Coaches Crossing

When NHL head coaches get together-in this case by a Zoom video conference-there are inevitable crossed paths in their hockey journeys. When Joel Quenneville (Florida Panthers), Barry Trotz (New York Islanders) and Dave Tippett (Edmonton Oilers) joined NHL Senior Vice President John Dellapina for a recent hour of fan entertainment, the crossovers were as frequent and furious as watching the league's fastest skaters dig into turns on the ice.

Some evidence: Trotz and Quenneville coached Team Canada together during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Tippett and Trotz shared a bench as coaches for Canada at the 2009 and 2013 World Championships. Quenneville and Tippett were teammates in Hartford (along with NHL Seattle GM Ron Francis). Quenneville was coached as player by both Tippett and Trotz (" 'Trotzie put me out of business as a player,' " joked Quenneville, referring to a late-career move that sent him to the AHL Baltimore Skipjacks.)

Those Hartford years for Tippett and Quenneville (and Francis) featured seven future NHL head coaches (those two plus Dean Evason, Randy Cunneyworth, Kevin Dineen, John Anderson and Brad Shaw) plus two general managers (Francis and Edmonton GM Ken Holland, who played one NHL game for Hartford and several seasons the AHL affiliate Binghamton Whalers). A number of additional ex-Whalers are still working in hockey operations for NHL teams, including Shaw, Jeff Reese, Pat Verbeek, Sean Burke, Jeff Daniels, Doug Houda, Doug Jarvis (a noted penalty killer who teamed up with Quenneville) and Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan.

Dellapina joshed Tippett by asking "was there something in the water in Hartford?" Tippett said a central factor was the legendary Emile Francis was the team's general manager and influential force on playing the game the right way and building a franchise for success. Tippettt also credited "all of living in Hartford during the summers, joining different golf clubs, playing each others' courses" along with nearly all teammates "who loved talking about the game and its strategy."

"It's amazing how we can go into practically every [NHL] arena and see somebody from the Whalers," said Quenneville. "The 'Whale' still lives."

There were sobering moments this call too. Quarantining in Garden City, Long Island, Trotz said being near the epicenter of New York City is an undeniable point-of-view about the COVID-19 epidemic: "It's real," he said, adding that after dinner most nights he walks outside to converse at safe distance with neighbors who are health-care workers.

"We all are hoping to play again [to finish the 2019-20 season]," said Quenneville, "but we appreciate all of the front-liners out there."

Tippett noted with sadness the recent passing of Edmonton forward Colby Cave, who died of complications from a brain cyst: "It's true tragedy of an outstanding young man who was undrafted ... he worked for everything he got ... with a will and desire to be an NHL player."

A bit later in the call, Dellapina wondered aloud if any of the three coaches was devising a truly innovative powerplay or other changes that would surprise opposing coaches when NHL teams return to the ice.

Rapid answers and jokes: "I'm not messing with my powerplay," said Tippett about star forwards Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl anchoring a league-leading man-advantage scoring unit. "We'd all like Tippy's powerplay, quipped Trotz. "I like that personnel too," said Quenneville.

The coaches hour is worth watching on replay at NHL.com. Some other good stuff: Quenneville revealing he has owned the same pair of skates since 1975 ("I don't go through an many inserts as I used to"). Trotz on rooming with play-by-play announcer Kenny Albert in AHL days; Queenville on Patrick Kane coming to training stronger and bigger and better every year; Trotz telling Alex Ovechkin to lead by example and "they [teammates] will follow before the Washington Capitals Stanley Cup-winning season in 2017-18.

While discussing his days coaching in the newer hockey markets of Dallas and Arizona before taking the Edmonton job as a western Canada native going home, Tippett made a point of discussing his year of being the senior hockey adviser for NHL Seattle: "Seattle is going to be a phenomenal franchise with really strong ownership and great leadership in [team CEO] Tod Leiweke," said Tippett. "Seattle with set the new gold standard for expansion franchises, which is hard to do with the likes of Nashville [where Trotz coached and succeeded for years] and Vegas."