[brooks] David Quinn Deserves Credit in Unprecedented Rangers Task

It is possible, perhaps even likely, that all coaches would like to be renowned for their mastery of X?s and O?s and their ability to install and adjust systems. No doubt that is an essential part of the job.

 

But coaching has always been about much more than that. It is also, and more so, about the ability to teach. That takes the ability to connect with pupils, whether they may be fifth-graders or professional athletes. Coaching is also about the ability to motivate individuals to create a common bond with their teammates. That takes the ability to communicate

He is tough and he is caring and he has been able to maintain that balance while making the jump from a life well spent in college hockey to the pros. His ability to create relationships with his players is not incidental to his success behind the bench. It is not a footnote to his story.

 

In this era, a coach who screams as much, as loudly, as consistently and as pointedly as Quinn does at practice, better have another kinder, gentler way of communicating with his team and his players in order to produce the desired results. Quinn does. It is not quite accurate to suggest that benching/scratching players hurts the coach as much as it does the players, but it is in the realm of possibility.

https://nypost.com/2020/04/13/david-quinn-deserves-credit-in-this-most-challenging-rangers-task/

When the Rangers make the playoffs next year David Quinn will be on the map nationally. Everything I've seen and read about this guy in the last two years has impressed me a lot. Not sure there's ever been a NYR coach in his situation, with the team in a purposeful free fall, and he's come out the other side looking like he knows how to push all the right buttons.

He's played his best players the most minutes to try to win hockey games while also giving greater responsibility to rookies and creating what seems to be a real "team first" environment.

Next season, aside from making the playoffs, he will be judged on the development of Kakko, and I have full faith they will draw something special out of him.

he'll be canned once this team is ready to compete, if not sooner. I don't think he's the coach that will get you a championship, not at this stage of his career. With more experience in the NHL he'll understand that in order to win, teams have to know how to play defense.

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@Sod16 :-)

Quinn has the right mix of temperament and coaching skill IMO. He can get us to the promised land.

He deserves credit for a lot of things. The way the team fought back to stay relevant after an awful start this season was impressive. Several players have improved dramatically under him. Sure, some of it is natural progression. Sure, he's been helped by Zib and Panarin exploding and having career years. But surely he gets some credit for that happening whilst those two guys were playing on a decidedly average team.

My main worries with him remains though. I'm not seeing an actual identity to this team. What is this team supposed to be? This has been the tone since day one

We all know Quinn favors more of a north-south, smashmouth, get-to-the net approach to the game

Yet I don't think anyone would argue the team actually plays like that. It's a cause for mild concern that, even if he talks all year about getting pucks on net, the team isn't really responding to that. In the same vein, I'm not seeing any signs of an actual system that works being in place. I'm not seeing a team that can consistently win on off nights by sticking to a solid base system. The team is more often than not reminiscent of a pond hockey team. If the offense and/or goaltending is firing, great. If it's not, you lose. To be sure, some of that is down to this being a young, inexperienced team. But I'm still waiting for him to prove that he knows how to set a system and get his players to execute it.

That being said, I agree he deserves credit for a lot of things he's done in a tough situation, and I think the second half of this season is cause for some optimism.