Q&A with Canadian National Junior Team Head Coach Tim Hunter

 

A veteran of 815 NHL games, Tim Hunter spent 15 years as an assistant coach with four different clubs before returning to the WHL as the head coach of the Moose Jaw Warriors four seasons ago. Hunter was part of head coach Dominic Ducharme’s staff during the past two World Junior Hockey Championships and assumed the top role this summer. A Calgary native, Hunter was an assistant captain on the Flames when they won the Stanley Cup in 1989. He was also a member of the Vancouver Canucks five years later when they came within a game of winning the Stanley Cup. Hunter has a long connection to the WHL dating back to his playing days for the Seattle Breakers. During a recent conversation with Prospects Hockey editor Peter Robinson, Hunter spoke about preparing his team for this year’s World Junior in Victoria and Vancouver.

PROSPECTS HOCKEY: First off, how did the summer evaluation camp go?

TIM HUNTER: It was excellent. We had a good tournament, a good camp. We did a lot of things to work on team chemistry, team building, getting to know everybody and I think that we were able to accomplish those things. One of the things we wanted to get across to the players, the staff, everyone is that you can’t (as defending champions) rest on your laurels. You must get better, want to set and accomplish new goals. And we took the temperature in how to do that. All that stuff is very important in a tournament that comes together so quickly and happens so quickly after a long buildup.

PH: Your situation is quite unique, though there have been two-year assistant coaches become the head coach. But it’s rare for the new head coach having been there for a silver and then a gold and then to assume the head role, to defend at home. How did it prepare you?

TH: I learned things from head coach Dom Ducharme and Joel Bouchard as well. We worked very well as a group. They have some of their own philosophies and so do I, and I’m going to do some things different, to see what works in a short period of time. This game is changing, It has changed so much in a short period of time, it’s even changing right now. You must stay ahead and try new things and that’s what I plan on doing.

PH: Speaking now about the last two gold medal games, sports can be funny and none more than hockey. What I mean by that is that two years ago Team Canada probably deserved a better fate than losing in a shootout. Last year, it’s not as though Sweden was far better than Canada, but it would not have been an injustice had they won the gold medal. How do you explain the way the breaks can fall the way they do and prepare properly for it?

TH: You always must respect your opponent. Every country has good players, every country has good coaches. Last year, Sweden was a very skilled team and they played that way. They weren’t better than us, but they had was some territorial advantages on the rush and things like that. What you must do is learn how to outlast the other team, and to recognize the times there are to win the game. We seized that moment. But doing that and being able to do that goes back to how you prepare and taking care of all the details so that you can take advantage when those moments present themselves.

PH: How is this team going to play when games begin for real on December 26?

TH: You’ll have to wait and see but it’s no real secret how we are going to play. We are going to play much like we did the last two years. We are going to compete hard, we are going to compete for every puck, in (every) individual battle out there, we are all going to be connected as a team. Two goaltenders, seven defencemen and 13 forwards. And we are going to be very, very hard to play against.

PH: Playing at home again creates a different scenario than last year. And Vancouver/Victoria organizers have only just recently said that Victoria is sold out and Vancouver will be a virtual sellout. How do you handle that environment?

TH:, we had that in Toronto and Montreal and then last year in Buffalo we got all the big crowds. When we played the arena was full of red jerseys so it’s not something that is a surprise. We don’t look at this year as pressure, we look at it as opportunity. Now, as a coaching staff, we are going to do things to shelter the players from distractions. Maybe shelter isn’t the right word, but we will be limiting the distractions that come from playing at home. For the players, they all want to play in the National Hockey League and this opportunity they are going to have is going to help them do that.

PH: We spoke a little bit about this earlier but by any measure or metric, other countries are improving. The U.S. especially, Sweden too and the Russians are always strong. Finland has had another run of great players who have been selected in the first round of the NHL Draft. Four or five teams, realistically, could win this tournament. The gap, such that there ever was one, has closed, hasn’t it?

TH: There is no question. You see it last year at the Olympics, at the Worlds every year and other places too, and we see it in the Western Hockey League and across the CHL, how good other countries players have become. We as Canadians every year must figure out a way to be one of the teams that should be expected to win.

PH: You must have a rough list of 40 or 50 players who you think can contribute and still make the team?

TH: You never want to mention individual names because as soon as you do it gives the impression that player has made the team. So, I’m not going to do that. But I will mention one player and that is Michael DiPietro, in goal. He has the ability, the pedigree and the experience. He’s won the Memorial Cup. Now, there are also other goalies who are playing well too. We closely monitor how players are (performing) with their clubs and in the Canada-Russia Series. And the players in the NHL is something that we monitor every game, every day, even every shift. We have a sense whether they are up (with their NHL club), or down to gauge whether they may be made available to us. That’s a different process.

PH: The casual hockey fan remembers you for your long, NHL career… and about that long as an NHL assistant coach. Now you’re the head coach in Moose Jaw. That’s quite a perspective. Last question: Can you tell me what you can say about the differences now and when you were a player.

TH: Well, I played 16 seasons in the NHL (but) I could have never made it the way I did back then if it was now. The way I did in Calgary and in Vancouver. The game is just so different now. But what I’ve always tried to do as a coach is to stay ahead of change, to look at new ways to play, to coach, and new system and to take charge. You must be a leader and not a follower.