Every NHL head coach’s system is somewhat similar, with the exception of certain details, but what happens when a coach has players who are in their third or fourth system in the last few years?
That is the position in which a majority of the Rangers find themselves as the first on-ice day of training camp went down Thursday morning in Tarrytown.
It’s something Peter Laviolette is cognizant of, but the new head coach said he was already expecting there to be a major learning curve.
“When you watch the teams that find success, they’re pushing the pace, they’re pushing forechecks, they’re pushing pucks for speed, they’re quick to defend — everything has a pace and a speed to it,” Laviolette said when asked to describe his system. “I think when we get going [Friday], when we actually put the pucks out on the ice and we start going with pucks, I think the first couple of days there’s going to be a learning curve on where we’re supposed to be and where we’re supposed to go. That slows it down a little bit because you have to think a little bit more about what we’re doing.
“If something’s new for the first time, it doesn’t go as fast as it will on Day 10. That’s why the ramp inside of the camp as we’re pushing toward that first [exhibition] game, I think, is really important. … I think we’ll be bumping into ourselves a little bit tomorrow, I think there’ll be a little bit of confusion. I think there will be some stops with the whistle to explain some things.
“Eventually, I think we’ll get to a point where we understand and we can really start to push that pace and that speed.”
The Rangers held a video session Thursday morning and a few players stayed afterward to ask questions, Laviolette said.
Between their apparent desire to take in new information, as well as the general hockey IQ in the room, Laviolette sounded encouraged by the early engagement.
For young players such as Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, however, the constant changes in the system they play so early on in their careers can’t be easy to work through.
Chytil is playing for his fourth coach in six seasons, while Lafreniere and Kakko are on their third coach.
All three expressed a willingness to learn and a commitment to the details over the next two weeks.
“I think all the players, we know what to do out there,” Kakko said. “It doesn’t matter who the coach is. We try to do what he’s asking and that’s it. That’s our job.”
Asked what stands out to him from playing against Laviolette’s teams over the years, Mika Zibanejad said he’s curious to see how the neutral-zone aspect works.
The Rangers’ No. 1 center noted that they’ve had trouble in the middle against the Capitals in recent years, and that it’ll be nice to be on the other end and be the team frustrating others.
In his introductory press conference, Laviolette said defense is always a priority, but to him, it’s about the attack.
He emphasized pressuring, puck pursuit and battle level.
Those will all play a significant role in the Rangers’ new system.
“I’d like to be aggressive in the neutral zone when we can,” Laviolette said. “But there’s times when there’s no sense in losing guys and pushing players up the ice. So we go into a certain neutral-zone defense. I’ve been doing it for a long time without putting it on the board here. It might be, maybe — not the hardest thing — but the thing that’s a little bit more difficult to pick up inside of the system than other things because there’s some positioning that goes with that.
“Not [Friday], but two days from now, we’re going to take that, work on it, put it in and try to get things just in place in the first two days so that when we go into that first exhibition game … whoever is playing, they’ll have an understanding.”
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