Dan Bylsma was a busy man when he was in Buffalo late last week. Bylsma met several times with the Pegulas and his new GM/collaborator Tim Murray. Bylsma said Friday that he also had a productive three hour meeting with his new power forward Evander Kane who was also in The Queen City to have his surgically repaired shoulder evaluated by team doctors.
I love when I hear news like this. It says to me that Bylsma is a serious man. By investing three hours into one of his most talented players in the first few hours on the new job in May will pay dividends for Kane and Bylsma in their future relationship. This meeting suggests to me that Bylsma is more interested in the man named Evander Kane, not just the star hockey player named Evander Kane. I wasn't in the room with Bylsma and Kane but my guess is that they asked questions of one another and gave open, honest, candid responses to one another. Players need to trust their coaches. What better way is there to build trust than to close the door, turn off the iPhone, turn off the tablet and just give the man across from you the respect of listening to his testimony and philosophies on life and the love of hockey?
Bylsma was out of the NHL for a full season and he missed it dearly. He has said that he watched more hockey as a fan in the last year than ever before in his 44 years. He studied the game. Watched other coaches and how they worked their benches and how they manipulated their roster inside games.
“I wanted to take a look at different teams and coaches, the cadence of their line shifts, patterns, tell signs, implementation of personnel. Do they match forwards and defence, or just defence? Zone starts. It was kind of an out-of-body experience, not looking at anything the way I watched it before,” he said.
When Lindy Ruff was head coach of the Sabres, he would speak glowingly of the time that he was able to spend around Mike Babcock, Ken Hitchcock, Barry Trotz, Claude Julien, and Dave Tippett when they were coaches on Team Canada's gold medal winning Olympic hockey team.
Ruff would reflect positively on the coaching moments that he would observe during Team Canada practices and games. He would admit that he would "steal" or borrow little nuances an coaching techniques from his contemporaries. He would say that he became a better, more complete coach of the Sabres for having spent quality time on the Team Canada staff.
Will Bylsma say the same thing about his time coaching on Team Canada's World Championships squad? Will he borrow from other NHL coaches he lessons that he learned by watching hundreds of NHL games on TV and in person while he sat on the beach for a year?
That remains to be seen, however what we know is that Bylsma is an avid communicator who wants to get to know each and every one of his players on a one on one basis, rather than relying on reputations or public perception and erroneous personas. In his NHL coaching career, Bylsma’s goalies and D have been sniped by Kane. Tim Murray first started scouting Kane when he was 16 years old. Murray and Kane have a tight bond. A trust. Perhaps Murray suggested that Bylsma step off on the right skate by carving out a nice long block of time to get to know what makes the 23 year old power forward tick.
Bylsma also reportedly spoke with Kane’s former Winnipeg Jets head coach Claude Noel. Bylsma wanted the 411 on Kane. Who better to give the goods on Kane than his former head coach.
Bylsma told Elliotte Friedman something about Kane that Sabres fans willing be drooling over and that is:
“There is probably not a guy who is more competitive than Evander Kane”.
Sabres are going to love Kane because have not been treated to the most entertaining, elegant and competitive brand of hockey during the past two and a half seasons of the re-building campaign.
Bylsma isn’t going to let the old losing habits and excuses creep into his new team’s locker room. It’s a total re-boot. New era in Buffalo Sabres history. New coach. New attitude. New energy. New players. New goals.
The puck drops on the NHL Combine today. Bylsma has home ice advantage. His Sabres haven’t drafted Eichel yet. YET.
Bylsma has said that he is already seriously considering playing a dynamic duo of Kane-Eichel. The Sabres will be drafting Eichel with the second overall pick in the NHL Draft.
“If that can work, imagine it coming at you,” Bylsma remarked about the skill, speed, and strength of a Kane-Eichel pairing.
Team USA earned the bronze medal at the IIHF World Championships last month. Bylsma coached Eichel at the tournament. It took mere minutes for Eichel to impress the man who coached Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to the Stanley Cup championship in 2009.
