When the Nashville Predators hired Phil Housley in 2013 to shepherd a talented, young blue line to NHL adulthood, Housley didn’t dive right into the details of Roman Josi’s, Mattias Ekholm’s or Ryan Ellis’ games. Josi was entering his second full NHL season, Ekholm was entering his rookie season, and Ellis was about to play his first full season with the Predators. All three players were impressionable, so Housley focused on building relationships.
Advertisement
“Except for Shea Weber, who had already established himself, those guys were really young,” Housley said. “I remember flying up to see Ellis in Ontario and we started to create that relationship right away. It wasn’t so much about what we were going to do. It was more about asking questions and seeing where he was as a player. A player always gives you a different perspective when you’re not in the environment of the rink or the locker room.”
The year before Housley arrived in Nashville, the Predators’ blue line had 20 goals and 81 points in the lockout-shortened, 48-game season, which translates to 34 goals and 138 points over a full season. In the four seasons Housley coached the Predators’ top four of Josi, Ellis, Ekholm and first Weber, then P.K. Subban, Nashville put up elite numbers.
Predators’ blue line production in Housley’s four seasons in Nashville:
- 2013-14: 52 goals, 171 points
- 2014-15: 55 goals, 193 points
- 2015-16: 55 goals, 203 points
- 2016-17: 45 goals, 181 points
“He had a huge impact,” said Josi, the Predators’ captain. “Just the way he sees the game — obviously when he played, he was one of the best defensemen ever — but as a coach the way he looks at the game, he was great for us. He would work with us after practice on different things, talk to you individually and help you get better. We had me, Ellis, Ekholm, all young guys who were trying to learn a lot and he was definitely awesome at that. I really enjoyed having him here.”
The Coyotes are hoping for a similar impact on their blue line, whose make-up isn’t as young, aside from Jakob Chychrun and future Coyote Victor Söderström, but possesses many of the same qualities Housley saw in Nashville.
“With this group in Arizona, they’re looking to get better, they’re looking for ways to improve their game and that means there is coachability,” Housley said at media day at Gila River Arena on Thursday. “That’s what you want to see.
Advertisement
“The game is changing every year and you have to be able to adapt, but I really like the mobility of our defense. We’ve got really good skaters back there and they have good IQs, so we’re going to try to break down forechecks and be on the attack. Everybody wants to go on the attack and that’s how we want to play. Obviously, they’ll have to work together as partners to relieve all that pressure and that’s one of the key areas we’ll focus on.”
Continuity through results
When new coaches are hired, the majority of them like to choose their own staffs, but when Predators GM David Poile fired coach Barry Trotz after a playoff-less 2013-14 season and then hired Peter Laviolette, Housley didn’t follow Trotz of town.
Laviolette was Team USA’s head coach for the 2014 IIHF World Championships in Minsk, Belarus. In that role, he got to work alongside Housley, who was serving as an assistant coach for the U.S. for the second straight year and third time overall (2011). Housley had also been the head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team that won the gold medal at the 2013 World Junior Championship in Ufa, Russia.
Laviolette was impressed by his Housley preview.
“Phil had a really good reputation even before I worked with him there as a teacher and certainly somebody who excelled at the game and had a smart mind for the game,” Laviolette said in a phone interview on Thursday. “He had a really good understanding with the players, whereas I was coming in with (assistant) Kevin (McCarthy) and we didn’t know a lot. To have somebody who had been through a season and had experienced what worked and what hadn’t worked and could fill you in on meetings that had taken place in the past, I always feel like that’s valuable.”
Continuity wasn’t the only reason Laviolette kept Housley.
“Phil has always been an offensive mind and he was that way when he played — he was a brilliant player,” Laviolette said. “He brings a lot of those instincts to the game as he teaches as a coach. I think the way the game is being played now, most coaches and most teams are looking for that. For me, there was a match with the philosophy on how defensemen should be active in the play, starting from their own end, through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone.
Advertisement
“When you look at the young defensemen that came along in Roman Josi and Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Ellis, there was a lot of improvement and impact on them by Phil. For those players, in particular, you’re talking about defensemen that have a high skill level – Shea Weber, too – so to have a mind like Phil’s teaching them and working with them; he did an excellent job. All of his experience, all of his knowledge as a very successful player, all of that gets pushed into the players that you start to develop. It’s your belief on how to play the game, how to do things and when you’ve actually backed it up with the career that he had, that to me is firsthand experience.”
As Nashville’s blue line steadily improved, so did its postseason fortunes. In Housley’s first season as an assistant, the Predators missed the playoffs. In his second season, the Predators finished with 104 points but fell to eventual Stanley Cup champion Chicago in the first round. In his third season, the Predators advanced to the second round before falling in Game 7 to eventual Cup finalist San Jose. In 2016-17, Nashville upset Chicago (109 points) in the first round and advanced to the Cup Final before falling to Pittsburgh with top center Ryan Johansen missing the final series with a leg injury.
That success helped land Housley his first NHL head coaching job with the Buffalo Sabres, the team with which he played the first eight seasons of his career. It lasted only two seasons before he was fired in April, following a 33-39-10 season that began with the promise of a 17-7-3 record.
