Quote:
Originally Posted by moon
The hockey people that didn't hire him for 5 years while he was out of the NHL and had to have his buddy hire him back.
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I guess Scotty Bowman sucked too since Buffalo axed him in the 86-87 season, and he wasn't able to find another job in the NHL until 1990 (not even as a coach!) and it wasn't until Badger Bob was diagnosed with cancer that he got back to coaching.
Hockey is often a 'what have you done for me lately' gig. Hartley has won in every league he has been in. It may very well have been true that Hartley couldn't find a job in the NHL for those 5 years, but at the moment he is once again a pretty highly regarded coach. Another once highly regarded coach (and a past winner of the Jack Adams) is currently coaching his Swiss team.
You obviously do not like him, but to say that these 'hockey people' don't like him is not true. He has been highly praised by many hockey people this year.
People change, learn and adapt. Just like Backlund in this thread who many wrote off and is now quickly becoming a very important piece for this team. My favorite coach of all time was Badger Bob Johnson. He didn't win it with Calgary, though he came close. I think he was still universally thought of as a better coach than Terry Crisp though. He also seems like a great coach for rookies. I am not sure where people got the idea that he was terrible for rookies, but Tanguay and Hejduk were both great under him. This team has youth pushing it at the moment, and Hartley is frequently rewards them for their efforts (Bouma on the PP for instance).
Backlund is having a 'coming out year' it seems. I do think that Brent Sutter's system was too creative constraining on offence. Now you have a Hartley who is 'forcing' Backlund to be more creative with the puck rather than dumping into the corners and starting a cycle. Sure, Backlund hired a skills coach and has spoken to other coaches, but this simply would not have happened under Brent. Hartley preaches offensive creativity, as long as you are being responsible defensively. Backlund got scratched when he didn't provide as much offensive creativity as Hartley felt he could.
Not trying to take a snipe at Brent Sutter, but Hartley seems like a much better coach for youth at this point. I can't see Backlund thriving and developing as much under Brent as he is under Bob.