swflyers25
7-15-05, 2:21 PM
Posted on Fri, Jul. 15, 2005
Hitchcock rested, eager
By ED MORAN
morane@phillynews.com
Ken Hitchcock has spent a lot of time at his favorite lunch spot during the last year.
Most of those days he was just killing time and lamenting the fact that the NHL lockout was keeping him from doing his job. He was very rarely in a hurry.
Yesterday was different.
For the first time since last September, Hitchcock was thinking about the amount of work he had to do and glancing at his watch as he ate lunch. The lockout is over and there is work to do, and people to make plans with. There is a whole new NHL coming, and not just financially.
Many of the teams, including the Flyers, will be younger right away as they buy out older, higher-priced players and replace them with prospects. A lot of the rules will be different, the game will be faster and more competitive. The league and the fans are demanding change, and if there is anyone who can't wait to get to the blackboard right now, it's the Flyers' head coach.
"The thing I love is, the season is the season, but I love planning for the event,'' he said. "I love putting the plan in place that we're going to perform with just as much as I love the competition. I love the building part. I just know that this stuff is as important as the competition because if you do this stuff right, the competition takes care of itself. And for me, I don't want to see anything slip through the cracks. I love the planning, the thinking, the vision. I just love this part."
Much of what Hitchcock does will depend on what rules changes will be implemented. Those won't become clear until after the owners and players have time to hold ratification votes on the 600-page labor agreement they just shook hands on.
That won't happen until the end of next week. But enough is known about the salary cap and the proposed rules changes to give Hitchcock and Flyers management an idea of where they are going. As soon as the deal is done, the Flyers will buy out John LeClair and Tony Amonte to jettison salary. They then will work to sign the players not yet under contract while seeking out a top free-agent defenseman.
Other than the identity of that free agent - and New Jersey's Scott Niedermayer seems to be at the top of the list - the Flyers know the makeup of their team. It will be a combination of top veterans and a group of skilled young players and prospects who just won a Calder Cup championship with the Phantoms.
"It won't take long [to put the roster together]," Flyers general manager Bob Clarke said yesterday. "We know who we are going to buy out, we know the players who are restricted, the players we're going to re-sign. We know the spots that are going to be left open.
"There will be only five defensemen, so we're going to have to get one, maybe two defensemen. It's a good time to be putting in these young players. They've just come off a championship, and when they left we told them they are going to play on the Flyers but not just for experience, [they're] going to play to help us win."
That's enough to get Hitchcock started. He's already talking to players about leadership roles and changes in position. He can even tell you what lines he'd like to see.
Picture Jeremy Roenick playing wing again with Keith Primeau at center and Sami Kapanen on the other side. Imagine Patrick Sharp and Simon Gagne being centered by Jeff Carter, and Mike Richards centering Mike Knuble or Turner Stevenson and maybe Branko Radivojevic.
Hitchcock can. But that's getting way, way ahead.
Still...
"The first thing on our agenda is we need to meet as a staff as quickly as possible, hopefully next week, and prepare the start of a seasonal plan,'' Hitchcock said. "We're not going to know the schedule but we're going to know when training camp starts and we'll know or we'll have an idea how the team is formulated. We have to put together a plan for training camp, a plan for exhibitions, an organizational plan for who has what responsibilities and we've got to literally walk over our system of play."
So Hitchcock is back in the laboratory, a place he has missed and a place he loves to be.
But don't think he spent his 301-day vacation sitting in his favorite coffee shop. During his time off, Hitchcock ran coaching seminars, attended seminars, did motivational speaking, and coached anyone who would let him, from local kids to college and junior players.
He said he found the experience rewarding and refreshing. And now he's ready to get back to work.
"The thing for me is [coaching] feels new, it feels refreshing," Hitchcock said. "I have tremendous energy to go and do the job. I've always felt like that. But to me, I feel like I'm a more learned person now. Having gone to all these leadership seminars on psychology of coaching, technical seminars, I feel like I'm a much more learned person. I really have a passion to learn and I was able to exercise that passion this winter in all kinds of opportunities. I thought it was terrific that way."
