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Originally Posted by Drury18
I think there is a HUGE personality and mentality difference between Ftorek and Gill.
Completely agree, disliked the Ftorek signing. Let's get a coach known for ranting and raving at players and for lack of a better term "behavioural" problems while on the bench. I mean a quick search and you can come up for a few incidents, it's not really a behind closed doors hushed thing. Maybe that works for the older NHL guys, but the AHL kids will more then likely tune you out. I think he also suffered from the whole "Hockey Star" (from the WHA days) problem translating into coaching. Same thing as Gretzky, he may have been an excellent player but they all don't make great coaches, mostly because they haven't struggled like some players and so they don't have an understanding of that side of the sport.
If you look at Gill's career, the guy was a plugger and that's probably even giving him alot of credit. Had injury problems, spent considerable time in the AHL and really wasn't anything flashy. He's almost a living embodiment of having to do whatever you need to in order to stay on a team. Guys hearing that message from him probably has more power then hearing someone whose well decorated, in hall of fames and didn't have that struggle. I think the only knock I've heard about Gill's coaching was that he made the Kingston management (i.e. Doug Gilmour) look bad with that 3-0 playoff collapse. He's improved both teams he's coached and I don't think the Kingston firing was really about how he coached rather that Gilmour needed someone to blame for the embarrassment.
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Agreed with your post. However, the ranting and raving is completely gone from the NHL it seems. Easier to fire a coach than to move a big contract. I remember Keenan talking about it a couple of years after he was let go from the Flames. Maybe he was just using it as an excuse (the whole 'semi-retired' thing), but he was nothing like "Iron" Mike Keenan while with the Flames. He felt that was a thing of the past as the salaries increased substantially for players.