The Clouston Factor

Now that Cory Clouston has taken over, hockey fans--and not just in Ottawa--will be watching to see what happens next with the Senators.

It's also fair to expect that opposing teams will be doing their homework on Clouston. Already, they will be trying to anticipate what adjustments they have to make to beat the re-launched Senators.

Every game from here on in is crucial to their playoff aspirations, and the Sens' slim playoff hopes.

One of things Clouston will be using to motivate his charges, is that they can be at least 'spoilers'.

So who the heck is Cory Clouston?

Here are his stats as player/coach from Hockey DB:

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=43689

Being an ex-WHL coach, he's seen a lot of the outstanding young talent now in the NHL at a key level of their development. The WHL is a notoriously tough league.

Some of the players Clouston has coached in Kootenay as head or assistant:

Nigel Dawes (Rangers)
Tomas Plihal (Sharks)
Brett Sutter (Flames)
Ben Maxwell (Canadiens)
Roman Polak (Blues)
Marek Svatos (Avs)
Mike Green (Caps)
Jarret Stoll (Kings)
Matt Walker (Hawks)
Mike Comrie (Isles)

We also know he has been running the Baby Sens this year and last, so he knows first hand Lee, Foligno, Bell, Matt Karlsson, Emery, Elliott, Gerber, Bass, Zack Smith, Ilya Zubov, and the rest of the cast that has shuffled to and from Ottawa, and may be shuffled going forward.

How will Clouston do with this club? What changes will be made on the ice or via trades?

We'll follow his path and discuss the results, as well as, of course, adding our predictions.

Thanks everyone!

Thanks for that Dave! Very good stuff.

Apparently he knows Heatley very well. He coached him in Calgary (?). I don't know the specifics, but we'll see if Heatley gets his arse in gear now.

Nice Dave! Pretty impressive list. Im looking forward to seeing him in action but not getting my hopes up!

Remember the whole "Paddock will turn Spezz around, because he coached Spezz in the minors" argument..

I do.

Not to sound pessimistic...

Yeh i agree but he seems more harsh then Paddock. I still dont believe he's our guy and he will most definetly not turn this around and he will be done at the end of the year.

I'm starting to hope he Bruce Boudreau's it.

I'm very excited having read these outstanding Junior credentials. I have a good feeling about this Clouston fella.

Actually, I'm sick to my stomach at this latest exercise in futility. I've seen this movie before here. The only difference is, Clouston lacks the dubious NHL record of Paddock and Hartsburg.

Until I see a player move to my liking, I can only re-iterate that this sucks.

More on Clouston from Sun Media/Canoe Sports:

February 2, 2009
Who is Cory Clouston?

By Sun Media

Cory Clouston is expected to be announced as the new coach of the Senators this morning. Here are a few details about him:

• The 39-year-old native of Viking, Alta., was in his second season as head coach of the Binghamton Senators
  
• Previously, he coached the WHL's Kootenay Ice for five seasons, compiling a .637 winning percentage with 209 wins, 146 losses. The Ice made the playoffs each of those five seasons
  
• He is a two-time WHL coach of the year, and was named Canadian Hockey League coach of the year in 2004-05
  
• Prior to his AHL stint, Clouston coached in both the Tier II Alberta and B.C. junior hockey leagues.
  
• Clouston was an assistant coach when Canada's national under-18 squad won the 2005 U-18 Junior World Cup, and coached the gold-medal winning Canadian squad in 2006.
  
• As a player Clouston spent four years at the University of Alberta, including the 1991-92 CIS champion Golden Bears. He holds a bachelor's degree in recreation administration
  

This is a massive **** you to Bingo fans too. Just when they were finally competing, we take their #1 goalie, top-2 defencemen, a top forward AND their coach.

I'll continue to support the Sens but this organization is really disappointing me right now. Moreso off the ice than on.

ASQ, you are right on with that perspective re: Binghamton.

Who knows, maybe Clouston will have more success with this team than Hartsburg did, but the organization hasn't done itself any favours by making such a public mess over the past year and a half.

Just out of curiosity, I thought it would be worth listing the young talents Craig Hartsburg coached at the junior level with the Soo Greyhounds:

Jeff Carter--Flyers
Tyler Kennedy--Pens
Brad Staubitz--Sharks
Jiri Tlusty--Leafs
Wayne Simmonds--Kings

By the way, Hartsburg also coached Emery and McGrattan when they played for the Greyhounds.

