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Could you see yourself walking away from a nice living and saying, “Honey, I want to have a chance to mold young men’s lives.”

Nowadays, hockey shapes women’s lives! The past year in Calagry with the Canadians sweeping the Gold over the US Teams was a hard pill to swallow for 1980 Olympic hero Mark Johnson who coached the US ladies team and even harder for Ron Wilson who’s team lost in overtime.

Why would you pick the Olympic hockey tournament for examples of coaching when the NHL could possibly have a team together from October to June?

Well, Olympic hockey could be just a run and gun exhibition without defenseive schemes nor set plays and great thing about this organization is that it takes place a few days before the games at best! Amidst all the distractions (some call it fun) of being in a town like Vancouver, the coaches duty is to bring unity to a team and better yet bring brotherhood or sisterhood to a team. The connection in winter hockey must almost be immediate for the men, while the women train for months! Old timers argue that Women’s hockey is the true Olympic spirit, while the NHL players are drop ins at best! Still and all, those are the rules of the game!

Tim Thomas, the Conn Smythe winner of the 2011 Play-offs and possible Vezina trophy winner sat the bench in Vancouver giving way to the talented and eventual Olympian MVP Ryan Miller. What can you do? Ron Wilson has to worry about this, Jamie Quick of the LA Kings and UMASS – Amherst was also in the mix. Ice time, and line changes all must be kept
with alignments of the correct and in sympatico players!

The legend of all coaches in Olympic tournament history is the late Herb Brooks of the University of Minnesota! He was the coach of the 1980 Olympic team and if you listen to those guys there isn’t a moment they don’t speak in admiration for being associated with him! He was hard, he was fearless, and he was helping with his probing and off-balance psychological tactics, granted he had seven months to bring his team together and they learned on cold, night in Oslo, Norway, what a leader could become when pressed into an impossible situation. Mike Eruzione, from Boston University (my alma mater), stood up and announced where he was from and the team he was now playing for. Stopping the famed, and cruel Oslo skate awarded to the team for a sub par effort in an exhibition game against Norway.

Scotty Bowman is generally regarded as the best pro Coach of the modern era! He could smile and he could frown and you definitely didn’t want to be frowned on. The old adage, “Do what you’re told boys and you’ll be fine!” Kind of sort of, was the mantra of all coaches for years and then psychological coaches like Brooks entered the fray! It helped the modern game immensely because many of the kids were from college or prep school! The cerebral part of the game became important! Many Canadian players are going to college and playing Jr. Hockey so the coaches had to adjust!

It’s an exciting world out there. The coaching profession changes every day! The Bruins as of this year in Claude Julien are definitely happy with their Coach! The challenge is there at every level!

Good luck!

Mike Maloni

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ike Maloni