Tag Archives: Craig Berube

NHL head coaching diversity down to zero as Flyers fire Craig Berube

17 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

And then there were none.

The number of minority head coaches in the National Hockey League zeroed out Friday when the Philadelphia Flyers did the expected and fired Craig Berube after the team failed to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Ted Nolan, left, and Craig Berube, were the NHL's only minority head coaches. Both have been fired.(Photo/Philadelphia Flyers).

Ted Nolan, left, and Craig Berube, were the NHL’s only minority head coaches. Both have been fired.(Photo/Philadelphia Flyers).

Berube, who is part Cree, joins former Buffalo Sabres Head Coach Ted Nolan, who’s Ojibwe, on the unemployment line. The two made history in November 2013 when they became the first two First Nations members to coach against each other in an NHL game.

“Do I think he did a good job last year? Yes,” Flyers General Manager Ron Hextall said of Berube. “And this year things didn’t go so well. So you take the whole piece of the pie. I don’t think you can evaluate a coach on 20 or 40 games; you have to evaluate him on the whole ball of wax. We felt over two seasons that a change was needed.”

The Flyers tapped Berube, 49, to replace Head Coach Peter Laviolette in October 2013.  About a month later, Buffalo brought Nolan back for a second stint behind the Sabres bench.

Now the two have received their walking papers nearly a week apart. Neither firing was unexpected. Flyers management felt it had a playoff-caliber roster. But the team finished sixth in the NHL’s Metropolitan Division with a 33-31-18 record that wasn’t Stanley Cup Playoffs-worthy.

Philadelphia Flyers let Head Coach Craig Berube go after two season behind the bench.

Philadelphia Flyers let Head Coach Craig Berube go after two season behind the bench.

The team was plagued by inconsistent play – world-beaters against top-tier NHL teams, doormats against lesser opponents – and some questionable coaching decisions. Berube mismanaged goaltender Steve Mason, arguably the Flyers’ best player in 2014-15. Berube appeared to rush Mason back between the pipes early after the goalie suffered injuries.

Nolan’s canning wasn’t a shocker but the rationale for it was. The Sabres, at 23-51-8, had the NHL’s worst record, a dubious distinction that now puts the team in the best position to land the first overall pick in June’s NHL Draft, which will likely be Erie Otters forward Connor McDavid.

After putting an underwhelming product on the ice, and after a season of fan and media talk about the Sabres tanking for the best shot at McDavid,  Buffalo General Manager Tim Murray said he let Nolan go because he thought the team was better than its record indicated.

“I didn’t foresee us being a 30th-place team,” Murray said at a news conference. “Certainly after the trade deadline, trading out guys I had a big part in that, there’s no question and I own that. But up to the trade deadline I was open to keeping guys, I was open to maybe discussing with guys that were coming due, but the place we  were in was the place we were in.”

Whatever the rationale, both Buffalo and Philadelphia are in the market for head coaches. Both teams may take runs at Detroit Red Wings Head Coach Mike Babcock, whose contract in the Motor City expires soon.

They like Mike. Several NHL teams are expected to bid for Red Wings Coach Mike Babcock's services. (Photo Courtesy of The Detroit News/David Guralnick).

They like Mike. Several NHL teams are expected to bid for Red Wings Coach Mike Babcock’s services. (Photo Courtesy of The Detroit News/David Guralnick).

However, Babcock will be in high demand – Detroit, Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins will surely be interested – and he’ll demand to be paid, at least $5 million per season.

The Flyers may take a look at former Pittsburgh Penguins and U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team coach Dan Bylsma; St. Louis Blues Head Coach Ken Hitchcock;  former Flyer player and Gold Medal-winning Canadian Olympic women’s hockey team coach Kevin Dineen; or even former Flyers Head Coach  John Stevens, currently a Los Angeles Kings assistant coach.

Berube and Nolan make NHL history

22 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

Philadelphia Flyers Head Coach Craig Berube and Buffalo Sabres  Interim Head Coach Ted Nolan made hockey history Thursday night when they became the first Native/First Nations members to coach against each other in a National Hockey League game.

The Flyers defeated the Sabres 4-1 in Philadelphia. But the real winners Thursday were Native American and Canadian First Nations youngsters who got a glimpse of the modern-day possibilities for advancement in a game that their ancestors helped create hundreds of years ago.

Sabres coach Ted Nolan, left, and Flyers' coach Craig Berube before their teams squared off (Philadelphia Flyers photo).

Sabres coach Ted Nolan, left, and Flyers’ coach Craig Berube before their teams squared off (Philadelphia Flyers photo).

“It’s huge,” Nolan told Philadelphia Daily News columnist Marcus Hayes before Thursday’s game. “The significance of it is not really what it means to me, or Craig Berube, but what it means when you think of what our ancestors went through.”

Nolan is Ojibwe. Berube is part Cree. Nolan took over the Sabres after Head Coach Ron Ralston was fired earlier this month. Berube landed the Flyers job when Head Coach Peter Laviolette was canned in October.

The Flyers coach, nicknamed “Chief” during his two-fisted playing days, succinctly summed up the significance of the two men being bench bosses at the same time.

“It’s pretty cool,” he told Hayes.

Allan Muir of Sports Illustrated Muir reported that George Armstrong was the first First Nations member to coach in the NHL when he piloted the Toronto Maple Leafs for 47 games during the 1988-89 season. Former New York Islanders scoring machine Bryan Trottier followed when he coached the New York Rangers during the 2002-03 season.

“These coaches are real trailblazers in sport, especially in the NHL, Peter Dinsdale, chief executive officer of the Assembly of First Nations, told The Philadelphia Daily News. “It’s remarkable given all the barriers that exist for First Nations peoples.”

