It’s kind of a sad moment realizing that this may be the last instance when I’ll ever be able to use the ‘MacLean red phone’ image for a post, but damn it all if this won’t be a memorable last time.
Even though he was under no obligation to speak to reporters following his dismissal as head coach of the Ottawa Senators yesterday morning, to his credit, Paul MacLean did comment and address his firing.
I was hoping to embed the audio for the press conference, but TSN 1200‘s running a broken link for the audio. The transcript for MacLean’s press conference appears below.
As always, my thoughts are in bold.
MacLean’s opener…
“I’d like to start by thanking you all for being here. I know it’s a long day and it’s a little extra time for you today, but I appreciate it. First of all, I’d like to thank Eugene Melnyk, Bryan Murray and the Ottawa Senators for the opportunity to be a head coach in the National Hockey League. I brought with me a resume that included playing in June. My team had won a Stanley Cup, went to three Stanley Cup Finals, and (I) coached in four Western (Conference Finals). I had a habit of playing in June. That was what I tried to establish here because to play in June, your best players have to be your best players. I pushed them to be. I want to thank all the great people that I got to work with here at the Canadian Tire Centre, especially on an everyday basis. George, Greg, Bill, Robert and Carla in the command centre. The training staff of Gerry Townend, Dom Nicoletta and Shawn Markwick. The equipment staff of Scotty Allegrino, Woody Gervais, Mike Foley and Alex Menezes. The PR staff of Brian Morris, Chris Moore, Amanda and Kaite. To Hockey Operations’ Allison Vaughan, Pierre Dorion and Randy Lee for the great opportunity and the players that we had, to my coaching who are obviously still working hard at it and will continue to do so and to the players, thank you very much for their efforts. Most of all, I’d like to thank the fans for the support and the advice that they’ve given me for the last three years. I leave today with my resume fuller by three years as a head coach in the National Hockey League, a Jack Adams Award, a runner-up for a Jack Adams Award, two playoff appearances in April – which I know is a place to start. I’m a better coach today and I will be better prepared for the next opportunity and I will still coach to play in June. My daughter Erin said to me today something about the ‘players play, play, play and I’m going to shake, shake it off.’ Any questions?
What can you say about Paul MacLean other than he’s bringing it. Listing off his resume accomplishments before dropping an unexpected Taylor Swift pop culture reference? Gold. Probably a good idea to omit current possession rates or how his goaltenders’ save percentages made his resume look a little better than it probably should be, but hey, it was a solid opener that no one will soon forget.
After some female fan yells “you’re the fucking best Paul MacLean. I love you. You’re the best.”
“That is not my daughter.”
Like the timing of Erik Karlsson’s overtime goal, MacLean’s comedic timing was beautiful. All that was missing was the celebratory fist pump to go with it.
On whether he saw this coming…
“I don’t think anything ever surprises me in this business. Stuff happens. All I know is it’s all about winning. If you don’t win enough, you don’t get to hang around.”
On there being anything specific that he can take from this experience…
“Well, I don’t think anything specific (from) today. I’m going to have a little bit of time to mull it over, but I’ll be better prepared. I’m a better coach today than I was when I got here and I look forward to the next opportunity.”
On who the “old Paul” was and why he couldn’t come back…
“I don’t know what that means. I’m just Paul MacLean and that is who I am.”
Finally, after taking the high road for the majority of the availability, we’re finally seeing a little bit of agitation or defiance from the former coach. The reference to “old Paul” comes from Bryan Murray who used the expression to articulate how the expectations or demands by MacLean of his players negatively affected his relationship with the players.
I put this on Twitter last night, but it’s interesting to me how the “old Paul” left at a similar time to Daniel Alfredsson. Even though the organization spun Alfredsson’s loss as an opportunity to acquire a better player in Bobby Ryan that made them “better on paper”, it would be foolish to think that the loss of the long-time captain didn’t affect the team during the early stages of the 2013-14 season.
At the same time, Paul MacLean has acknowledged himself that he felt a change in his coaching style had become necessary when he returned for his third season, so completely dismissing the “old Paul” thing outright isn’t completely fair. He has admitted to becoming more demanding of his players, but it’s obvious from his comments today that if the current group was going to take a significant step forward, there had to be a considerable amount of growth and improvement. It seems like Paul felt that if management couldn’t bring in better players, he’d have to simply get more out of the guys that he had here, hence the decision to demand more.
Under MacLean’s watch players like Kyle Turris and Erik Karlsson grew exponentially as players, but a number of the team’s other players, especially on the blue line, have fallen flat. Obviously in some instances, circumstances beyond MacLean’s control have affected certain players (ie. Jared Cowen and his injuries), but I don’t know if I’m willing to put the majority of blame on a coach when ownership and management are the ones responsible for assembling this collection of players on the league’s smallest budget.
Now with that being said, we’ve heard in the past that some players haven’t been pleased with their utilization or roles. Bobby Ryan wasn’t happy with his utilization in the early stages of last season and Jason Spezza’s unhappiness culminated with a request to be dealt because he was tired of being a scapegoat for this franchise. Without knowing how much of that was going on behind closed doors, Spezza was always a polarizing individual amongst the fan base, but it’s possible that he could have been one of these “better players” that Bryan Murray alluded to that Paul simply demanded too much of.
