Systems, structure, time and space

In the stories written by Nick Patterson about the firing of Everett Silvertips head coach John Becanic after two seasons on Friday, general manager Doug Soetaert drags out all the usual suspects.
Well, not quite. There was no mention of Keyser Söze.
Other than that, though . . .
“ . . . I felt our organization needed a new direction," Soetaert said. In fact, he used the “new direction” thing at least twice. Of course, like most executives who decide to take their organization in a new direction, that direction isn’t given definition.
It also was no surprise that Soetaert mentioned injuries and put some of the blame on the players. After all, that happens just about every time a coach walks the plank.
"I thought our first half of the season was OK, but I didn't like our second half," Soetaert told Patterson. "I understand there were injuries, but it seemed like the team was accepting losing too easily. It became acceptable to lose, and the coach is accountable for that. Saying that, the players have to be accountable, also. There's blame to go around everywhere, the players included."
(But isn’t it strange how there never are any of those players in the coach’s car when he leaves town?)
This firing story, however, took a turn deep in one of the stories written by Patterson. Understand that from a hockey journalist’s perspective Soetaert is more than a member of hockey’s all-sartorial team. He also is a man of answers, so he is someone to whom I always look forward to speaking. Ask him a question and an answer is forthcoming.
So there was Soetaert saying something that really caught my eye.
"I'm more worried about work than plans and systems," Soetaert is quoted as saying. "Our team was very concerned about systems. I think it should be about compete first, then systems second. I felt that's how these two years were summed up."
Hallelujah! In fact, make that HALLELUJAH!!!
If you spend much time at all around hockey at this level, you find yourself inundated with talk of systems and structure.
As in: “If we play our systems and stick to our structure, we’ll be fine. It’s when we go away from our systems and lose our structure that we get in trouble.”
As in: “We have five days off between games now so we will be spending a lot of time working on our systems and our structure.”
There was a time not that long ago when hockey at this level was about time and space. As in, “If we limit their time and space, we’ll give ourselves a chance to win.” Or, “We have to take away their time and space if we hope to be able to compete with them.”
These days, time and space is pretty much passé, although you still hear the odd veteran player make reference to it. You might say that time and space doesn’t get much time and space in today’s game. It has been overcome by systems and structure.
In fact, today’s game seems to be all about systems and structure.
After a steady diet of it through another hockey season – like snow in a Prairie blizzard, it is everywhere – you do come to wonder when enough is enough.
At what point do the players begin to tune out, their brains having been turned to mush by talk of systems and structures. How many coaches, one wonders, are able to find the happy median between systems, structure and having fun?
And if there is at least one general manager and one journalist who feel that way, you wonder about the players, most, if not all, of whom spend their seasons watching more video than Martin Scorsese when he is making a movie.
Of course, there are those observers who will tell you that the Everett organization, in its six seasons in the WHL, has known nothing but systems and structure. After all, Becanic came to Everett with Kevin Constantine, who is to that kind of game what Jerry Lewis is to comedy.
So it will be interesting to watch Soetaert’s search for a new head coach. Asked by Patterson what kind of coach he will look for, Soetaert said: “It’s wide open right now.”
Soetaert then added: "I'm pretty sure there will be a lot of people from outside the organization who will be interested in the coaching job when the time comes. There's a lot of coaches right now who are under contract in the NHL, minors and juniors. We'll wait until later on and see who's available at that time."
Of course, one person who is available is Marc Habscheid. When he was head coach of the Kelowna Rockets, Habscheid was the king of taking away time and space. It paid off, too, as his Rockets, as the host team, won the 2004 Memorial Cup.
Everett actually beat Kelowna in the Western Conference final that spring. It was Constantine versus Habscheid in a series that went seven games and was the closest thing to an international championship chess match that this league will ever see. The Silvertips trailed 1-3 in that series before winning the last three games (1-0, 2-1, 2-1), each of which went to overtime.
All of which makes one wonder if Soetaert might be interested in giving Habscheid a call. Just to, you know, see what he knows about systems and structure.