Will the new NHL, mix with the old Mike Keenan?

Sporting News, The, Nov 6, 2000 by Larry Wigge

It was seemingly just another couple of games in late February of a fractured, lockout-shortened 1994-95 season. But the music in the St. Louis locker room was louder and the smiles were not forced, as they had been for much of the season.

The reason seemed obvious. Bob Berry and Ted Sator had been running the Blues' bench while Mike Keenan was at the NHL general managers' meetings. The team responded with 4-0 and 4-3 victories over Edmonton and San Jose, respectively. Keenan's Blues were having a pretty good season, but time off from the coach's mind games and militarylike direction was the topic of conversation.

"Everything's OK now that he's not here," goaltender Curtis Joseph said at the time.

Left winger Brendan Shanahan added, "There are times every player needs a kick in the rear. I'll give (Keenan) that.

"I'm a guy who wants to work and wants to win. I'll do anything it takes for the team, but I don't feel I need a lot of negative criticism. It works for some guys, but sometimes you need a vote of confidence when things aren't going well. And he doesn't understand that part of it."

It was clear the mind games had taken a toll on that Blues team. Its psyche was fragile--and it showed in the playoffs, when Joseph bombed in the first round against a less talented Vancouver team.

This story came to mind the other day, when Keenan returned to the NHL, replacing Pat Burns as coach in Boston. The NHL has changed a lot since Keenan led the Rangers to the Stanley Cup in 1994. But he has not.

Keenan's mind games worked with Rick Tocchet and Ron Hextall in Philadelphia; Jeremy Roenick, Chris Chelios and Ed Belfour in Chicago; and Mark Messier, Brian Leetch and Mike Richter in New York. But they didn't work in St. Louis with Brett Hull, Joseph or Shanahan, or in Vancouver, where Keenan had a 36-54-18 record.

Even Scotty Bowman, Keenan's mentor, has had to change his approach to coaching to remain successful.

Keenan still knows what is going on in the NHL. He shows that every week in his online analysis for THE SPORTING NEWS. But he still believes he should test his players' mental toughness to make them stronger in the playoffs.

"I don't have a lot of patience for average performance," Keenan said at his news conference. "But if you don't ask for that performance, you won't get it."

In an era in which players tune out the voice of their coach at the drop of a puck, bullying players only goes so far. That point reinforced itself when I recently saw the Flames' Jarome Iginla play.

Iginla had 10 points in his first 10 games and appears ready for a breakthrough season--and a lot of that is because Don Hay is treating Iginla more like the self-motivated player he is, not trying to whip him into shape all the time as Brian Sutter did in previous seasons.

"With Brian, it was always full throttle," Iginla says. "A lot of times, I'm the first to admit, I needed that. But I'm not the same player, same person I was even a couple of years ago.

"I don't want to be just a player anymore. I want to be an elite player. And I think I'm capable of putting the pedal to the metal myself."

With a fighter coaching touch, Iginla is primed to surpass last season's career-best 29 goals and 34 assists.

"I don't think you can constantly be after him, or any player," Hay says. "I think as a coach you've got to read the situation and proceed from there. You've got to keep Jarome intense. But you don't need to play mind games with him."

Hay may not have a Stanley Cup or four finals appearances as Keenan does, but he's got a point. Are you listening, Iron Mike?

TSN's Power Poll

Rk.   Team             W-L-T-OL

 1.   Colorado         9-0-2-0
 2.   Phoenix          8-1-2-0
 3.   Ottawa           5-1-3-0
 4.   St. Louis        7-2-1-0
 5.   New Jersey       5-2-2-0
 6.   Detroit          7-3-0-1
 7.   Vancouver        6-2-2-1
 8.   San Jose         6-2-1-0
 9.   Buffalo          5-3-1-1
10.   Nashville        4-2-3-1
11.   Toronto          6-4-0-0
12.   Anaheim          5-3-1-2
13.   Pittsburgh       5-4-1-0
14.   Dallas           6-4-1-1
15.   Los Angeles      5-5-2-0
16.   Edmonton         5-5-2-0
17.   N.Y. Islanders   3-3-2-0
18.   Carolina         2-4-3-0
19.   Boston           4-4-1-1
20.   Montreal         4-5-2-0
21.   Philadelphia     3-5-2-0
22.   N.Y. Rangers     3-6-0-0
23.   Carolina         1-3-3-2
24.   Atlanta          1-3-5-0
25.   Washington       1-5-3-1
26.   Calgary          3-7-1-0
27.   Minnesota        2-6-3-0
28.   Tampa Bay        2-6-1-0
29.   Chicago          2-7-0-1
30.   Columbus         2-8-0-1

Through Saturday's games. TSN Power Poll is determined by Larry Wigge.

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