“Right away in the tournament, versus Finland, versus Russia, he showed he could play against men, 16-18 minutes,” said Bylsma. “There were times he skated right by them…special plays from a special player.
Bylsma is already planning for his life with Eichel.
“From what we know, ( Jack Eichel’s ) power numbers are extremely good. His vertical, again from what we know, would be the second-best among the Sabres…so there’s a powerful base. He still needs to work on strength and to get bigger, but what he generates is an enormous amount of power. The way he can accelerate, you don’t see someone do that every day.”
Friedman asked Bylsma explain what he meant about Eichel’s vertical game.
“Wanted to clarify. His (Eichel’s) vertical, would that be second-best among his age group, or the entire roster?” Answer: “The entire roster.”
Eichel is not your average 18 year old hockey prospect. He's smart, skilled, strong and as determined a player as you are going to see. He takes it personally when he has the puck take off his stick and like a bull, he will lower his horns and gore the fool who took it from him. Eichel will get bigger and stronger under the tutelage of Sabres strength and conditioning coach Doug McKenney. It won't be long until he develops his body into NHL compliance like Zemgus Girgensons, Mikhail Grigorenko, Marcus Foligno, Rasmus Ristolainen, and other top Sabres prospects. Eichel has the lightning fast eyes, hands, and feet to play the NHL game well today. When he adds mass to his 6'2 190 frame he will be a weapon of mass destruction in the near future. Couple Eichel with the dominance of Kane, we are going to be looking at a formidable force similar to or possibly greater than Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry.
With Connor McDavid entering the NHL soon and the Erie Otters sale by the bankruptcy courts looming on the horizon, is it fair to speculate that Sabres GM Tim Murray may be pursuing Otters coaches Kris Knoblauch and Jay McKee to take over the bench of the Rochester Amerks?
Lots of activity/possibilities on AHL coaching vacancies from group that includes Sheldon Keefe, Kris Knoblauch, D.J. Smith, Steve Spott...
Murray relieved Chadd Cassidy of his head coaching duties last month. Murray had been simultaneously trying to find Cassidy's replacement concurrently with his search for Ted Nolan's successor. Once Dan Bylsma was hired to be head master in Buffalo, Murray shifted his focus to the Amerks opening.
Knoblauch was named the seventh head coach in Erie Otters history on November 29, 2012, in the midst of the 2012-2013 OHL season. He led the Otters to one of the biggest turnarounds in OHL history in the 2013-14 season, coaching the team to the best regular season record in franchise history at 52-14-2-0 and taking the team to the Western Conference Final.
Prior to joining Erie, Kris Knoblauch worked behind the bench for the Kootenay Ice of the Western Hockey League as an assistant coach from 2007-2010 before taking over head coaching duties from 2010-2012. As head coach, Kris guided Kootenay to an Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL playoff champions in 2011, and earned a berth into that year’s Memorial Cup tournament.
Kris began his junior coaching career in the 2006-2007 season when he served as an assistant coach for the Prince Albert Raiders of the WHL.
Before joining the coaching ranks, Kris played four years in the WHL for a handful of teams including the Red Deer Rebels, Edmonton Ice, Kootenay Ice, and Lethbridge Hurricanes. Following his junior career, Kris played five seasons with the University of Alberta from 1999-2004 and won a National Championship in 2000. He also played professionally for the CHL’s Austin Ice Bats during the 2004-2005 season, and then spent the following year playing in France.
Jay McKee joined the Erie Otters as an assistant coach prior to the 2014-15 season where he oversaw the team’s defensemen. He also ran the penalty kill.
Before joining the Otters, McKee worked as an assistant coach with Niagara University and most recently with the Rochester Americans.
The Kingston, Ontario native is a 14-year NHL veteran, spending ten seasons with the Buffalo Sabres. His 582 games played sit him 18th all-time with the Sabres. McKee also spent three years with the St. Louis Blues before finishing his NHL playing career with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009-10. He continued to play up until his hiring, capturing an Allen Cup in 2014 with the Dundas Real McCoys as part of the Ontario Hockey Association's Major League Hockey.
Join the Discussion:
»