“After I was let go, you sort of go through a grieving period where you try to think what you could have done better, what happened and that takes some time to get over because for me, personally, it was the first time,” said Housley in a candid conference call after the Coyotes hired him. “I took it pretty hard … but after some time, time heals some things and you think about getting back in the game. There was some interest in me. The juices started to flow. You want to continue to coach. You want to be in the game because I just love the competitiveness. I have a passion for this game.”
Getting fired is demoralizing, but it’s not uncommon in the NHL coaching profession.
“I went through it in Tampa; it sucks,” said Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet, who was fired in 2010 after two seasons with the Lightning, “but there are things you take from that experience that make you better as a coach.”
Laviolette has been fired by the New York Islanders; the Carolina Hurricanes, with whom he won a Cup; and the Philadelphia Flyers, a team he led to the 2010 Cup Final.
Advertisement
“Throughout anybody’s coaching career, it can’t always be perfect,” Laviolette said. “I can’t speak to Buffalo and what may have happened or what may have not happened, but in my experience dealing with Phil, I found him to be a guy that was easy to work with.
“We haven’t really gone backward in discussing it. From there you move on and you take what you take. You learn the good things and the bad things sometimes when you get fired. Some things help you and some things you learn from, but he has been a successful coach at almost every level. I’m sure he’s going to do a good job there.”
Unlocking the offense
When Housley became available, Tocchet had a decision to make. Scott Allen had been a loyal, hard-working assistant in his two seasons behind the Coyotes bench, but Tocchet wanted a stronger voice to push his blue line to greater heights, and he wanted a guy who could induce more offense out of that unit.
The Coyotes’ laundry list of injuries, and the defensive style of play they adopted impacted the blue line’s production last season, but only Anaheim (23), Vancouver (27), Los Angeles (28), San Jose (28), Edmonton (30) and the New York Islanders (30) had fewer goals from their defensemen than the Coyotes, who were tied with Boston and New Jersey at 31. Only Anaheim (125), Los Angeles (129) and Vancouver (135) had fewer points from their defensemen than the Coyotes, who were tied with Edmonton at 141, and way behind NHL leaders San Jose (221), Tampa Bay (207), Calgary (198) and Nashville (197).
Housley could have a significant impact on those numbers, as well as the Coyotes’ moribund power play, which finished the season ranked 26th with a 16.3-percent conversion rate.
“It’s not as if I’m going to reinvent the wheel here,” he said. “We have to allow these guys to play and make decisions and make plays and they’re going to be hearing a new voice so I’ll have to create new relationships. That will take some time but I think you’ll see in (training) camp some ways we can add our D to the offensive scheme of our game plan.”
Housley offered some insight into that process.
Advertisement
“Mainly the weak-side D, if he can beat his guy up the ice, he can add to the rush,” he said. “Most teams are trying to do it. It’s just about your timing and trying to pick your spots as far as when to join the rush and knowing when to jump into a hole and when to back off a little bit.
“There’s a number of other ways you can try to add to the offense. For me, the biggest is in the offensive zone and the cycling part of it. Sometimes, you’re going to see a defenseman below the goal line, which is uncommon, but if everybody is thinking alike and protecting each other or backing up for each other, there’s no reason why our defense cannot get more involved in the offensive zone. That’s one of the ways we can build on what they did last year.”
Housley is quick to caution that it won’t happen overnight, but coaxing a little more offense out of Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Alex Goligoski, while helping Jakob Chychrun evolve into an elite defenseman will be tests for his success as an assistant.
“I don’t want to make assumptions but I know what he was like as a player,” Goligoski said. “Also being from Minnesota myself, everyone knows Phil Housley, the teams he has played for and how he has coached. There’s a consensus that we need to play some more offense this year and put more pucks in the net and that is definitely an avenue toward doing that.”
Goligoski is coming off a 27-point season, his lowest total for a full season in his career. Ekman-Larsson has topped 50 points only once in his career, a quasi-benchmark for Norris Trophy candidacy. Housley won’t apply pressure on either player so early in camp, but he sees potential.
“Oliver is the full package,” Housley said. “He can skate, he can shoot, he can make plays, he can defend well and he’s got a little bit of an edge to his game when he needs to. It is amazing the things he has accomplished already but he is still growing as a player and now he’s got to try to get to the next level. That’s where you can really have an impact on a city.
“To me, it’s not about the points, it’s about wins and losses and I think he can have a huge impact in that area. He is a world-class player. That’s how you judge yourself as a player. A premier player, even on the bad days, he has an impact.”
Advertisement
Impact is also Housley’s goal, and he said the opportunity to do so with the Coyotes has given him a sense of renewal.
“When you think back to April, with what happened, and then get to right now, this is great. My juices are flowing again,” he said. “I’m ready and anxious to get after it. I’m excited for this fresh start here. I think it could develop into something that’s really special. It’s going to be a challenge, but that’s what’s great about coaching.”
Roman Josi quote courtesy of The Athletic Nashville’s Adam Vingan
(Photo: Kevin Hoffman / USA Today Sports)