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Let the fun begin for Clouston. Can he handle the pressure of the playoffs? I think he can. What a great series it is going to be with 2 young coaches behind the bench. One that already has a ring and another trying to win his first and the 1st for the modern day Sens.
We shall see what this year will bring. We can all dream!
Cory Clouston needs to look no further than the next bench — and who is standing behind it — for a reminder that dreams do come true.
Like Clouston, Pittsburgh’s Dan Bylsma was coaching in the AHL at the start of last season. Eight months later, he was winning the Stanley Cup.
“Dan’s done a great job there,” Clouston said after Monday’s practice, two days before his Senators begin their attempt at dethroning the champs. “He’s a perfect example of what you can do, as long as you’re prepared and you have your players put in the right situations, and as long as they’re prepared as well.”
Clouston may have his shortcomings, but he’s nothing if not dedicated to detail. You can bet that he’s more than prepared for his first NHL playoff experience. It’s impossible to guess how many times he has studied game tape of the Penguins, but nothing near the top of the Nielsen ratings has been watched closer.
Clouston isn’t the beer-drinking, story-telling type. He’s more apt to order room service than check out the best restaurants in the big cities the Senators visit on the road. He probably doesn’t spend a lot of time talking to his players about their personal lives, either, and nothing he says in post-practice or game press conferences is likely to make headlines, if he gets quoted at all.
But when it comes to knowing the game and knowing how to coach, he’s obviously very good. The question, however, is how will Clouston handle his first experience coaching in the NHL playoffs.
“He’s done it at different levels, he’s gone through the process,” said Senators GM Bryan Murray. “Cory will have a good plan. That’s his strength, I think. Breaking down tape, understanding the strengths and weakness of his players, as well as the other players and letting the players know what they have to do.”
Murray has coached in the NHL playoffs 12 times, finally making it to the championship series as Ottawa’s bench boss in 2007-08. And it wasn’t because he had so many kicks at the can before it that he reached the final.
“Every time you go into a playoff series, you’re nervous,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s your 30th year or your first. You want to make sure your players are prepared. You put stress on yourself to make sure you put in the time and effort, to give them the proper information, then you let them go play.
“The biggest thing in coaching is you try to make sure you put players in a good position. When the game starts, it’s another game. For the players it’s the same thing. Experience is important, but we’ve seen lots of times where players without a lot of experience have really excelled with the pressure.”
He doesn’t expect Clouston to coach nervously.
“When the game starts, you’re not nervous any more. You’re just focused,” Murray said. “You get ready for the series, you’re a little antsy the night before waiting, you think about it maybe too much, guys get out for the warm up and you’ve talked to them, you’ve planned, you’ve had your meetings, then you just coach.
“You don’t stand behind the bench trembling. You just let them play. You give them the right direction beforehand, you make a call or two, and basically that’s it.”
Clouston says he’s excited to get started and he’s not at all concerned about his lack of post-season experience in the NHL.
“Pressure? Nervousness? Not necessarily,” he said. “We feel we’re prepared. We know what we have to do. We know what we can expect from Pittsburgh. We knew we were going to have to go through them eventually. It just happens to be in the first round.
“Every level is different. Every level prepares you for the next level. I’ve been in situations at the Memorial Cup, not as a head coach but as an assistant, I’ve coached Team Canada in the past, we had some pretty good success in Kootenay, so again, as long as you’re prepared before the game, as long as you know what you need to do, as long as the players know what they need to do, then it just becomes in-game management and that’s really no different from a regular-season game.”
Clouston is a well-prepared coach. It’s time to see if that really is all he needs to be in the NHL playoffs.
By DON BRENNAN, Ottawa Sun
We shall see what this year will bring. We can all dream!
Cory Clouston needs to look no further than the next bench — and who is standing behind it — for a reminder that dreams do come true.
Like Clouston, Pittsburgh’s Dan Bylsma was coaching in the AHL at the start of last season. Eight months later, he was winning the Stanley Cup.
“Dan’s done a great job there,” Clouston said after Monday’s practice, two days before his Senators begin their attempt at dethroning the champs. “He’s a perfect example of what you can do, as long as you’re prepared and you have your players put in the right situations, and as long as they’re prepared as well.”
Clouston may have his shortcomings, but he’s nothing if not dedicated to detail. You can bet that he’s more than prepared for his first NHL playoff experience. It’s impossible to guess how many times he has studied game tape of the Penguins, but nothing near the top of the Nielsen ratings has been watched closer.
Clouston isn’t the beer-drinking, story-telling type. He’s more apt to order room service than check out the best restaurants in the big cities the Senators visit on the road. He probably doesn’t spend a lot of time talking to his players about their personal lives, either, and nothing he says in post-practice or game press conferences is likely to make headlines, if he gets quoted at all.
But when it comes to knowing the game and knowing how to coach, he’s obviously very good. The question, however, is how will Clouston handle his first experience coaching in the NHL playoffs.
“He’s done it at different levels, he’s gone through the process,” said Senators GM Bryan Murray. “Cory will have a good plan. That’s his strength, I think. Breaking down tape, understanding the strengths and weakness of his players, as well as the other players and letting the players know what they have to do.”
Murray has coached in the NHL playoffs 12 times, finally making it to the championship series as Ottawa’s bench boss in 2007-08. And it wasn’t because he had so many kicks at the can before it that he reached the final.
“Every time you go into a playoff series, you’re nervous,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s your 30th year or your first. You want to make sure your players are prepared. You put stress on yourself to make sure you put in the time and effort, to give them the proper information, then you let them go play.
“The biggest thing in coaching is you try to make sure you put players in a good position. When the game starts, it’s another game. For the players it’s the same thing. Experience is important, but we’ve seen lots of times where players without a lot of experience have really excelled with the pressure.”
He doesn’t expect Clouston to coach nervously.
“When the game starts, you’re not nervous any more. You’re just focused,” Murray said. “You get ready for the series, you’re a little antsy the night before waiting, you think about it maybe too much, guys get out for the warm up and you’ve talked to them, you’ve planned, you’ve had your meetings, then you just coach.
“You don’t stand behind the bench trembling. You just let them play. You give them the right direction beforehand, you make a call or two, and basically that’s it.”
Clouston says he’s excited to get started and he’s not at all concerned about his lack of post-season experience in the NHL.
“Pressure? Nervousness? Not necessarily,” he said. “We feel we’re prepared. We know what we have to do. We know what we can expect from Pittsburgh. We knew we were going to have to go through them eventually. It just happens to be in the first round.
“Every level is different. Every level prepares you for the next level. I’ve been in situations at the Memorial Cup, not as a head coach but as an assistant, I’ve coached Team Canada in the past, we had some pretty good success in Kootenay, so again, as long as you’re prepared before the game, as long as you know what you need to do, as long as the players know what they need to do, then it just becomes in-game management and that’s really no different from a regular-season game.”
Clouston is a well-prepared coach. It’s time to see if that really is all he needs to be in the NHL playoffs.
By DON BRENNAN, Ottawa Sun
