We – the collective, everyone-who-writes-about-sports we – have grammared endlessly about how Chip Kelly is reinventing football. The tomes about the reinvention of baseball thanks to Sabermetrics had just been printed, bound and shipped. Some feel Sam Hinkie is bastardizing basketball. But there’s something similar going on in hockey, a substance flowing ‘neath the ice surface like fresh water on Mars. Most know it’s there, but only the most hardened rink rat has paid attention to it thus far.

That may be changing.

Dave Hakstol may be as much of a lightning rod in hockey circles as Chip Kelly is in football circles. It’s virtually unheard of for a college coach to make the jump to The Shield without any sort of stepping stone in-between. It’s so rare, that when a tipster told me the Flyers were hiring Dave Hakstol out of North Dakota as their next coach on a Friday afternoon in the spring, I mostly blew off his message and fired off only one perfunctory email in an attempt to verify its legitimacy (a decision I still regret). Hakstol was announced as the Flyers’ 19th head coach that Monday.

Anyway, it’s still very early in this experiment, but you’re already beginning to see some of the butthurt pushback from old-timers.

First up, Steve Coates.


During the first period, Coatsey – who had already quipped, somewhat passive aggressively, about how we now know that you need to carry the puck into the zone because it’s all about puck possession – described an interview or pow-wow he had with Hakstol earlier this week in which he asked the coach about players finishing their checks– an Orange and Black Culture staple since the mid-70s. Here’s how Coatsey relayed the exchange (I’m paraphrasing because I was driving): So I asked Hakstol if he wanted players finishing their checks. He said “No, that’s archaic.” And I was like “Oh, why’s that?” [Coatsey’s retelling conveyed his exasperation with Hakstol’s answer.] Hakstol explained that the new thinking is to make your check, yes, but to do it quickly and keep going, keeping yourself in the play.

Few things: This answer by Hakstol goes against pretty much everything the Flyers have valued the last 40 years. Hell, I’m pretty sure Craig Berube and Bill Barber (maybe the worst coach in the history of professional sports) used to teach players to stand over their opponent after a big hit like Muhammad Ali stood over Sonny Liston. Second, more subtly, Hakstol’s answer very much displays a new-school, analytics-driven approach which says that taking your opponent out of the play is great, but taking yourself out, too, is counterproductive– one of several theories detailed for a mainstream audience in this Rolling Stone piece. It seems like it’s hard for Coatsey, a long time OB Board Member and monthly meeting minutes stenographer, to reconcile the different approach. Or at least that’s the way it came across on the air.

Next, Mike Milbury.

Of course Mike Milbury! Did you really think Old Man Milbury wasn’t going to have a #take on the new wave of coaches replacing his generation of barn backs? Here’s what he had to say after the game, after the Flyers beat the defending Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks, 3-0 [the coach they’re talking about in the middle is Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill, whom Milbury feels earned his stripes, unlike Hakstol, in the AHL]:

“[Blashill] was in Grand Rapids in the American Hockey League. That’s why he’s getting his opportunity and why it’s right for him to get that opportunity, by getting that experience in the minor league for not just a year, but for a while. And I think he’s earned his spurs and the right to get a coaching job in the NHL …”

“Just as long as they pay their dues along the way as Mike Keenan did, as Mike Babcock did. Pay your dues, get your chance, learn about the pro game, don’t rush the process.”

FLAMES. Flames coming out of the Milbury Dough Boy. Keith Jones* and Eddie Olczyk, though agreeing with Milbury’s diggles about experience, were more complimentary of Hakstol. In fact, Olczyk is already on record as being a fan of the new Flyers coach. Pierre McGuire, who lives in a Zamboni shed somehwere at Avon Old Farms and knows every organized hockey coach from bantam on up, defended the new breed of coaches.

We’re four games into the season, with mixed, but promising, results, and already the old guard is taking swings at Hakstol. Can’t wait to see what happens when the Flyers are in first place in December.

*Is he the hardest working man in sports or what? NBC studio show, Flyers broadcasts, WIP Morning Show. Ton of respect for Jonesy.