“I’m blessed to have two awesome assistants (Trent Whitfield and Spencer Carbery). I’m also blessed to have a leadership group – Tommy Cross, Jordan Szwarz, Chris Breen, Chris Porter and all these guys – that sets the tone in the room,’’ Leach said.
One of the things Leach admires about Sullivan -- the former P-Bruins head coach who has guided the Pittsburgh Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups -- is his ability to communicate.
"You have to be direct with players. Sully has a way in which he’s very honest, but he’s not a jerk about it. He says it in a respectful way, so the player comes out of it knowing inherently that Sully cares about them as a player, but at the same time he’s saying directly that this has to change or whatever it might be. It’s a real art. I don’t think I’ve mastered that. It’s going to take time,'' Leach said.
While the hockey part of the job is mostly second nature, overseeing off-the-ice details is not. “Travel and the bus, just the little stuff. The logistics – every day you get something that you don’t think about,’’ he said.