Daily News (http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/12137651.htm)
Huh...no mention of Handzus...
Hitchcock rested, eager
By ED MORAN
morane@phillynews.com
Ken Hitchcock has spent a lot of time at his favorite lunch spot during the last year.
Most of those days he was just killing time and lamenting the fact that the NHL lockout was keeping him from doing his job. He was very rarely in a hurry.
Yesterday was different.
For the first time since last September, Hitchcock was thinking about the amount of work he had to do and glancing at his watch as he ate lunch. The lockout is over and there is work to do, and people to make plans with. There is a whole new NHL coming, and not just financially.
Many of the teams, including the Flyers, will be younger right away as they buy out older, higher-priced players and replace them with prospects. A lot of the rules will be different, the game will be faster and more competitive. The league and the fans are demanding change, and if there is anyone who can't wait to get to the blackboard right now, it's the Flyers' head coach.
"The thing I love is, the season is the season, but I love planning for the event,'' he said. "I love putting the plan in place that we're going to perform with just as much as I love the competition. I love the building part. I just know that this stuff is as important as the competition because if you do this stuff right, the competition takes care of itself. And for me, I don't want to see anything slip through the cracks. I love the planning, the thinking, the vision. I just love this part."
Much of what Hitchcock does will depend on what rules changes will be implemented. Those won't become clear until after the owners and players have time to hold ratification votes on the 600-page labor agreement they just shook hands on.
That won't happen until the end of next week. But enough is known about the salary cap and the proposed rules changes to give Hitchcock and Flyers management an idea of where they are going. As soon as the deal is done, the Flyers will buy out John LeClair and Tony Amonte to jettison salary. They then will work to sign the players not yet under contract while seeking out a top free-agent defenseman.
Other than the identity of that free agent - and New Jersey's Scott Niedermayer seems to be at the top of the list - the Flyers know the makeup of their team. It will be a combination of top veterans and a group of skilled young players and prospects who just won a Calder Cup championship with the Phantoms.
"It won't take long [to put the roster together]," Flyers general manager Bob Clarke said yesterday. "We know who we are going to buy out, we know the players who are restricted, the players we're going to re-sign. We know the spots that are going to be left open.
"There will be only five defensemen, so we're going to have to get one, maybe two defensemen. It's a good time to be putting in these young players. They've just come off a championship, and when they left we told them they are going to play on the Flyers but not just for experience, [they're] going to play to help us win."
That's enough to get Hitchcock started. He's already talking to players about leadership roles and changes in position. He can even tell you what lines he'd like to see.
Picture Jeremy Roenick playing wing again with Keith Primeau at center and Sami Kapanen on the other side. Imagine Patrick Sharp and Simon Gagne being centered by Jeff Carter, and Mike Richards centering Mike Knuble or Turner Stevenson and maybe Branko Radivojevic.
Hitchcock can. But that's getting way, way ahead.
Still...
"The first thing on our agenda is we need to meet as a staff as quickly as possible, hopefully next week, and prepare the start of a seasonal plan,'' Hitchcock said. "We're not going to know the schedule but we're going to know when training camp starts and we'll know or we'll have an idea how the team is formulated. We have to put together a plan for training camp, a plan for exhibitions, an organizational plan for who has what responsibilities and we've got to literally walk over our system of play."
So Hitchcock is back in the laboratory, a place he has missed and a place he loves to be.
But don't think he spent his 301-day vacation sitting in his favorite coffee shop. During his time off, Hitchcock ran coaching seminars, attended seminars, did motivational speaking, and coached anyone who would let him, from local kids to college and junior players.
He said he found the experience rewarding and refreshing. And now he's ready to get back to work.
"The thing for me is [coaching] feels new, it feels refreshing," Hitchcock said. "I have tremendous energy to go and do the job. I've always felt like that. But to me, I feel like I'm a more learned person now. Having gone to all these leadership seminars on psychology of coaching, technical seminars, I feel like I'm a much more learned person. I really have a passion to learn and I was able to exercise that passion this winter in all kinds of opportunities. I thought it was terrific that way."
Daily News (http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/12137651.htm)
Huh...no mention of Handzus...