Coaches Around the NHL Share Barry Trotz’s “Old School” Tendencies Part 1
Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Earlier this month I wrote an Airing of Grievances out of frustration with some of things the Barry Trotz does which I believe have cost the Washington Capitals points in the standings this season. I wanted to expand on this topic, because my theory is that Barry Trotz has “old school” tendencies that, when push comes to shove, Barry Trotz begrudgingly acknowledges and perhaps even utilizes modern hockey analytics such as the possession stats, but will gravitate towards following his gut and what his eyes tell him instead.
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Barry Trotz and his continued use of Jay Beagle on the top line with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, which usually coincides with rookie sensation Andre Burakovsky sitting in the press box, is the primary example and a heated topic of discussion on Twitter and the message boards. I wrote this in my recap of Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Flyers because it’s a persistent issue:
"– We’ve been over this before, but Jay Beagle on the top line is never a good idea. It’s pretty disturbing that I was slightly happy when the Flyers scored a power play goal with Top Line Beagle in the penalty box early in the first, thinking it might be negative reinforcement for Barry Trotz. Burakovsky has been a wizard on that top line recently, and I’m sure Barry Trotz wanted to rest the rookie on a back-to-back, but man that healthy scratch is tough to swallow."
All that said, I believe that Barry Trotz is far from alone and that the vast majority of NHL coaches have similar old school tendencies, so I wanted to test the waters and see whether the grass is greener behind the other bench. In part one of my quest to find out more, I asked Jimmy Rixner of Pensburgh, Dan Saraceni of Lighthouse Hockey and Mike Murphy of Blue Shirt Banter to weigh in on the Penguins, Islanders and Rangers respectively with their opinions on the coaches of the other Metropolitan Division contenders in part one of this series.
Take a look.