idea of the game. Don’t get me wrong, I love physicality and things like that, but I think it (the game) is better now.
In regard to the speed, that’s where I think that the game has really changed recently.
You’ll see its evolving with how the defencemen are being utilized right now. It’s happening in all three zones. With the defencemen activating from their D zone transition up the ice and leading the charge, you’ll see D-men leading rushes, you’ll see defencemen charging the net. It’s happened in the past to some degree, but not as much as you’re seeing it right now.
The transition of the game in the mid zone is something that has really changed. I think Gerard Gallant was a leader in that. You can ask anyone in the NHL and they will say Vegas is the best transition team in the league and they really are. It’s how they transition and how the defencemen get involved, in how they transition through the mid zone. It is fun and it’s something new and not everyone is doing it yet.
And then the activation of the defencemen in the offensive zone. If you watch Colorado, and of course you need players who can do it, but I think that you can do it with anybody personally. If you have smart reads and you’re smart it doesn’t mean that you have to be Cale Makar or Sam Girard or Shea Theodore or Erik Karlsson or Brent Burns. You don’t have to be the Norris Trophy winner to be seeing that offense in the offensive zone and not just from the blue line. Getting involved and activating in D zone coverages creates a ton of confusion coming out of the high ice with your defense activating.
You’ve got to have trust so that your forwards are going to cover you as a defenceman, but at the end of the day, you’ve (D-man) got to be responsible. You named Hedman and Heiskanen — those guys are always doing it — so what you would do in the past is you would stick a defensive defenceman with one of those types of players.
What I’m saying is look at Jamie Oleksiak in the playoffs, he is supposed to be the guy protecting Heskanen. This guy has been up the ice and it’s made a whole difference in his production in the playoffs. And they weren’t playing like this during the year, Dallas wasn’t. Something has changed and it has made their defense on of the most offensively productive in the post season.
Thompson: Well that’s the thing too and you’re right, your defenceman are not used to this stuff so when you implement it early, it’s almost like it’s not sure if they want to do it because it is so much more work than they are used to.
When we were taught as defenceman… you make a good first pass and then it’s over, perfect. You’ve got to work a little to make a little bit of gap in case they turn it over but outside of that, that’s not too difficult. Now, it is pass it and then get up the ice. And if it hasn’t materialised by the tops of the circles or the oppositions top hash mark in front of the net, high to mid slot, well then disengage until it is safe. But we want them involved. So that’s why you’re seeing more and more skating defencemen and you will see more drafted that way, and smaller players who maybe people would have overlooked a little bit. But they are so good with their skating.
So, it’s not that he can defend very good, but it’s a form of defense when he has the puck all of the time and he’s skating it out of his end and getting up the ice. He’s making the other teams defend longer and forcing them to work harder in different areas and then when they get it, they don’t have the energy to take advantage of a three inch stick that the guy is trying to defend with.
see also
From gap-toothed goon to buttoned-down bench boss, Rocky Thompson poised to one day be an NHL coach
