Deconstructing Melrose

Hope you got a chance to read the story today on Barry Melrose that gives you a pretty good overview of the guy's roots and how his family shaped what he is today. The question going forward, though is how Melrose is going to coach? For that we go to the sources.

- Wayne Gretzky said Melrose "treats his players like men. ... He's good to all his players and that goes a long way. He'll get on guys but he realizes th needs those guys to produce. Two good examples. When goalie Kelly Hrudey struggled during the 1992-93 season with the Kings, he struggled so badly, he said he believed his career was in jeopardy. Melrose, he said, stuck with him and even brought in self-help guru Tony Robbins for a one-on-one. Hrudey's goaltending was one of the highlights of the Kings' run to the Stanley Cup final. "If it would have been old-school thinking, I would have been left to twist in the wind," Hrudey said.

- Luc Robitaille, the greatest scoring left wing in league history, said even when Melrose benched him (think of that, benching Robitaille), he always knew where he stood with the coach. "We loved him," Robitaille said. "He was a great communicator."

- Former Lightning player Rob DiMaio, who played for Melrose in 1987-88 at Medicine Hat said Melrose "Brought a level of accountability and determination to the locker room." Gretzky said he formed a veterans committee with which he met every few weeks or so "to take the pulse of the team."

Okay, got, it player-friendly with a hard edge. But Melrose had faults. He was so insistent on personnel issues and demanding that he soured his relationships with general managers Nick Beverley and Sam McMaster, neither of whom wanted to comment for the story. And while Melrose agreed he still will give his opinions, he added, "I'm a lot smarter now and a lot better with people."

But how is he with X's and O's, matching lines, the stuff behind the bench? Melrose said he has heard the criticisms before and called them "nonsense." He reiterated that after watching so many games for ESPN, his coaching sense has been honed. This quote was way too long to get into the paper but I thought the analysis from Pierre McGuire, who was an NHL coach with the old Whalers and is now an analysts for TSN and NBC, summed it up. "When you're doing the job that Barry's been doing, or I've been doing, you will get better as a coach because you will watch games with an unbiased eye. You're watching strategies, you're watching coaching developments, you're paying attention to successful coaches. You're seeing what guys are doing right and doing wrong. You're not engaged in the element. I think I would be a better coach today that I was in '94 or '95 just because I've watched so many games and have been exposed to so many things."

Finally, there was this story from Melrose's brother Warren, who explained how even in his mid-20s his brother would return him to Kelvington, Saskatchewan and play catcher for the local fast-pitch softball team wearing no other protection than a mask and a cup because if he wore the chest protector and leg equipment, "He didn't think he could do his job back there that way. ... One time we were playing and he hit the ball a mile. It was a home run. He ran around the bases and he touched home plate and the umpire called him out. He said, 'Why am I out?' The umpire said, 'Well, you didn't touch second base.' So he went out there and ripped second base out of the ground and brought it home and threw it over the road and into a ditch and said, 'Now I touched second base.' "

Can't wait for the first sticks to come out onto the ice from the bench.

Comments

[Voice of the Turtle]

Barry's glitz, garb and gab are his strongest assets - they all contribute to his penchant for producing excellent sports entertainment. That he is known to be a player's coach is a welcomed relief to the players and the empathetic fans who cringed as the Bolts were publicly berated in recent years from behind the bench and before the microphones.

The salient question, asked by many who post on this site, goes back to teaching ability and strategy setting, not to Melrose's personality traits or his ability to motivate players. This is a query that will be plainly revealed during the course of the next campaign.

One gets the feeling that Oren Koules may have had his Hollywood "central casting" focus prevailing over his hockey instincts when making this surprising choice, but we are beginning to understand that O.K. is, predominantly, a risk-taker and a marketing man. It has become progressively more evident that many of his decisions might well be analyzed with this in mind.

[Max Hunter]

Since the Melrose rumors started, and I tried to wrap my brain around what I believed to be a bonehead move (especially for the money he's getting) I began feeling that the only good thing about it is the fact Melrose was forced to analyze so many games during his tenure at ESPN. But then i start thinking to myself, just because I watch a lot of CSPAN doesn't mean I'm qualified to run the United States.

