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Grönborg Speaks The Language Of Hockey

April 18, 2019, 8:37 PM ET [12 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT



Betcha didn’t know that Rikard Grönborg is an American citizen.

It’s true.

Grönborg is bilingual. He is plural so to speak in a game that is very singular these days. There are no language barriers in hockey. At least not for Grönborg who has coached Americans (NCAA, juniors), Canadians (Spokane Chiefs, WHL), and Swedes (national program).

Ask Grönborg is it was his burning desire to become a hockey coach and he will answer in the negative. He never intended to be a hockey coach. He had to be sold on the idea by Craig Dahl, the coach of St. Cloud State in the mid-’90s.

Today, Grönborg fluently speaks the universal language:

Hockey

I love listening to Grönborg speak. His intensity and passion remind me so much of Metallica drummer and fellow Swede Lars Ulrich who gushes with pride when asked to describe his trademark double-bass drum kick technique and his unbridled love for the fanatical followers of his band. Similarly, Grönborg emotes when asked to recall his old medal recollections from Team Sweden’s back-to-back victories at the Worlds in 2017 and 2018.

Grönborg has an excellent command of the English language and he has used it to further his career as a premier level coach.

Grönborg, a native of Huddinge, Sweden, played two seasons at St. Cloud State University in the State of Hockey. Grönborg was a defensive defenseman who patrolled the blue line for St. Cloud State for two seasons (1990-1991, 1991-1992). Grönborg also played two years of roller hockey for the Phoenix Cobras.

Never satisfied, Grönborg wanted to achieve his goal of getting an American education.

After his NCAA playing days ended, Grönborg went home to Sweden where he finished up his career as a player for Tyringe and Hammarby in the Sweden first division. After he hung up his skates and tucked away his hockey bag for good, Grönborg went back to St. Cloud State to finish work on his Bachelor’s degree. While there, the hockey team asked him to become a graduate assistant.


Since then, Grönborg has been coaching.

Along the way, Grönborg has dipped his beak in the coaching ranks at the University of Wisconsin-Stout (NCAA, associate coach), the Great Falls Americans (AWHL, head coach), Texas Blackhawks (AWHL, head coach) and Spokane Chiefs (WHL, assistant)


For the last ten years, he has been coaching with the Swedish national team. Grönborg has coached U18, U20, and now he is the head coach for the national men’s team. In May, Grönborg will do everything in his power to execute the three-peat at the IIHF World Championships in Slovakia. Grönborg has won back-to-back gold medal for Sweden at the Worlds and is looking to end his national team coaching career with an auspicious hat trick.

Upon the conclusion of the World Championships on May 26, Grönborg will become the hottest free agent head coach in the world.

The line is long and getting longer. The Buffalo Sabres, Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim Ducks are aggressively recruiting for respective head coaches. NHL teams punted early out of the Stanley Cup playoffs (Pittsburgh Penguins) will also take a long look at Grönborg.

I recently happened across this podcast that features Grönborg. It is from December 2018.

In it, speaks Grönborg candidly, passionately about topics including: his coaching philosophy, providing immediate feedback to and forming relationships with today’s Millennial players, whether he prefers coaching kids or veterans and what are his next steps in the process of becoming the first European born player to become a head coach in the NHL in the past 15 years.

“First of all, you have to have an interest in the players of today. There is such a different environment from when I grew up. When I grew up, I had the Baby Boomers were my coaches. There’s a different style. If I just implemented the stuff that they were doing and were successful with at that time (1990), I would not be a very good coach. I need to show curiosity in the players of today. What’s making them tick. I think the main thing right now is that they (Millennial-age players) are so eager of getting feedback all the time. I’m talking about the smallest little details sometimes. (As a head coach) You have to make time for that. I think in their environment with all the social media and everything else where they view feedback instantly, they are so accustomed to that and if you don’t give them feedback it’s going to be tough for them. That’s one thing. Mainly, to try and understand where they are coming from and their perspective I think is very important for us coaches”.

Buffalo Sabres should applaud Grönborg’s new age approach to mentoring his players. Jack Eichel and Associates are one of the youngest teams in the NHL. Former Sabres head coach was a very good communicator. Sabres GM Jason Botterill said after Housley was fired he is looking to hire a head coach who can command the respect of the players in the room while being an excellent communicator and active listener. On locker clean out day in Buffalo, I asked Swedish rockstar rookie Rasmus Dahlin about his former head coach Grönborg. “He’s an excellent leader. He prepares his teams very well for games and practices.”


