Barry Trotz turns Ovechkin into team player

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Trot ... story.html

Trotz turns Ovechkin into team player for Capitals

The Great Eight goes from a me-first reputation to Washington team leader

BY POSTMEDIA NEWS MAY 1, 2015

Trotz turns Ovechkin into team player for Capitals

In his first season behind the Washington Capitals bench, head coach Barry Trotz put star forward Alex Ovechkin in position to succeed individually while also helping the team win. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
NEW YORK — Barry Trotz had been a free agent for about 30 minutes last summer when the Washington Capitals called and offered him a coaching job.

In the next several hours, he would receive offers from three other teams, so the longtime Nashville Predators coach drew up a list of pros and cons of where he wanted to move. He considered location, the general manager and what issues each team was facing. Then he looked at the roster.

Washington obviously had Alex Ovechkin. But the question Trotz was wrestling with at the time was whether that was a positive or a negative.

“Sometimes perception is reality,” said Trotz, who admitted that he had miscast the Capitals sniper from afar as a me-first player. “My perception and all that was probably off. When you get to know Alex, he’s a real good player who buys into whatever you’re doing. You just give him a reason why.

“You see the results. He’s been a real good revelation. I think he’s in a good place in his life, in terms of his hockey career. Individual stuff is important, but it’s not very important.”

In some ways, Trotz has been the NHL’s Phil Jackson. He’s taken one of the sport’s most dynamic players and instead of stifling him or living with his mistakes, placed him into a structured system that plays to his overall strengths. Ovechkin, who is on his fourth coach in five years, needed that, even if at times he did not realize it.

Since coming into the league in 2005, Ovechkin has burned through every type of coach. He has had a player-friendly coach (Bruce Boudreau) who let him do whatever he wanted; he had a drill sergeant (Dale Hunter) who essentially turned him into a fourth-line grinder; and he had an in-over-his head rookie (Adam Oates) who converted him into a right-winger.

Finally, in Trotz, Ovechkin has a coach who is maximizing his skills. At the same time, in Ovechkin — and really the entire Capitals roster — Trotz finally has a player who can take a game over offensively. The two complement each other.

“I will say that every coach is a different coach,” said Ovechkin. “Every person is a different person. He’s my coach right now and I respect him and he respects us as players. We just have to do our job if we want success.

“It’s not about individual stuff. That’s what he said to me. He told me don’t put pressure on yourself. You have to do little things to have success. And it works.”

Talk to people who have followed the Capitals year after year and they say this season has been different. A lot the faces in the dressing room are the same — 12 players were here when Boudreau was the head coach — but their mindset is different.

You can see it in the playoffs, where the Capitals are stepping outside their comfort zone. In the first round, they combined for 313 hits with the New York Islanders. In the Game 1 win against the New York Rangers on Thursday, even Nicklas Backstrom threw his weight around and surprised Dan Boyle with a questionable bodycheck that led to the game-winner.

“You’ve got to finish checks,” said Backstrom. “There’s not going to be a lot of cute plays in the playoffs.”

Still, this is not like playing for Hunter again, who had Ovechkin blocking shots and nailed to the bench whenever the Capitals had a lead. Ovechkin, who led the league with 53 goals and is a finalist for the Hart Trophy, is allowed to be creative with the puck. But now his offence is not coming as a result of him not playing defence.

“I just wanted to have a plan to get him the puck,” Trotz said of coaching Ovechkin. “Do what you want to do when you have it, do what I want you to do when you don’t have it, so we can get it back to you. It was really that simple.”

In Game 1 against the Rangers, in which Ovechkin scored a highlight-reel goal on a blistering wrist shot and then setup the game-winner on a behind-the-net pass to Joel Ward a second before the final buzzer, the Washington captain was as good as anyone had seen him. With the puck, he was a scoring threat. Without it, he was a heat-seeking missile darting around the ice in search of his next target.

“We were joking around yesterday that he should have been nominated for the Selke,” said Capitals defenceman Karl Alzner.