It'll be interesting to see how he shakes this up.

By the way anyone got news on Torts?

[Don in St. Pete]

DC, Thanks for posting this on a sunday! As long as he doesn't try to play the first line 26 minutes a game and the second line 24, we should have a chance. I figure it will take a month or more for the team to gel but the trip to Prague could actually be a great way for the guys in the room to come together. I can just imagine the excitement for players like Prospal, Kuba and Vrbata to have their teamates opening the season in their home country. Go Bolts!

[Bingo]

Don, you mention the one point that Holywood Mel has stated. He does not like playing 3 and 4 lines. He prefers to let his best players play. That was from one of the interviews he gave upon the job anouncement. Hopefully the genuises on the team will tell him we don't need to wear out 6 forwards and 4 'd'. We will see it play out in the coming year.
Jason Smith and Habby are not being mentioned as part of the team. Smith? at 35/36 maybe Habby the pads are not wide enough any more.

[john]

"Don, you mention the one point that Holywood Mel has stated. He does not like playing 3 and 4 lines. "

I didn't hear that, anyone else hear that. I heard that if he's going to lose a game he wants to be sure his best players are on the ice. I guess you could take it as he "doesn't like playing his 3rd or 4th lines" I take it as he won't wear out his best lines early in the game so they would be fresh to have on the ice when the game is on the line. Torts should have thought about that. Duh....Guess that common sense thing just keeps rearing it's ugly head.

[Tom M]

So Barry grew up in a nice family, is a player's coach, and #99 endorses him. Big deal!

I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt as a coach but, in my opinion, he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer when Chainsaw Koules was looking to carve out a fresh new image for the Bolts!

Nice guy, players coach, and friend of Tony Robbins doesn't enhance your bench smarts when you're matching wits with a few of the more legendary and battle-tested NHL coaches in the league today.

In addition, with all of the roster changes, it's going to take more than a pop psychology guru to blend the personalities, skills, and abilities of the individual players into one team with a clear vision and a Cup mission.

Go Bolts!

[Bingo]

This is very important everbody dont listin to me, my day job is a clown well it was then i just died

[Don in St. Pete]

Bingo, I heard him say something along the lines of Tortorella such as I like to play my best players, which is indeed scary. However since he is a players coach and the signings they've recently done give us much better balanced lines. I would hope he'll rethink that mantra or perhaps the owners will insist he go with a more balanced system. On this one, I'll be praying.

[bingo]

By the way because I am god like..... I just rose from the dead to comment and haunt you again.

Yes, Don on the Wed show on WDAE he mentioned it in passing while doing the interview. I thought oh NO we need to split it down to 18 - 22 for the top two lines and then sub-divide 60/40 the other 20 between the 3rd and fourht lines. If not we are right back to were we started with Torts killing the players and having dead legs in the 3rd.

Here are some good wacks at the contract they gave the mouthpiece from ESPN...... on hockeybuzz.
http://www.hockeybuzz.com/boards/thread.php?thread_id=42832&forum_id=1&page=last

Prescient comment on Mike Babcock makes less than Holywood Mel..... sweet.

[rod]

I wonder how Melrose will mix up the lines?

I don't think vinny vinny and marty are a sure thing and i'm glad i think splitting marty and #4 could make the top two lines produce more. I'd like to see vrbata with #4 play together.

anyone have any theories?

as well as any ideas on any d we may pick up (i'm sure they will address this with one or 2 vets)

[Bingo]

This ones two good to pass up.

"Yeah - Tampa is in good hands.....can't wait for Melrose in Saw VI, or his guest appearances on Two and a Half Men"

Beautiful....

[David (Clearwater, Fl)]

I'm suspending judgment on the hiring of Melrose as best I can for now. Who am I, honestly, to be calling decisions into question? However, if you had asked me whether or not Melrose would be an improvement over Torts, I would've said he isn't.

