Wild coach nostalgic for two-line pass restriction

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This article was published 23/11/2016 (3270 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Scott Stevens is a defence first kind of guy.

Part of his role as an assistant coach with the Minnesota Wild is to help the NHL club’s young defencemen with the intricacies of playing in high-pressure situations with a game on the line.

As much as he loves lock-down defensive play, the most-feared hitter of his generation gets nostalgic for the live puck, high-octane offensive era he played in when he was in his prime.

“My feeling is they did a good job with the hooking, holding, obstruction — all those rules were good but I thought they could’ve left the red line,” says the Hall of Fame defenceman, who ended his 22-year playing career following the 2003-04 season. “I think it’s become strictly a north-south game. Not as much east-west to gain that red line, so it’s made the game faster because you can advance the puck from your goal-line to the far blue-line.”

Clearly, faster doesn’t necessarily mean better.

“It’s taken away some of the creativity with the east-west part of the game,” says Stevens, 52. “When you had to work to gain that red line and manage that puck, turnovers are created which turn into offence and turn into odd-man rushes if you don’t manage it properly. I think that part of the game’s gone. I love the game but those are my feelings.”

After retirement, Stevens stayed close to the game. He was an assistant coach and later an associate coach with the New Jersey Devils for three seasons. In 2015-16, he joined NHL Network as an analyst.

Last summer, Stevens was ready to make a move. With three grown children, he felt the time was right to leave the East Coast to accept an offer to join incoming head coach Bruce Boudreau’s staff with the Wild.

“Minnesota’s a great place,” says Stevens. “The people are friendly, they have a good team and ownership. They love hockey and that is probably the biggest thing. It’s fun to be in that atmosphere, where you have a sellout crowd and the fans are passionate and they’re there for you.”

The Kitchener, Ont., product won’t rule out the possibility of becoming a head coach but he’s enjoying his current work.

“I’ll take it one year at a time,” he says. “I guess I always saw myself being an assistant coach, coaching the defence. That’s kind of my passion. That’s what I enjoy doing. So, right now, I’m happy with that. I’ll give it a good shot and go from there.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14