On whether he felt he needed to change his personality as a coach to appease players…
“Well, I have no regrets over the way I did anything. I have no regrets. I can’t change anything. It’s all done. All I can change is maybe what I would do going forward, but I ain’t changing nothing I did behind me and I don’t regret anything I did, the way I did it, (or) how I did it. I did it the best way that I thought it would be to get the team to play in June, that’s all it was about.”
MacLean should take his doppleganger on the road with him to his next stop.
On whether he thought he had the roster to get to June…
“I was coaching what I had and trying to get them to play in June. That’s what I was doing. I certainly believed in the players, the level of skill that we had, the level of work ethic we had. I had total belief that we had every opportunity that we could be a team that wasn’t only competitive – we weren’t an elite team, we were working to be an elite team – but I certainly felt that we were competitive.”
He’s right. They’re not elite. The team hasn’t been elite since the mid 2000’s and it’s tough to sit here and say with any kind of confidence that they’re headed in the right direction.
On whether his initial success changed his coaching philosophy…
“I don’t think so. I tried to approach each year as every year – the whole goal was to play in June. There’s 30 teams that do that every year.”
It may not have changed his approach, but the performance of this team’s goaltenders made people in this city and outsiders overlook this team’s inability to suppress shots and by corollary, scoring chances. Combine this fact with modest success in light of the low expectations for his team and you have the recipe for how to be a runner-up to the Jack Adams and a Jack Adams winner in consecutive years. More to the point, maybe we should stop referring to the Jack Adams as the trophy for the league’s best coach and just call it what it is, an award handed out to the coach whose team exceeds expectations the most.
On whether the comment he made about “being afraid to play certain players” was said in jest…
“Well, I thought we lost four games in a row. I didn’t think we lost our sense of humour. I felt the pressure, I didn’t feel any extra pressure than I put on myself every day that I came in here to do what was best for this team to get this team to play the way it needed to to play in June. And that day was no different than another. Like I just said, I thought we lost four in a row, not our sense of humour. If that took anybody by offence, I’ll have to apologize for that, I suppose. But to me, it was simply, again, we lost four in a row. I didn’t think we lost our sense of humour.”
The Ottawa Citizen‘s James Gordon made a valid point on Twitter yesterday. He referred to Bryan Murray’s off the cuff response regarding losing captains in consecutive offseasons.
“Obviously we put the ‘C’ on the wrong people here. No, I don’t know. It’s disappointing when you lose good people and it’s perceived as something that’s negative to the team and the town.”
Granted, the difference in these two instances is that the players Murray is referring to are no longer here and he made a point of indicating it was sarcasm. In MacLean’s situation, it was a grey area in which he was obviously joking but if felt like he had an element of truth in it as well. When the team is losing like it was, he would have known his team’s margin of error was small and with it, his hold on his position was slipping away.
On whether he’s pissed off…
“Am I pissed off? No. No, I had a great opportunity here and appreciate that opportunity. You have to win. You have to win games and I knew that coming in here and that’s not going to change in the next place you go. You have to win. You coach what you have. You have to win games. It’s a result-oriented business and if you don’t (win), you get shown the door. I never expected anything more or less from this opportunity. I tried to make the best of it, so I’m just ready for the next (opportunity).”
By highlighting his resume details and speaking with the emotion and confidence that he did, it certainly sounded like MacLean was ready to coach a new team starting yesterday.
On Bryan Murray’s comments about communication and whether there was anything different from the first two years…
“I didn’t think so. I thought my door was open all the time. You guys saw it. It was opened up. Communication is a two-way street. You have to have someone who talks and somebody that wants to listen. Listening and patience are some of my strengths. I felt we communicated what the players needed to hear. We just didn’t win enough games.”
A nice follow up here would have been, “You communicated what the players needed to hear, but were they not employing your direction(s) on the ice? If not, what do you think contributed to this inability to translate your words to the ice?”
On having any advice for Dave Cameron…
“I wouldn’t give him any advice. He’s a big man. He’s a big boy. He’s coached before. He knows the players. He doesn’t need my help.”
Zing.
On what is next for him and whether he has any plans…
“Well, I don’t think it’s any of your business now, so I’ll just keep that to myself.”
Zing. Zing.
On whether he’s received any support or messages from his peers…
“I’ve had, obviously when something like this happens, a lot of people reach out to you and speak to you. I’ve had that happen, yes, from numerous people which is always nice to have. It’s unfortunate that it has to be under these circumstances, but it is nice to know that people care.”
Say what you want about MacLean’s philosophies, player usage and line combinations, his mistakes or how his career record is probably better than it should be, but the man helped accomplish some great things. Erik Karlsson and Kyle Turris developed into better players with MacLean behind the bench than when they arrived. Maybe that w0uld have happened regardless of who was behind the bench, but it’s incredibly difficult to MacLean’s body of work knowing he was handed some crappy rosters and the league’s lowest payroll to work with. His dismissal may have been warranted, but after years of mediocrity under the Melnyk/Murray regime, it’s well past time to start looking for other places to put the blame.
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