One thing on the Kelly Hrudey story - and I've heard that stroy more than once since Melrose was brought on. What was the effect on the rest of the team during the time in which Hrudey was working out the flaws in his game/psychie? I'm all for sticking with your players and doing everything to help them improve their game, but this is not amateur athletics. To borrow from the immortal words of Dan Hawkins "this aint intermurals brother!!". If we have a goalie that isn't producing, why not bench him? I'd hate to think we're keeping an unproductive player on the ice and bringing in pop psychologist to tutor him when we have a guy who's hungry and ready to prove he can play sitting on the bench. Sounds like a gimic to me and it sounds like poor coaching. The point of the game is to win ... period. I could care less if a guy needs all that extra help to regain his game. Let him do that in the minors. We need players who are ready to produce now to be taking the ice night in and night out.

prospal, vinny, vrbata - the three v's or flying v's
malone, stamkos, st. louis - st. louis is so good at setting up i think its hard to overlook putting him with stamkos so he can gain some confidence
i think we can put halpern and roberts up on the first or second lines when we need to.

[Bingo]

Rod, rumor has it they are after Jason Smith formerly of the Flyers.

In all the interviews they being Barrie and Holywood Mel have indicated they will keep the MVP line intact and were shopping for pieces to protect Stamkos.
Time will tell..... we may not have those players on the team come september. They do like making both positive and negative PR splashes so we will see what comes October.

[Bingo]

::dd

[rod]

i like smith. i don't think they could afford him?right? plus i wouldn't overpay for him and i think he's restricted and unless philly picks someone else up i doubt they will let him go.

[Bingo]

Smith is UFA and 35 years old. 2.5 will probably bring him here. We need to shed about 5-6mil in cap before this addition. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Naybe he will give the home team a break for 1.5 per year.

[Don in St. Pete]

Bingo, You are absolutely right about better balancing of the shift's our 4 lines play. Otherwise we're in the same boat that Tort's beached on channelside drive. Because of the PP and PK your 1st and 2nd line guys will usually have higher numbers than the 3rd and 4th. That being said there were a couple times last year where our 4th line had 50 seconds for the entire game. That just doesn't make sense, even if they suck at least give the top guys a blow. The way I see it, if you can keep MSL and V4 at 22min or under, and Malone and Vrbata at 20 and under than the reast should start to balance out. The 4th unit should get around 6-8 minutes at the least ( the high under Torts was 4 last season ). The 3rd unit should get 12-16 but no more as they will be defensing the other teams top line the bulk of the time ( at least at home when we have the final change, it's harder to choreograph all that on the road ) and players like Stamkos and prospal should be around 16-20 minutes ( as V20 doesn't play the PK and SS may not in the early going either ). As far as Jason Smith, he only averaged 17 minutes during the season and around 15.5 in the playoffs, which equates to a 3rd sting defenseman when there is a total of 60 minutes to be played. 22 minutes should be the target for your #1 and 2 defensive units ( not 30+ like Boyle was forced to play five times last year after coming back from injury )and 16 minutes for the 3rd ( not 11 minutes played by Lundin and others at times throughout the season ). Time will tell but I think these guys will listen to the players and get their take. melrose may be a snarky, yap happy farm boy, but he is not stupid. Cullimore would be a bargain over Smith and could play top 4 minutes effectively.

[Not the Marlboro Man]

I think that Melrose will get a great response here because of the approach he's coming in with as a "players coach." If the players don't respond then he'll change. OTOH Torts was only a half step up from Mike Keenan. That kind of coach, where ever they end up, wear out the players and bring a negative vibe that ruins good talent. John Graham was a good example of how Torts blasted and rudely challenged his players in the media.

I have a feeling that Melrose can do the job...his reputation is weighing on this comeback and he want to try really hard to win. Melrose is the type of guy who likes to gloat a little bit and be on camera, so he'll bring allot of attention to himself which is good, because it keeps the negativity off the the players when they're not performing well. Another thing I'm looking forward to is his press conferences...at least you will get some quality interviews with Melrose and not a bunch of "go F yourself" talk like they got from Torts.