Maybe a Selke is still out of the question. But after the game, Trotz praised him for his leadership abilities, likening Ovechkin to Mark Messier.

Did Ovechkin agree with the comparison?

“No. I’m Russian, not Canadian,” he deadpanned, “It’s a huge compliment to me. He’s my coach and he knows the type of player I am.”

[WestCoastJoe]

“Sometimes perception is reality,” said Trotz, who admitted that he had miscast the Capitals sniper from afar as a me-first player. “My perception and all that was probably off. When you get to know Alex, he’s a real good player who buys into whatever you’re doing. You just give him a reason why.

“You see the results. He’s been a real good revelation. I think he’s in a good place in his life, in terms of his hockey career. Individual stuff is important, but it’s not very important.”

In some ways, Trotz has been the NHL’s Phil Jackson. He’s taken one of the sport’s most dynamic players and instead of stifling him or living with his mistakes, placed him into a structured system that plays to his overall strengths. Ovechkin, who is on his fourth coach in five years, needed that, even if at times he did not realize it.

Since coming into the league in 2005, Ovechkin has burned through every type of coach. He has had a player-friendly coach (Bruce Boudreau) who let him do whatever he wanted; he had a drill sergeant (Dale Hunter) who essentially turned him into a fourth-line grinder; and he had an in-over-his head rookie (Adam Oates) who converted him into a right-winger.

Finally, in Trotz, Ovechkin has a coach who is maximizing his skills. At the same time, in Ovechkin — and really the entire Capitals roster — Trotz finally has a player who can take a game over offensively. The two complement each other.

“I will say that every coach is a different coach,” said Ovechkin. “Every person is a different person. He’s my coach right now and I respect him and he respects us as players. We just have to do our job if we want success.

“It’s not about individual stuff. That’s what he said to me. He told me don’t put pressure on yourself. You have to do little things to have success. And it works.”

“I just wanted to have a plan to get him the puck,” Trotz said of coaching Ovechkin. “Do what you want to do when you have it, do what I want you to do when you don’t have it, so we can get it back to you. It was really that simple.”

In Game 1 against the Rangers, in which Ovechkin scored a highlight-reel goal on a blistering wrist shot and then setup the game-winner on a behind-the-net pass to Joel Ward a second before the final buzzer, the Washington captain was as good as anyone had seen him. With the puck, he was a scoring threat. Without it, he was a heat-seeking missile darting around the ice in search of his next target.

Interesting article about coaching.

Can every great athlete be reached by an excellent coach? Perhaps not.

Can a top flight coach make a difference? Absolutely.

Don't kill the creativity, but have structure for the defence. Trotz presented it in such a way that he got Ovechkin to buy in.

Darryl Sutter might have done a similar job with Marian Gaborik last year, in terms of not stifling the offensive talent.

[TheLionKing]

From a minus 35 last year to a plus 10 this season. Quite a transformation.

[Toppy Vann]

Trotz said of coaching Ovechkin. “Do what you want to do when you have it, do what I want you to do when you don’t have it, so we can get it back to you. It was really that simple.”

Every coach doesn't match the type of coaching style that a player just as not all players match what a coach wants.

I've that conversation many times with soccer players who meet a coach they simply can't stand or who doesn't value what they contribute.

Soccer and hockey are similar in that the essence of each game is passing and ball/puck control.

What some coaches and teams choose to do often leads to a variation on these themes as some hockey teams will dump it in and chase puck carriers or some soccer teams will play the long ball a lot in the pursuit of one on one breakdowns or to try to get a ball into space for a breakaway. Some teams believe the long ball is needed if you don't have talent to bring it up.

Or the coach holds to this view that I share: 'If your team has the puck, they haven't...so don't give it away." To me - even against superior teams - you want to possess the ball as giving it away leads to "chasing the game" and that's the hardest way to play of all.

I try to vary the Trotz view with the instructions to guys who can take guys on to do just that - but I'm pretty clear it's not down by our freaking goal.