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 Hitchcock comfortable in eye of storm
Posted: Tuesday June 08, 1999 01:55 PM
By Denise Maloof, CNN/SI DALLAS (CNN/SI) -- Wrapped in the eye of his sport's biggest media storm, Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock has responded with the kind of paragraph answers and witticisms reminiscent of another well-known coaching philosopher: ex-Bulls coach Phil Jackson. In less than 24 hours, the Captain Kangaroo lookalike will preside over his first Stanley Cup final game. He's only four days removed from his first Western Conference title. His team has plunged this sweltering Texas metroplex into the kind of flag-waving, banner-flying silliness normally reserved for Super Bowl dates, and what does Hitchcock recommend as the balm to championship expectations? Be happy. "Don't worry about the end of Game 1 or the beginning of Game 2, just play the first shift and love it," Hitchcock said recently. "And our team has done a terrific job of doing that stuff. I know, when we lost two in a row, sometimes there would be writings that, 'Well, they're done. Knock them down.' Or when we had a game that we'd let five goals in, that was, 'Let's flush Eddie [Belfour] out.' We've dealt with that all year. And our players, it's fueled us more than it's hurt us." Such declarations are more palpable than, We-just-gotta-play-our-game. It's also fairly safe to assume that Hitchcock counts among the handful of NHL coaches who willingly employ the word, "spin," and who favor the word, "structure," as a verb, adverb and noun. That's as in, "Both teams have structured defense groupings based on chemistry." Translation: The Stars and Sabres defensemen like their playing partners. At times, Hitchcock also borders on the Yogi Berra-esque, as in, "Experience, with credibility, means a lot more than just experience." Translation: Stars who have won Stanley Cups with other teams are highly valued. And, if you truly miss Jackson's Zen and the Art of Coaching Maintenance, here's a few more Hitchcock-isms from the same post-practice soliloquy: "Sometimes you get worried about what people say, what your owners feel, how old your team is, how young your team is, how many chances you're going to get, and rather than just playing it one shift at a time and enjoying the moment and staying in the bubble of your own team -- which is the best time, the feeling you get of being part of a team. You get overwhelmed with what you say, or how people think about what you say. And I just told him to focus on his teammates, focus on himself, and basically tell the rest of you people to get lost."
"People talked about we couldn't play that game. It wasn't that we couldn't play that game, it was that we couldn't catch up to that game. We couldn't get any structure into that game. It didn't matter if it was puck structure or defensive structure, we couldn't find any structure. We were so wound up emotionally, and the game became such an emotional game, that the confidence [crisis] was, 'Can you get control of your emotions?' And our players deserve credit. We had 24 hours."
"I find, when you get to games, and I've been in a lot of final series, especially in juniors, if you can get your team just to play normal, not exceptional, just normal, you give yourself a real chance to be good. I find that it's very difficult to do that with everything that goes around [a championship series]. I find that there's a lot of freezing that goes on. There's a lot of expectations that come and the burdens that go with it, that freeze you."
Even better, Captain Kangaroo likes to talk. A treat for those who translate tape recorders and quote sheets. Today's Obscure Statistic: On Monday, the NHL announced the nine officials assigned to the Stanley Cup Finals. The referees are Kerry Fraser, Terry Gregson, Don Koharski, Dan Marouelli and Bill McCreary. The linesmen are Gord Broseker, Kevin Collins, Ray Scapinello and Jay Sharrers. Assignments will be game-by-game. Referees Gregson and McCreary and Linesmen Scapinello and Sharrers will work Tuesday's Game 1 at Reunion Arena. Quote of the day: One more from, "Hitch," as his players call him: "He's happy where he lives, he's got things going well in his life away from the rink, at least, that's what he tells me, and he's happy with his teammates. He's just a happier person. He's willing to look in the mirror at the end of the game. He's not willing to talk in terms of, 'It went over here and it hit a bird and flew in the net,' or whatever. He's just talking normal. When he talks normal, and when he talks black-and-white, realistic stuff, then he's being truthful with himself. And that's what he's being: He's comfortable here. And I hope he stays there." -- Hitchcock on Dallas goalie Ed Belfour.
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