Scott Gordon and his teaching methods are perfectly suited to the NY Islanders. His use of technology and his hands-on approach will make the difficult road of cultivating young talent that much more productive. Even if others don't thinks so.... the players themselves do. Here's an interview I did with him back in August and really should have released during training camp, but didn't.

Scott Gordon called me for this interview one morning in August. I wasn’t expecting him to call so I wasn’t prepared. The three minutes, 35 seconds that I struggled to find my questions, my recorder, my earpiece and a pad felt like an eternity. I tried to make small talk, but I felt like I was wasting his time.

Once order was established at my desk, I began to ask my questions about technology and how it has changed coaching. I’ve watched “Miracle” more than a few times and that vision of Herb Brooks in his den intently watching that giant reel-to-reel tape in the dark is etched in my memory. But that was then and this is now.

Scott Gordon: “Video back then wasn’t edited. Obviously, today you have the ability to cut and edit because it’s digital. You have everything at your fingertips and you can start anywhere because it’s all counters. As a result, popping in tapes that hadn’t been itemized for a particular category made the process very slow and very hard to navigate.”

While there are a few software programs on the market, 75% of the NHL uses only two of them; both have become indispensible.

Scott Gordon: “The software that we use has the ability to store things for as long as we want. I have to say that after a game, if I was to pull 300 clips, I can categorize each clip on my computer to have access with a click of a button where you might have had 20 to 30 VHS tapes. We have all our games stored on terabyte towers. Within every game, there are clippings of everything that we want to target.”

I wondered if during games Coach Gordon made physical notes of what he may want to look at but then I realized that wouldn’t be high-tech enough for him.

Scott Gordon: “We have the ability to talk to the video guy in the locker room. We also have the ability to ask him what happened on that play. Was it a good penalty? Was it a goal? And I make my own notes based on the time on the clock. It’s just easier for me to go back and look at it in between periods.”

I had always wondered what went on in between periods. Now I know; review and strategy.

Scott Gordon: “We call it ‘Coach Clip’ where we’ll tell the video guy ‘Coach that’ and he will basically click a record button. It just marks the video so that you can title it and go to that clip as soon as you walk in the door.”

I asked Coach Gordon if he spends any time watching tapes of the OTHER 29 teams.
Scott Gordon: “I watch every game that WE play as far as what our team is doing. We usually get one game prior to playing an opponent to see what they’re doing and any changes they might have made. For instance, we played Carolina at the beginning of the year. We didn’t play them again until after they made a coaching change. So they had made some changes and adjusted their style of play and sometimes just the timing of when you play teams, they might have made changes.”

In November of 2008, Scott Gordon addressed an IBC Breakfast where he brought his laptop to show the attendees how he keeps those video files. While the audience found it interesting, I asked him what the players thought of that practice and how much he shares with them.

Scott Gordon: “The players can come in with their flash drives and we can give them all their shifts to watch on their own. They can have access to them right after a game. I personally pull individual clips of things I want to go over with players and they’ll be maintained in a folder until I feel it’s time to sit down and go through it. Some of the clips I won’t ever show, but I’ll hold on to so that if there’s a tendency over a period of time, I can say ‘This is something that I’ve seen over three or four games.’ If it wasn’t happening over and over again, I probably won’t show it. Sometimes I’ll bring them in and just show them all their clips and show them some things that maybe they weren’t aware of.”

Trying to dig up a little dirt, I asked him if anyone has been resistant to this type of “show-and-tell” session.

Scott Gordon: “Most players want to get better. You try not to make it something that becomes tedious. Every player is different and you try to get a feel as you sit down and talk to them and show them the clips. You get a pretty good sense of whether it’s something they like to do often or not.”

Still wondering if any player found this practice distasteful, I decided to ask a few their thoughts.

Josh Bailey: “I think it’s really good actually. I think it helped me a lot last year.” As Islanders fans remember, Josh Bailey had a bit of a slow start in the NHL last season. “Gordo would always have all the game tapes. Especially at the start of the year when I was trying to learn the system, he would bring me in and show me different things that I needed to do to get better and I think it helped me a lot through the end of the year. You certainly learn the system more. It’s a lot of the little things you do to make you a better player.”

I have seen Scott Gordon take Islanders rookie enforcer Joel Rechlicz aside to show him video on his laptop during practice at mini-camp. I caught up to “The Wrecker” to ask his opinion.

Joel Rechlicz: “I think Coach Gordon does a great job teaching guys where to be system wise. Everything is all in clips now. The technology is amazing. It’s a great teaching tool and it really helps me out. I’ll play a game and before the next, he'll say ‘Hey Joel, listen, this is what you’re doing wrong. This is what you have to do.’ It’s a great tool. It’s helped me along the way. He really is a great teacher.”

Overhearing my question to Rechlicz, 2008 draftee Justin DiBenedetto gave his opinion as well.

Justin DiBenedetto: “He’s been really good with all the players at mini-camp. Whenever we make a mistake or can do something better, he comes back to us and tries to make us be better.“

I guess the coach’s teaching system works just fine.

I wonder how John Tavares will take to this training system, as I’m guessing Scott Gordon has a folder with his name on it from training camp.
Speaking of our much-coveted first-round draft pick, I asked Coach Gordon for his prediction of Tavares’ first year in the NHL.

Scott Gordon: “There’s no guarantee of what a player is going to do that first year -- any player. There’s such a diverse level of success or failure for first-year players. It’s not just first-round picks. There will still be ups and downs. But one thing that I’ve found out about John in the short time is he wants to get better. He wants to be the best. From my observation, from those six days in July, you can tell he doesn’t take it for granted that it’s easy. He is always training to get better. That’s all you can ask of players.”

As long-suffering Islanders fans, we are looking forward to this season not just to bear witness to John Tavares’ transition to the NHL, but for other bright spots on the roster. When a team is in the rebuilding stage, you have to take the good with the bad. Last season "the bad" was the staggering amount of injuries. I’m hoping the good this season will be the continued development of some future NHL stars.

Scott Gordon certainly has his work cut out for him this season, but considering his own work ethic and tech-savvy ways, he’s already ahead of the game.

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