Meet the New Boss - hockey coaches Alpo Suhonen and Ivan Hlinka - Interview

Alpo Suhonen and Ivan Hlinka aren't the same as the old boss, they're European. But are they and their peers simply part of a trend or will be they be an NHL fixture?

ALL FOUR MAJOR North American sports leagues have had an influx of international athletes become dominant forces among their ranks--none more, however, than the NHL.

For almost a decade NHL sportswriters have been writing stories about hockey's European invasion. Players such as the Buffalo Sabres' Dominic Hasek (Czech Republic), Florida Panthers' Pavel Bure (Russia), and Anaheim Mighty Ducks' Teemu Selanne (Finland) are considered the equals of such North American heroes as Mark Messier, Steve Yzerman, and Joe Sakic. As these European players have become more recognizable, so has their style of hockey and the influence it has had on the game.

It was only a matter of time before the NHL would have Europeans behind the bench. It finally happened in May 2000 when Alpo Suhonen became the 33rd coach in Chicago Blackhawks history--and the first European coach in the NHL in over 50 years. A native of Valkeakoski, Finland, Suhonen is the NHL's second European head coach. Johnny Gottselig of Odessa, Russia has the honors of being the first. He coached the Hawks as well, from 1944 to 1948.

One month after Suhonen was given the Blackhawks job, the Pittsburgh Penguins promoted associate coach Ivan Hlinka. The former assistant replaced Kevin Constantine, whose defensive system clashed with Pens captain Jaromir Jagr. Hlinka, who totaled 123 points in two seasons playing with the Vancouver Canucks toward the end of his career in the early 1980s, hails from Most, Czechoslovakia. He played most of his career in Europe. Hlinka was brought in last season as an assistant and as buffer between the incompatible Jagr and Constantine.

Both Suhonen and Hlinka have reputations for a free-flowing, offensive game and for giving forwards the go-ahead to be creative in the offensive zone. And with the NHL's powers-that-be doing everything they can to open the game up and rid themselves of the frustrating trap and the clutch-and-grab tactics of today's hulking defensemen, bringing in a European coach or two seems a logical step.

Each took different a path to get to the NHL but each of those roads are well traveled by other coaches--European or not. Hlinka played in the NHL for a short time and concluded his career in Europe before embarking on a coaching career; Suhonen began coaching in his early twenties, in the Finnish Elite League.

Just as each coach took a different route to the NHL, each has a different challenge as coach. One of the reasons Hlinka was moved to head coach was to give Jagr the green light to play his style of hockey. The Penguins upper brass were keen to keep Jagr, considered by many to be the best player in the world, in Pittsburgh--and happy. One of the items on Jagr's wish list was a coach whose style would allow offensive freedom.

It hasn't all been rosy, however. Although Hlinka guided Jagr and the Czech national team to the gold medal in the 1998 Olympics, their relations have been at times strained. On one occasion Jagr refused to plays a shift. He's also led an on-ice upheaval of disobedience during a game. So Hlinka's job not only has consisted of maintaining a competitive club and preparing to do some damage in the playoffs, but--like his predecessors--appeasing his superstar as well. According to Hlinka, that's just part of being a coach in the big leagues. "You have to know before what kind of pressure there is," he says. "You have to be prepared."

Suhonen probably wishes he had the same problems as Hlinka. The Blackhawks are a mere shadow of what they were four years ago, and have fallen off the sports map as far as Chicago sports fans are concerned. Suhonen built a relationship with Hawks general manager Mike Smith when they were with the Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs. He was brought to Chicago to create a new identity for the slumping franchise, whose hard-nosed, dump-and-chase hockey left town years ago.

Suhonen has given his players more freedom--and he has discovered that freedom isn't something' players in North America are used to having. "You have to be more motivated to be a pro hockey player here," says Suhonen. "In Europe the hockey is more traditional. In the U.S. it's more structured. The players here are almost like robots, sticking to a system and to the coach's instructions--even at the junior level. European players grow up being allowed to express themselves more on the ice. So, I think European players want to be more independent when they grow up."

Right now the two coaches are somewhere between being viewed as an experiment and being seen as the future of the league. The trend toward bigger, stronger players has--in many ways--slowed down the game. The European influence is curbing that trend. The larger European ice surface would be welcome by most any NHLer, but is discarded by every franchise and building owner. Yet the NHL wants to make the game more attractive, so it is encouraging quicker players with more puck-handling and skating skills. In short, Europeans.