All Things Denver XXXVIII: On To Better Days!

[Old Pio]

Re: All Things Denver XXXVIII: On To Better Days!

Need a big bounce back this weekend.

OP, Drew Shore and Joe Colborne are in Phoenix tonight and playing on the same line.

We got the big bounce back.

[A Shot and a Goal]

Re: All Things Denver XXXVIII: On To Better Days!

====>TAMPA — George Gwozdecky’s firing after the 2012-13 season at the University of Denver was a shock to just about everyone … including the Pioneers’ coach himself.

But nearly two years later, he has come to accept that what came next was — and still is — an invigorating new experience for a coach who up to that point had been a “lifer” in the college game.

Gwozdecky, 61, is in his second season as an assistant to Jon Cooper with the Tampa Bay Lightning, one of the league’s turnaround franchises since the 2012-13 lockout-shortened season, and was expected to be on the bench Saturday night when the Lightning faced the Avalanche in Amalie (it’s a motor oil) Arena. Usually, Gwozdecky watches from the press box level and communicates with the coaches on the bench, but fellow assistant Steve Thomas is away from the team “on assignment” so Gwozdecky has moved downstairs for the time being. Former NHL player and head coach Rick Bowness is the Lightning’s associate coach.

After the Lightning’s morning skate Saturday, I asked — among other things — if Gwozdecky had anything he wanted to say now, after the dust has settled a bit, about his departure from DU. That exit was part contract dispute as Gwozdecky sought an extension and was part administrative disappointment with the Pioneers’ lack of success in the NCAA tournament after the back-to-back national championships in 2004 and ’05.

“The only thing I want to say is that if it hadn’t been for my experience at DU, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Gwozdecky said. He said that given his choice, “I might still be working at DU, but it wasn’t meant to be and that’s their prerogative. But I’ve enjoyed the heck out of this. I really have. My wife (Bonnie) and I still shake our heads and say it was a difficult period there for a little bit after they made their decision. But now we look back and I don’t think I would want it any other way based on what has occurred to me here. This has been a great experience. I’ve loved it.”

The Gwozdeckys kept their house in Denver, still consider the area their home, and returned to Colorado for the summer. “That’s our home,” Gwozdecky said. “We like it here in Tampa, but as everyone knows, in Florida come June, July, August, it’s a blast furnace … Unless it’s not practical any longer, Denver will remain our home.”

Gwozdecky said he feels more comfortable this season. He mentioned logistics, including becoming familiar with players, staff, and even the league’s arenas. The Lighting is going into the game with Colorado with a 28-14-4 record. Two seasons ago, in the lockout year, Tampa Bay had 40 points — only one more than the Avalanche. The Lightning had 101 points last season, and now is on pace for about 107 this season. Cooper handles the power play himself. In addition to usually serving as the staff’s eyes upstairs, Gwozdecky works with forwards. “And I’ll stay on the ice awhile with the goaltending coach (Frantz Jean), like you just saw,” Gwozdecky said. “I work with the (scratches) for a little extra skate, too, things like that. Off-ice, we’re doing clip after clip after clip, either of the guys ‘Coop’ assigned us, or pre-scouts of our opponent. It’s lots of video.”

Gwozdecky said of the NHL game: “You know, you never can quite understand how fast and big and strong these guys are, and how fast the game is, until you are there. I was on a college bench for 34 years, watching college guys and some pretty good teams, pretty good people. But what a step it is when you come to this level and watch these guys and how fast they go, not only in practice, but especially in games.

“They’re all good guys, they all want to get better. If you can do something to help them get better, that’s great.”

Did he have any desire to return to the college game?

“You never say never,” he said. “There are certain things I miss and there are things I don’t miss. The coaching here at this level is just coaching. There are so many other administrative things a college coach is required to do that I don’t miss, whether it’s compliance, and the fund-raising, and the academics — all important things that a coach has to do that I did for multiple years.

“Trying to be able to determine how much of a percentage of my day back in those days I was putting toward hockey, I’d say at best 30 percent. Here, it’s 100 percent. So I enjoy that, I really do.”<===

[vizoroo]

Re: All Things Denver XXXVIII: On To Better Days!

Now, All Things Denver XXXIX is the most current thread.
One reason there were big gaps in posting dates here.

Nice article on Gwoz.

[A Shot and a Goal]

Re: All Things Denver XXXVIII: On To Better Days!

Bad news for Matt Carle.

[cetihcra]

Bad news for Matt Carle.

Stop posting here! There's a new thread!
r