Burnside: Coaching In Carolina Is Home For Brind'Amour

RALEIGH, NC. -The video room off the Carolina Hurricanes locker room is a hive of quiet activity even though the game is long over and the dressing room is quickly emptying of players.

Head coach Rod Brind'Amour and his staff are all seated at different work stations pouring over video and the statistical breakdown of a just-completed win over the Vancouver Canucks.

General Manager Don Waddell and assistant GM Darren Yorke enter and there is a lively discussion about the win.

"That's a good bounce-back," Waddell said, a reference to the team's previous outing, a dismal 6-0 loss to Columbus at home two nights earlier.
Waddell jokes that he didn't want to be anywhere near the locker room after that one so he sent Yorke down on his own to get injury updates.

The banter continues with the rest of the coaching staff, longtime assistant Jeff Daniels, a former teammate of Brind'Amour, new defensive coach, and another former teammate of Brind'Amour's Tim Gleason, goalie coach Paul Schonfelder and veteran video coach Chris Huffine. The conversation moves quickly from various players and how they performed to practice schedules and the status of injured players.

At one point Brind'Amour and Waddell enjoy a short bit about the salary cap.

"You coach the players, I'll worry about signing them," Waddell says with a wink.

The management team departs and silence returns as the coaches return to their duties, breaking down penalty kills, power plays, and each period of play, preparing for their next game.

Since he's taken over as head coach before the start of the 2018-19 season Brind'Amour has streamlined this part of the operation. Where other coaches will break down the entire game themselves while assistants break down different parts Brind'Amour simply delegates.

"We're not cutting the same stuff," Brind'Amour said. "Obviously I'm doing power play stuff so I edit that. Then I get into the second period, that's kind of my period, and Glease does penalty kill and he does half the second period. It's all kind of depending on how many power plays, penalty kills you have."

At the center of it all, though, is Huffine and he will still be working away when even the coaches are ready to go home.

"Huff's probably the main guy in here because this is his room. And the video stuff is his. He's involved in cutting the periods and then he does all the pre-scout stuff which I can't tell you how valuable that is and he's so good at it," said Brind'Amour, who has known Huffine since Brind'Amour arrived as a player just over 22 years ago. "He knows what I need to see. I'm like, I don't want to see an hour worth of (crap)."

A few nights earlier Brind'Amour was once again wearing his coaching hat, this time, though, at Wake Competition Center, the Hurricanes' state-of-the-art practice facility which is also a thriving community and youth hockey center. In the lobby - COVID-19 restrictions were at the timekeeping kids out of dressing rooms - a group of 10-year-olds including Brind'Amour's son Brooks were scattered about as Brind'Amour showed them clips of some recent Hurricanes plays as part of a pre-practice routine.

"This gives me the most joy now that I'm coaching Brooks my 10-year-old, just going to practice. I just love it. I love being out there on the ice watching him compete and trying to help him and all the other kids and it's just, it's stuff that, as a dad you appreciate," Brind'Amour said. "They could care less if you're there or not probably but it means something to me. Somehow I have to keep figuring out how to keep doing it."

Technically, Brind'Amour is the assistant coach of Brooks's team. Still, he does what you, or I, or any other coach in USA Hockey's massive youth program does in attending in-person clinics and completing online courses.

"I tried to get out of it," Brind'Amour said with a laugh. "And they were like no. I'm like, seriously? I mean I do this for a living. Nope, I've got to spend the time."

A silver lining to last year's COVID-shortened NHL schedule was that it allowed Brind'Amour almost continuous involvement in Brooks's team.

"It was great last year because of COVID they didn't allow parents in to watch their kids but they let the coaches. And my wife's the manager. So we got to at least go watch and especially last year because we didn't start 'til January so I got to coach him and go to all the games. I loved it. It was great," Brind'Amour said.

It's not just the games, of course. It's the moments in the car going to or from practices or games. It's the drills and the fun games at the end of practice. And for that group of kids, Brooks included, they don't view Brind'Amour's presence through the lens of being a fan or with any kind of awe. He's just Brooks's dad.

Some of them come to the Hurricanes games and they'll wave down to Brind'Amour who is doing his real job and it'll be - hey, that's my coach, my buddy.