Small world...

More on Clouston:

'Intense' Clouston has succeeded in coaching at every level
Don Campbell, Canwest News Service--Monday, February 02, 2009

OTTAWA - Cory Clouston, never one to let down his guard, wouldn't even let his closest friends in on the biggest announcement of his hockey career.

So, late Sunday, after packing his belongings in Binghamton, N.Y., Clouston called an old friend in Grande Prairie, Alta., leaving a message for a director of the Tier 2 junior hockey team which gave Clouston his first head coaching job to keep an eye on TSN on Monday.

All Clouston's message said was that he wanted to let Don Moon know "something is happening."

So even in Grande Prairie, just as in Ottawa, there was more than mild surprise when general manager Bryan Murray tabbed the former coach of the Grande Prairie Storm as the guy to turn around the fortunes of the National Hockey League's Senators.

"He's a very intense guy," Moon said Monday. "We watched the press conference and we didn't see him smile much. That's him. He's all business. He's all about producing a good hockey team.

"He knows his X's and O's, and he's one of those guys who really hates losing even more than he likes winning."

That's just it. The guy has been a winner at every stage. Tier 2 junior, major junior, the American Hockey League.

Everywhere he has been, Clouston arrived just as anonymously as he landed in Ottawa on Monday.

No one had really heard of him in Grande Prairie, Kootenay or Binghamton, but he became a household name at each location.

Now comes a big test, one officially defined as a 34-game audition until the end of the season. It's not entirely fair that he should be judged after stepping in this late in a season, but it's the chance for which he has been waiting.

So what kind of coach is Cory Clouston?

"Difficult question," said the man who was hired as the NHL Senators' ninth coach.

"If you asked five different players, you might get five different answers, depending on if they're in the dog house that day or what not.

"What I try and do is treat the players with respect. I don't expect anything more than I'm willing to do. I think it's important that I'm prepared, that I feel I know the game well. I'm a student of the game.

"You try and create that culture that people want to stick up for each other, not just on, but off the ice as well, that they're a close knit group of guys. I'm a stickler for details. I want things done in a certain way, but I'm also open to listen and learn. I think players can provide input."

Clouston knows some of the faces in the Senators' room.

Brendan Bell, Brian Elliott, Nick Foligno, Brian Lee, Peter Regin and the injured Cody Bass all spent significant time with Clouston. They might have been surprised that he was Murray's choice at this time, but they all left Binghamton thinking Clouston's time would come eventually.

"He is all business, he is all work," Bell said. "He's a work-ethic type of guy. He is assertive and he gets his message across, and he's 24/7 at the rink."

Said Lee: "He loves hockey and he loves to work, but, if you work hard, you will gain his respect."

The Senators are hardly the worst situation Clouston has faced.

In Grande Prairie, the team called the Chiefs was $100,000 in debt and thought to be dead until former NHLer Dave "Tiger" Williams convinced a guy in a bar not to let junior hockey die there.

That guy went out and recruited several business types, bought the team, changed the name to Storm and cleaned house of everyone except Clouston.
The Storm became winners almost overnight and Clouston was coach of the year in the Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League in his first season. A year later, the team entered the Alberta Junior Hockey League.

In Kootenay, B.C., Clouston was twice named Western Hockey League coach of the year while with the Ice, and he was top coach in the Canadian Hockey League in 2005.

In Binghamton, he had the AHL Senators 11 games over .500 in his 11/2 seasons.

He has also paid his dues, even at the age of 39.

He has ridden the buses in the dead of winter through British Columbia and Alberta and across the Prairies. Last week, Binghamton played three games in three nights in San Antonio, Houston and Binghamton.

Clouston was nicely settled in to watch the Super Bowl when Murray called Sunday.

"It was supposed to be a bit of a down day," Clouston said.

Instead, he jumped in his car and drove more than four hours to Ottawa.
"And he would have driven 20 hours if that's what it took," Ice president and general manager Jeff Chynoweth said. "He does what it takes. He's the kind of employee every businessman would love to have."

Ottawa Citizen

Dont get me wrong so far i like the guy. But i still dont believe he can make it happen for this team and he will be done at the end of the year.

That was an awesome article. Just awesome.

caissie_1 wrote:Dont get me wrong so far i like the guy. But i still dont believe he can make it happen for this team and he will be done at the end of the year.

LOL. Caissie is not a fan of Clouston.