There is no doubt that I was a lucky young coach back in my days with the St. Paul Vulcans. I didn’t know what I was getting into as the Hubbard family bought the St. Paul Vulcans and hired me as a very young, and their very first coach. Getting hired to begin with is a story.

I got hired in large part because young Stan Hubbard (22-ish at the time) had been included with the KSTP news crew that went along with the Gopher hockey team to cover our historic invitation to play in one of the world’s great invitational tournaments, the Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland. I was captain of the Gopher team which led the young Hubbard to keep an eye on me for reasons more of curiosity. A year later, he would be allowing me a chance to interview for the head coach job of a franchise they had just taken over and committed to improving. He told me something that day that is a lesson for us all.

In my first interview, he asked if I knew why he accepted my request to interview for the head coaching job. When he elaborated, he told me how he had an eye on me during the long plane ride and ensuing bus ride to the middle of Switzerland for the Spengler Cup. Most were tired from the long day of travel. But, he said, “When we arrived at the team hotel, you were the first person off the bus, you immediately started unloading the bus and didn’t stop until the job was done, and that is why you are here today.” 

There is always somebody watching what it is you are doing. Today, it seems to me, I hear young people saying, “Don’t judge me,” as if being judged is a negative. We are all being watched and judged. Your good deeds are judged as well. My work in leading my Gopher team by example was watched and judged. My positive effort that day got me an interview. The rest is history.

More luck was on the horizon. The elder Stan, Mr. Hubbard, was excited for this new hockey venture and likely not quite as sure that such a young guy as myself could lead this new effort. Being the great leader he is, he set the tone with me immediately. After being hired, he did what great leaders do – he set the direction and expectations. Mr. Hubbard said to me, “Just do these two things: Never sacrifice the discipline of the team to win, and never sacrifice your integrity as a coach to win. Do those two things and we will get along nicely.” That’s what leaders do. They set the parameters for the mission.

My first year, the team went from last to first. I was coach of the year. I maybe thought I knew a few things. Mr. Hubbard’s words to me at the end of this first year were equally impressive.  He said, “Great job, Kevin. Just know that the world is constantly changing and evolving. You either continue to change and evolve or you get left behind.” This wisdom speaks for itself.  

Our general manager, Ron Woodey, long-time GM of the Vulcans and also long-time scout of the Philadelphia Flyers, was a surly and direct man. I loved him. He told you exactly what he thought.
The Flyers had an NHL MVP in their young Swedish-born goaltender, Pelle Lindberg. Pelle liked his fast cars. He killed himself late one night, driving recklessly fast. The day after Lindberg’s death, our young team wanted to know what Mr. Woodey thought of the tragedy. In one of the great short speeches of all time, Mr. Woodey addressed our team in a very quiet and respectful locker room with the following seven-word speech: “One man’s misfortune is another man’s fortune.” After these seven words, he left the room. I could feel the impact of his words on all of us. We are all replaceable.

In year one of my coaching career, I was blessed with some pretty good players. Two of these players came via the Stillwater Ponies – Jay Cates and Eric Dornfeld. To this day, I rate Jay as one of the very best players I have ever coached. He did what he did better than most anyone else. That included puck protection skills. Eric left the football Ponies as their all-time leading tackler. To this day, no player I have coached delivered harder and cleaner body checks than Eric, or understood angles better.  Both ended up wearing a captain’s letter at the University of Minnesota.

When you have special players such as these two, you often learn more from them than they do from you. I can still see the special skills they each possessed, and it helped me in trying to teach others. But the bottom line is that other players learn from them as well. Your best players can be your best teachers as they role model their unique skills. 

Rochester native and former Gopher teammate Jeff Teal was playing for the Montreal Canadiens’ AHL team. When he came home after the season, he told me about the Canadiens’ unique “system” of play. I had him diagram it for me. Instead of wingers picking up wingers defensively, this system took away the middle of the ice. I had never seen such a system.

Being the kind of crazy I am, I started recording Canadiens’ games and studied their system. The “system” eventually made it to America with Jacques Lemaire, former Canadians player and coach. I incorporated this system into ours. We called it the Canadien system. The first time we employed it, we did so against a superior team. We did not send a forechecker deep unless we could pressure the puck. We pulled back and took the middle away. We won 7-3. This system came to be known as the “neutral zone trap,” and whether you like it or not, some form of it needs to be employed as a great strategy of play for most teams – especially when you cannot pressure the puck. You retreat and stay connected to one another. Systems matter. 

Attention to detail matters when it comes to systems. Not all great players are great in systems. Many great players are creative and instinctual. The equation of creative instinct and conformity to system are a complex equation. Getting this balance right is one of the bigger challenges for most elite coaches. This balancing act was always on display with coaching legend Herb Brooks. No one got this equation right more often than Herbie.

On occasion, I had the pleasure to sit and listen to a bunch of fun and knowledgeable former players – guys like Bob Paradise, Dave Brooks, Len Lilyholm, Reed Larson, Craig Sarner and many others. Most of these guys learned by watching. Most coaching in their day meant simply throwing a puck or two on the ice. As many of these fellas know, if you want to learn more about how to play the game, watch with interest and curiosity when you watch an NHL game. There is much to be learned from each player out there. If kids really want to learn, they need to watch better players than they, with curiosity. 

A St. Paul native and forward for the University of Minnesota from 1978-82, Kevin Hartzell coached in the USHL from 1983-89 with the St. Paul Vulcans and from 2005-12 with the Sioux Falls Stampede. He was the head coach of Lillehammer in Norway’s GET-Ligaen from 2012-14. His columns have appeared in Let’s Play Hockey since the late 1980s. His book “Leading From the Ice” is available at amazon.com.

Photo: Mike Thill