The rise of Berube and Nolan as coaches coincides with the 60th anniversary of Fred Sasaskamoose becoming the first First Nations member to play in the NHL. He joined the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1953-54 season.

He paved the way a generation of players that includes Trottier, former Philadelphia Flyers sniper Reggie Leach, Henry Boucha, Dale McCourt, Stan Jonathan, Gino Odjick, Bobby Taylor, and Chris Simon.

Current NHL players of Native/First Nations heritage include Carey Price and Rene Bourque of the Montreal Canadiens, Vernon Fiddler of the Dallas Stars, T.J. Oshie of the St. Louis Blues, Dwight King of the Los Angeles Kings, D.J. King, and Cody McCommick of the Sabres. Jordan Nolan, Ted Nolan’s son, is a forward with the Kings.

Native/First Nation coaches Nolan and Berube join NHL ranks

15 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

It’s something that Reggie Leach can’t recall seeing during his 14-season National Hockey League career.

With the Buffalo Sabres hiring of Ted Nolan as interim head coach, two Native/First Nation people now pilot National Hockey League teams – Nolan and Philadelphia Flyers Head Coach Craig Berube.

“This is probably the first time we’ve had two First Nation coaches ever in the National Hockey League coaching at the same time,” Leach, the former Conn Smythe Trophy-winning Flyers sniper told me. “I think it really helps First Nation people in general that Teddy Nolan is back in coaching. It’s really big in Ontario and it’s really great for the people. They give him a lot of respect, which is great because he earned it.”

Ted Nolan's back for second stint with Sabres. (Bill Wippert, Buffalo Sabres)

Ted Nolan’s back for second stint with Sabres. (Bill Wippert, Buffalo Sabres)

But  then the man known as the “Riverton Rifle” during his playing days quickly uttered the mantra that’s only too true in big-money sports today: “If he screws up, they’re going to fire him, it doesn’t matter if he’s First Nation. It doesn’t matter if he’s First Nation or what.”

Still, Leach couldn’t conceal his pleasure about Nolan and Berube gaining – in Nolan’s case, regaining – membership in the NHL coaching fraternity. Leach is First Nation, an Ojibwe, just like Nolan. While Leach knows of Nolan – they lived about 300 miles apart in Ontario – he knows Berube, who played for the Flyers just like he did.They both made their mark wearing the Orange, Black and White: Leach as a feared right wing with a lethal slap shot, and Berube as a fearsome left wing with a lethal right hook.

Craig Berube paid his dues to become the Flyers' new head coach.

Craig Berube paid his dues to become the Flyers’ new head coach.

Leach, who played on the famous LCB line with center Bobby Clarke and left wing Bill Barber scored 381 goals in his career. Berube netted 61 goals – what Leach scored in the 1975-61 season alone – in his 20-season NHL tenure and amassed 3,149 penalty minutes.

Berube paid his dues with his fists as a player then paid then again by slowly climbing the coaching ladder to earn the Flyers top spot after the team fired Peter Laviolette in October after a dismal start to the 2013-14 season.

“Craig Berube has spent time coaching in the minors and has been in the Flyer organization for a long team,” Leach said. “Coaching in the minors, being an assistant coach with the National Hockey League team, it’s great they gave a chance at this opportunity right now, which is wonderful for him.”

While Berube’s hiring is an opportunity, Buffalo’s nod to Nolan is a second chance. He coached Buffalo from 1995 to 1997 and amassed a record of 73-72-1. He was also the  bench boss for the New York Islanders from 2006 to 2008.

Sniper Reggie Leach, Number 27, in his Flyers heyday.

Sniper Reggie Leach, Number 27, in his Flyers heyday.

Nolan was a popular figure in Buffalo; he even won the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL’s top coach 1996-97 season. But a poor relationship with then-General Manager John Muckler led to his ouster as coach.

Aside from his stint with the Islanders, Nolan barely got a whiff of interest from National Hockey League teams. Some in the hockey world speculated it was because of his heritage.

“I never said it was racism,” Nolan told The Toronto Star Wednesday, the day he introduced as the Sabres’ interim coach. But “when you’re not part of a group, it’s tough to fit into that group – whether it’s hockey or anything else.”

“If you don’t know someone from a different background, different race, it’s hard to get to know them,” he told the paper. “So it was very hard…You have to try to fit in.”

After years of getting the cold shoulder from NHL teams, Nolan now has two coaching

"Riverton Rifle" Leach firing for Flyers in alumni game.

“Riverton Rifle” Leach firing for Flyers in alumni game.

gigs – with the Sabres and with the Latvian team that will play in the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in February.

In irony of ironies, Nolan will be in Russia with Dallas Stars Head Coach Lindy Ruff, who replaced Nolan in Buffalo in 1997. Ruff is an associate coach for Team Canada. And Laviolette, the man Berube succeeded in Philadelphia, is an associate coach for the U.S. hockey team.

Nolan’s never been shy about his heritage. In June, he spoke to The Buffalo News’ Tim Graham about his objection to Washington’s National Football League team being called the Redskins.

“Sure, the Redskins name has been around for generations,” Nolan told Graham, “but when you’re a person of that race and someone calls you a redskin, they don’t know why they’re saying it, where the word comes from or what the word means.”

Leach thinks Nolan’s tenure in the NHL will be a long one this time. With age, Nolan is 55, comes experience.

“You learn by your mistakes and you comeback,” Leach told me. “It took him a long time – a period of over 15 years – to get back. And he’ll learn from it and stay longer this time.  He’s qualified to coach, and they’ve got to give him a chance. I believe myself that if you give him a chance for 2-3-4 years in one position, he’ll do really well.”