***

“You know what, it’s a different challenge. I really can’t say. There’s always rewards at the end with either one. The interest in the person itself is real important. Just because two people are not born in the same year doesn’t mean the same things are taken for each other. That’s why it is so important for me to get interested in the person and try to make him tick. I think that the more relationship you have with a player, the more you can be on him. I think you can make him more accountable in their actions if you have built a good relationship. And it’s a two-way street. You can’t just expect them to listen to everything you’ve got to give them if you’ve got no interest in them. It really doesn’t matter (young vs. old). You’ve got to identify each individual. The biggest thing for me as a coach is to make them the best hockey players possible and if I can succeed at helping make them great hockey players, I think we have a pretty good hockey team.”


Unlike many veteran NHL coaches and the perennial retread coaching candidates, Grönborg favor the older players while ignoring the young kids on the roster and in the organizational family.

Gone are the days where the NHL head coach can give all the time on ice to the older, veteran players while dumping the kids on the fourth and fifth lines. Since the lockout of 2012-13, the NHL is a young man’s lead where 18 and 19 year olds like Jack Eichel, Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Rasmus Dahlin, Aaron Ekblad and their contemporaries are blowing past the thruway off ramp to the American Hockey League and screaming straight into the NHL. I remember vividly the Tampa Bay Lighting of 2008-09. Then head coach Barry Melrose refused to play rookie, first overall pick (2008) Steven Stamkos. Melrose, a Jurrasic Park resident elder statesman opted to park Stamkos in the press box rather than letting the kid learn the ropes by allowing him to play his way from the bottom six to the top six group. Melrose stroked his mullet-goatee combo while preaching his archaic “Kids should be seen and not heard” mantra. Tough love is what Stamkos needed, eh Barry? After 16 games and a 5-7-4 record, Melrose was blown out the rink door and was replaced by Rick Tocchet (19-33-0-14) who embraced Stamkos and the other youngster on his roster. Tocchet mentored Stamkos and earned the kid’s trust while Melrose ignored his development.
Grönborg’s coaching track record says he appreciates getting to know each player on a personal level. I like that Grönborg says the better he gets to know a player the easier it becomes to hold the player accountable.

To a man, the Sabres said on locker clean out day that accountability was an area of deficiency during the 2018-19 season. There were too many times where Phil Housley demanded all players to adhere to and follow his system to a tee. On a shift by shift basis, the Sabres would deviate from the script and fall back into their old, bad habits. Housley was a patient man. To a fault. He would forgive players for their mistakes and continue to play them while opting to teach the offending players the solutions to correct their problem areas. If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got. NHL coaches cannot keep doing the same things time after time and expecting different results. That is the definition of insanity.






**

“I consider myself more of a hybrid. I’ve coached against some great coaches in North America. I’ve coached against some great, great coaches in Europe. There are great minds for hockey in both places. I think it’s just a matter of making a decision or go outside the bounds a little bit for the (NHL) decision makers and having an interest in the European coaches. The game is so small right now when it comes to knowing exactly what each other is doing. Whether I’m coaching against the Russians or the Finns or the Slovaks, I think I think I have a pretty good idea about what they are going to do. But, it is so universal. So many things that you bring up. I think we are all stealing from each other and the same thing with North Americans (coaches). I think it’s a matter of time. I think it’s just a matter of the people that are making those decisions (to hire NHL coaches). There are not very many (NHL head coaching) jobs first of all. There are 31 teams. I think it’s a two way street of European coaches being more available and decision makers in North America having more interest in European coaches.

I love this take. We are living in the internet age. Hockey is such a huge, multi-billion dollar industry worldwide. There are no longer secrets. American coaches are using Swedish power play formations, Canadian coaches are borrowing forecheck templates from the Finns, the Swiss are borrowing from all teams.

Grönborg’s point is well made. He’s a hockey man of the world. His eyes have seen it all. His ears have heard it all. No hockey concepts are foreign to him. He’s ready for the prime time stage in the NHL.
Did you watch the World Cup of Hockey? Have you watched the IIHF World Juniors? The World Championships? The Olympic games?

Players leave the club teams in the NHL to play for their respective mother countries.

European players have adapted nicely to playing in the 200 by 85 sheet in the NHL and AHL. Likewise, North America players have grown accustomed to playing on the 200 x 90 and 200 x 100 sheets found in Europe.

Real talk. Is there really a difference anymore between North American and European Hockey?

Grönborg says no way.

“I don’t think it is anymore. It’s a pretty universal thing. Like I said, there are always certain things with the Russian national teams or the Finns that’s kind of their DNA or their core of how to coach or to play. I think it’s pretty universal because when you get to the big tournaments, I’m talking about the Olympics with NHLers, or the World Cups, the World Championships with NHL players coming back to their national teams, they are used to playing in North American rinks against the North American players in a North American environment. And those are the types of players that I have been coaching the past few years. It would be stupid of me to play the way the Swedes did in 1995 and expect to have success that way. I think the game right now is so universal. I don’t think it’s a big difference. There are some tactical differences when it comes to the larger and smaller rink but other than that, I think the way you work with the players, the way you prepare the players for the game, I feel is pretty universal.”