"It's funny we were just talking about this last night. I'm hard on him to a point," Brind'Amour said of his son. "So the other kids know that when I talk to them I'm already chewing my guy out and I'm way less on you so there's no favoritism."

"If I see something that Brooks has done wrong after I told him three or four times I'm like hey, I get into with him and then he looks at me and he gives me, he's got a bit of attitude. It's funny," Brind'Amour added. "That's what we talked about, I said 'you can't give me attitude. I know I'm your dad but the other kids see that then they think they can do it, it's not how this works you've got to be 'yes sir' all the time.'"

It might seem counterintuitive but you can draw a line from one coaching moment to the other, from coaching one of the top teams in the NHL to try and impart some hockey knowledge to a bunch of rambunctious kids. Not only is there a line to be drawn it is a strong, bold line, one tied inexorably to the other. And if you wanted to label each end, you might easily label both 'home'.

For as Rod Brind'Amour's story is the story of an elite, Hall of Fame-worthy player, who has morphed into an elite NHL coach, this is really a story of home, of finding that home and of savoring those rare moments when home and career and success and, sure, joy, all intersect.

Doesn't happen all that often in life and certainly not in the life of professional coaches or athletes.

"This is where I need to be," Brind'Amour said.

His wife's family is in the area. Her parents, with whom Brind'Amour is especially close, drive up from Wilmington for every game.

"When the run ends, whenever, it is, it's going to be interesting because I can't see myself doing this somewhere else," the defending Jack Adams Trophy winner as the NHL's top coach said. "That's really the truth. Because this is home. It's our family's home. I don't know how many coaches can really say that and mean it. I'm coaching where I live."

There is something symmetrical to all of this.

Brind'Amour retired after the 2010 season.

He got his first taste of coaching that next season when he took over his son Skyler's team. He was doing some development stuff for the Hurricanes but he tailored his trips to visit prospects around his duties coaching Skyler and his 12-year-old teammates on what would become the area's first AAA team.

"So that was the best year. I was full-on and I would just come here (to PNC Arena) when I could at night for the games," Brind'Amour said. "So I picked my schedule. It was the best job."

Because there were no other AAA teams in the immediate area Skyler's team played the entire season on the road traveling to tournaments and showcase events.

"Fifty-two games, zero home games," Brind'Amour recalled.

It was the only way to get exposed to better competition and it was a learning experience for all concerned.

"The first year we got destroyed. And then all of a sudden I said just wait. You'll see. I'm telling you it's going to go," Brind'Amour said. He recalls a couple of years into the process the team, which pretty much stayed together through their U16 season, beat the top AAA team from Chicago.
"I'll never forget that, it was Chicago Mission, so that's a big win," Brind'Amour said.

Twice before Skyler, who is now playing at Quinnipiac in Division I, moved on the team played in the national tournament for their age group. Some of those kids still play college hockey and Brind'Amour ran into a couple of his former players when he spoke to the N.C. State powerful club team before a recent home game at Wake Competition Center.

At the same time as the youth program was starting to flourish then-GM Jim Rutherford told Brind'Amour he needed him to go behind the Canes bench as an assistant. That was 2011

He never left.

Sometimes Brind'Amour would think of things he'd like to try if he was ever the head coach of the NHL team and he'd take them to Skyler's practice or games to try them out.

"You're not really learning (from the kids) so much as trying stuff out," he said.

Given his impact on the culture of the Hurricanes in his three and a half seasons as head coach in Raleigh, it's easy to forget that Brind'Amour spent seven seasons as an assistant coach.

'And it's easy to forget that this all could have turned out so differently.

A few years ago Brind'Amour figured he was at the end of the learning curve as an assistant coach and longed to have his own team.

"After my seventh year or eighth year, I was like, I've got to try to be a head coach somewhere because I'm putting in the same hours as everybody else and I'm not in control of anything," he said.

"So I started the ball rolling."

'He went to former teammate and then-GM Ron Francis and suggested he go and coach in Charlotte to get some head coaching experience.

"I didn't realize you had to be a head coach. Do you know what I mean? Nobody was calling me to interview for a head coaching job," Brind'Amour said. "I'm like, I have more experience, I've been doing this my whole life. But nothing. So I figured I better go do something."

When the Charlotte thing didn't pan out Brind'Amour started looking at colleges. There was an opening at Michigan State where Brind'Amour had played 42 games during his one season there collecting 59 points.