I bet if you ask the veterans on this team that they will tell you they are excited about the opportunity to play for Melrose. Melrose might have a tirade with the refs over some bad calls but I sure bet you he'll be allot more appreciative of his players and allot less willing to blame them than Torts ever was.

[Don in St. Pete]

NTMM, A lot of good points in your post. To take it a step further though, I'm hoping that if a young defenseman makes a mistake, instead of calling him out in front of the whole squad Melrose will have Wes Walz, give him a teaching moment, I.E. explain what he did wrong and how to correct it. this could go along way toward promoting confidence in the defence and stability among the veterans.

[Jim]

By the way, is Feaster still working for the Lightning? He has been VERY quiet during this whole post-Torts period. Is he on his way out?

[GP]

Don,

Note on Jason Smith.

According to Paul Holmgren, Jason Smith played with two seperated shoulders towards the end of the season and during the playoffs. He couldn't even shoot the puck but he played anyway. Holmgren called him one of the toughest players he has ever seen. That is saying something coming from Holmgren.

I like Smith over Cullimore. Smith brings more leadership ..... former Captain in Edmonton. The Flyers have informed him that they will not be resigning him due to salary cap restrictions. The Devils had been the heavy rumored team to get him but I haven't heard anything lately. He'd be perfect to mentor the young defensemen of the Bolts.

[Don in St. Pete]

GP, Point taken. I hadn
t realized that. Hope he's ready to go for this coming season.

[Slapnuts]

Smith over Cullimore is a no brainer. although Cullimore had a rebound year with the Panthers last year after stinkin up Chicago...Still take the grizzled Smith and his toughness.

[Twinebulge]

What Melrose actually said was, "I'm not a big four-line guy," adding the other comments about playing his best players and ending the game win or lose knowing he at least had the RIGHT players on the ice at every possible moment. This has since been morphed into "I don't like playing my third and fourth lines" and its corollary "I'm just going to beat my top two lines like rented mules all season so there's nothing left in the tank when the games really matter."

Taking it the way he said it "Not being a big four-line guy" probably describes >50% of all coaches in the NHL; how often do you really see teams just roll four lines all game long, rarely do teams have that type of depth in uniform

As far as running the USA vs. a hockey team...while the point is well taken that there's no substitute for experience, there's too much difference between the two to draw any comparison between watching C-SPAN and ESPN and then doing one or the other. And besides Melrose wasn't just WATCHING ESPN; he was creating it, for 13 years analyzing the crap out of miles of videotape that none of us has the access, time or expertise to see everything in it that a professional coach would see, talking to smarter and more knowledgeable people than we get to, etc. Why is that so hard for some people to admit, who knows.

And brushing off an endorsement of Melrose by #99 with a 'big deal' is just laughable. Yeah as if what the hell does Wayne Gretzky, the greatest athlete ever to engage in any team sport, know about hockey or the men who have coached him. Sure thing pal, whatever you say - we'll all be awaiting the publication of your next article, teaching book and appearance on TV to share more insightful views on hockey that what the Great One could ever bring to the table ::eyes roll to back of skull::

Somebody mentioned the team being interested in Habby quickly in passing. Huh??? We just GOT an aging bulwark in net who can step in and marshal this team in the 09 playoffs - though now of course we have to see it from the angle of so what if we just signed a guy, he could be gone in a NY second - and also, where was anyone talking about going after Khabibulin? Besides Ekclowned, I mean

[Twinebulge]

USA vs. Hockey.

I think we're both saying the same thing. There's a lot to be said about his time critiquing games while at ESPN. However lets not forget that most professional sports coaches do the same thing and aren't successful.

Either way, Twinebulge, I think we can almost assuredly agree that it's going to be a very interesting season with Melrose.

[Max Hunter]

my apologies to TWINEBULGE. I don't know how but the above post was posted by me and in my brilliance put his name in the "posted by" part. Sorry.