**

“The NHL is so broad. You’ve got to look at your own team and say “what are our strengths?” We always sit down with our (Sweden) national team and see what players we have on the team and e=see what the strengths are of the the 25-30 players we have and somehow get a system working for those players and get the games into our strengths. I think that is the number one thing you have to do as an organization. Not only identify where we are at but where are we going? I’m talking about the draft choices and everything else. These are guys that are coming in. When it comes to winning every day, you need to identify what our strength are and get our games into the strengths of our team. I’m more of an active versus reactive kind of a game. Saying that, instead of reacting to everything the opponents are doing, you need to be active out there with or without the puck. We are talking more of those types of terms than it is “fast, fast, fast”. One example of that is the (Swedish) World Cup team. We has a bit of an older team. We thought our strengths were our defensemen, obviously, with Lundqvist in net. We had very smart centers, they are not very quick but they are very smart. We tried to get the games into that types of strengths and I think we successfully did that. Versus last World Championship team where we (Sweden) had quite a bit of up front speed. We made our systems and our tactics towards that. We were very successful with that going blank through the World Championship and winning all the games there. You need to assess what type of team you have and make a system that works for your team”

Buffalo Sabres fans are going to love Grönborg if/when Jason Botterill hires him to be next head coach of the Buffalo Sabres. Not to bang on Housley, but, his man to man defensive zone system was one of his unique selling propositions while interviewing for the job two years ago. Many of Housley’s players struggled to fully grasp, comprehend and execute Housley’s system. Sabres defensemen were often times exposed and caught puck watching as opponents were allowed clean zone entries with very little resistance only to lug the puck down the wall which would cause Buffalo D-men to chase the puck and get rubbed out on cycle plays and pick-screens. What Grönborg is saying is he assesses what talent he has on his bench and then creates a winning system where all players can thrive by using their natural instincts and individual skills. That is quite a departure from Housley’s “My way or we’ll keep drilling it into your heads until you do it my way” philosophy. One Sabres defenseman who struggles mightily under Housley was veteran Rasmus Ristolainen. The feisty Finn was lost at even strength in Housley’s man to man defensive strategy the past two seasons. Ristolainen, a six year veteran,, was minus-25 in 2017-18 and an NHL worst minus-43 in 2018-19. Ristolainen suffered his worst defensive seasons while playing for Housley. He was minus-68 combined. Ristolainen, 24, lost his confidence with each and every D-zone mistake and botched assignment. Ristolainen was a man without a country. His name has been in hot rotation in NHl trade deadline rumors the past two seasons. Fans chirped Ristolainen incessantly because they thought he was the problem and that he had forgotten how to play NHL defense. Ristolainen scores 43 points this season and 41 points last season. He has scored 194 career points ( 95 PPP) in 426 career NHL games.

I’m thinking Grönborg would spend a lot of time with Ristolainen, asking him his opinion of why he struggled in his end of the rink the past two seasons. Grönborg and his assistant coaches won’t install a system that makes their players look bad.They will build their defensive, offensive and special teams formations around the talent assembled on the roster rather than telling the players to play it this way because it worked for me where I used to coach. Grönborg just might be the Ristolainen Whisperer who can unlock the Norris Trophy version of Ristolainen who will help the Sabres make the playoffs.





**

Grönborg is ready, willing and able to coach the Buffalo Sabres or another NHL team. Hell, the Sabres are already Stockholm On The Mighty Niagara with Swedish stars shining in the hockey heavens of Western New York. Seven different Swedish players dressed and played for the Sabres this season in Rasmus Dahlin, Linus Ullmark, Lawrence Pilut, Victor Olofsson, Alex Nylander, Johan Larsson, and Patrik Berglund (retired in December). It won’t be long until the “other” Rasmus makes his debut in Buffalo, that being center Rasmus Asplund. Grönborg has coached most if not all of the aforementioned Swedish-born Sabres players.

“What’s next for me? I’m curious myself. I’m focusing on my job and that’s why I’m here in Chicago (December 2018, scouting Swedish-born NHLers to play for Team Sweden at IIHF World Championships in May) to watch the game… we played our first tournament here.. And do a good enough job as possible this season. I’m sure if I do a good enough job, there is going to be some interest (NHL) out there. Where that interest is at I don’t know right now. I’m identifying certain interest from certain people in different leagues and I will make the decision (based on) what the most of a challenge to me. It’s very speculative of me right now to mention one team or this is where I’m going, or even one league to be honest with you. I’m just curious what the next step is. I just feel like The Federation (Team Sweden) want to extend my contract another three years but I felt being here for ten years with Swedish national hockey teams that it is time for me to move on. I’m as curious as you are.”

Listen to "Interview w/ Rikard Grönborg - Head Coach Swedish Men's National Team" on Spreaker.
Thanks, Forever Mighty Podcast



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