"That job came open five years ago or whatever it is now. I'm like, I went there. This is probably a slam dunk. This is how naïve I was," he said with a laugh. "Not only did I not get the job they were like, no, we're good. They didn't even return my call. They said the reason was because I hadn't finished school. And I'm like Tony Granato at Wisconsin didn't finish school he's taking classes, I'll take classes on the side if that's what you need. But you're hiring a coach. I've probably got as much education on coaching as anyone you're ever going to find and if you need me to have a degree in some I'll take a class on the side but they were like, no."

He called another school that was looking for a coach.

"I knew an athletic director from another school. And he said do you have your degree? No. He said well, we're not going down that road," Brind'Amour said.

In early 2018 Tom Dundon bought the Hurricanes and instead of simply overseeing the team's operation from afar Dundon spent time in Raleigh and around the team.

By the summer of 2018, Dundon had moved on from Francis, ultimately installing Waddell in the GM post, and also moved on from head coach Bill Peters.

Brind'Amour wanted a shot at that job and made that clear to Dundon.

"I don't know if he thought I was serious. He comes in new, he doesn't know anyone," Brind'Amour said. "Thankfully he did his homework. He was around for three months. And he saw how things were going and I think he got a different opinion on probably me."

Does he think about it? The what-ifs.

What if he gets the job in Michigan?

What if Dundon decides Brind'Amour is a career assistant?

"Yeah, all the time. I wouldn't be here now," he said looking around the coaches' room.

Maybe he's coaching somewhere else. Maybe he's doing something in the organization. But it wouldn't be this. And that's a sobering thought.

"It worked out," Brind'Amour said. "Imagine if the Michigan State guy says okay we'll give you the job. I'm gone. And I know I'm not leaving that because no one's probably going to call me to be an NHL guy. Things work out right. It's just weird. And this is the place I needed to be and it just worked out."

Longtime analyst and close friend Tripp Tracy has seen virtually every game Brind'Amour has played or coached for the Hurricanes.
"This is an amazing script, how it began as a player," Tracy said. "Just to see that entire chronology. It's a gigantic privilege."

"It's a remarkable opportunity," Tracy added. "He's recreated everything here, It's just that simple. His coming here is the single biggest transaction in the history of the team and it's not even close."

Waddell recalled the discussions with Brind'Amour and Dundon and himself taking a couple of weeks. But it all came together very naturally.

"I can remember the day he came in my office and agreed on a contract," Waddell recalled. Then Brind'Amour went back downstairs and kept working.

"I think Rod's personality is, he just wants to coach. He doesn't want to worry about anything else, he just wants to coach," Waddell said. "He wants to make sure everything else is taken care of; that he doesn't have to worry about. Honestly, I've been doing this for a long time and he's newer into it from a coaching standpoint, but the fact is that I trust the decisions he's going to make with the team. I spend less time worrying about the team than I would have 10 years ago. It's just maturity for me and knowing what Rod's ultimate goal is and how he approaches things."

"Players love to play for him. I can't say I've always that," Waddell added. "You always have some disgruntled players for different reasons but the way he approaches it with his players they're all in. They're all in and that's a fun thing to watch our team each and every night. You're going to play one way and that's his way and you're going to play fast and we're going to play hard and we're going to show up to play every night and if you don't you're not going to play."

Justin Williams was at a morning skate in Philadelphia on the morning of Jan. 20, 2004, when then-GM Bob Clarke came down to tell him he'd been traded to Carolina and that the Hurricanes wanted him in their lineup for that evening's game. About 5 o'clock that afternoon Williams made his way into the locker room and saw that he'd been given a seat next to captain Rod Brind'Amour.

It was the start of a deep and powerful friendship that included a magical Cup run in Raleigh in '06. Williams, one of the greatest Game 7 performers in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs, would go on to win two more Stanley Cups in Los Angeles as well as a Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2014.

He retired a Hurricane and now serves as a special advisor to GM Don Waddell.

He also coaches his son's U-13 team and when it comes to talking coaching, whether it's youth or NHL, it's more often than not Williams using his speed-dial to pick Brind'Amour's brain on a drill or tactic that might work with his son's team.

Brind'Amour, meanwhile, has been lobbying Williams to drop down and help coach his daughter who is a teammate of Brooks's.
Williams returned to Carolina and helped the Hurricanes to a surprise berth in the Eastern Conference final in 2019, the team's first playoff visit in a decade, a crucial piece in the locker room during Brind'Amour's first season behind the bench.

"We've been through obviously a lot together," Williams said of his connection to Brind'Amour.

He has known Brind'Amour as a teammate, friend, confidante, coach and now he views him through the lens as part of the team's management team. Through it all Brind'Amour has remained remarkably consistent.

It's natural to expect people to change as they transition from player to coach or executive, Williams said, "but with Rod, I think the thing that people revere about him is that he hasn't changed and he won't. He's the same emotional heart on your sleeve, matter-of-fact guy that he's always been. He can relate to players like nobody else can and can really speak their language. His speaking is always from the heart. It's not from a card or a teleprompter. It's all emotion and it's all real. That's why people love playing for him."

The story of Brind'Amour's arrival here on Jan. 23, 2000, with literally the clothes on his back and having to borrow money from the team's training staff to get through his first week when a snowstorm delayed his ability to get home to Philadelphia and gather his stuff, is the stuff of legend.
Daniels was still playing then and recalls driving Brind'Amour to practice during those first days.

"I think he was in shock," Daniels said.

Now the two stand side-by-side on the bench, sit a few feet apart every day in the coaches' office at PNC and around the NHL trying to bring this team its second championship.

"When Roddy got the job he called me and we had a talk," Daniels said. "I think we both agreed it was personal for us because we'd both been here so long. It was personal for us to get it back on track."

Daniels knows this team, this community, as well as anyone having played the last four years of his long NHL career in Raleigh and then immediately jumping into an assistant's role. He was also the head coach of the team's AHL affiliate before returning to the bench when Brind'Amour took over in 2018.

"Right from Day One he set the tone, what he wants, what he expects," Daniels said. "Every day it's the same, the message hasn't changed. It's just incredible the job that he's done."

"Roddy makes it fun to go to the rink," he said.

The fact the coaching staff aren't just drones but have a real say in how things are going with the team is part of that enjoyment.

"Without a doubt," Daniels said. "He has that trust in us that we can get the job done. He wants our input."

The final say rests with Brind'Amour, that's a given.

"But it's not just his way or the highway. It makes you feel important and that goes to enjoying coming to the rink," Daniels said.

We were fortunate enough to have been invited into Brind'Amour's first address to his squad as head coach in the fall of 2018. He joked after that he had gone over his remarks with his wife beforehand and then forgot one of the best parts.

Think it's worked out okay in spite of that.

But you never know, right?

"When I got the gig you're okay let's put all this together," Brind'Amour said. "I don't know if this is going to work. You just don't know until you try it but it felt like because I'd seen the good and the bad I felt like we'd be okay. It's almost like going to school before you get the job. You were an apprentice for a long time and that's kind of how it worked out."

It's been less than four years since he took over as head coach which in real-time isn't that long. In coaching terms, it's much longer. It's why there is a sense of appreciation for what Brind'Amour has here both as an NHL coach and hockey dad and coach.

As was the case with Skyler Brind'Amour knows that time with Brooks as a young hockey player is fleeting.

During normal times Brooks will join his dad in the locker room after practice at PNC Arena and then hit the ice.

"Same thing I did with Skyler," Brind'Amour said. "But (Brooks) doesn't really have an appreciation. I have to tell him every so often; do you know you're probably the only kid in the world, just think about that, that gets to come out on an NHL rink after practice and be hanging out. So there's definite perks and every time I do that I think this is why I do the job. Look at this. Look at what I get to do. Nobody's getting to do this."

Waddell has seen Brind'Amour with the kids and spending time coaching Brooks's team and the joy he takes from that even though he might just have come from coaching a group of professional players.

"What people realize is he's very humble," Waddell said. "He loves to be with the kids I've seen him out there. And hear all the stories. It's who he is. There's no pretension at all. That's who he is."

"I think forever's a long time but I think he'll be in Raleigh for a long time," Waddell said.

Waddell is right of course, no one coaches forever. That's the rule.

And someday someone will come down into his office or he'll ascend to the offices up on the fourth floor and that will be that.

After that? Too hard to tell.

In the interim, time to savor that unique intersection of home and job and what lies just outside the door not necessarily what lies around that far bend in the road.

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