An off-ice exercise designed to promote verbal communication and leadership for the author’s team members who are too quiet in their verbal communication on the ice.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 12 February 2014 17:16
By Kevin Hartzell
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
As of Feb. 7, we here in Norway and the Get Ligaen are on Olympic break. We do not play another league game until Feb. 23, a break of more than two weeks. Once we get back in action, the remainder of the regular season is just five games. We will play those five games over an 11-day span – basically every other day. The playoffs will begin shortly thereafter and again go mostly every other day. The remainder of the season, once started, is going to be a grind and very competitive.
This experience of coaching in Norway will rank up there with the best experiences of my life on a number of levels. The most important of these “levels” is that of the human element. Because here I only coach – meaning no recruiting or preparing for drafts and the like – Marybeth and I have had a lot of time together. For Marybeth and I, this experience has seemed at times like a honeymoon. We spend our time walking about this great Lillehammer landscape, working out and hanging out with friends. To that point and in part because there is no language barrier here (virtually everyone speaks English), we have met some great people and made friends who I believe will be life-long friends. There is nothing more precious than real human connections and for that we feel very lucky.
Marybeth and Kevin Hartzell have made a life-enriching friendship with the Speight family. With the author are Sophie, Elida and Jenny.
The winter weather here has been nothing short of memorable. I might even say spectacular! If winter can be romantic, it has been romantic here in Lillehammer. I have been describing to our kids via Skype that every day is like “living in a snow globe.” It snows most days but with mild temperatures and most days with virtually no wind, it is often a winter scene out of some kind of romance novel. Even Marybeth who prefers green grass and the blue of the ocean has said this is the best winter of her life.
One negative is the price of adult beverages here in Norway. I love the kind made with hops and barley. Because of the price of these beverages, I just don’t partake much. Combine that with all the great weather and our desire to be out walking in this winter wonderland, I have lost a good 15 pounds. I can’t remember feeling so good! Umm ... diet and exercise ... maybe I should write a diet book!
The Hartzells enjoy hiking up in the mountains on the groomed trails.
My hockey friends often ask me specifically about the hockey. I have mostly good things to report in that regard as well. One is that I have learned plenty. I suspect no one has learned more than me here in Norway. For example in European leagues, imports (non-native nationals) are allowed, more in some leagues, less in others. We are allowed seven imports (non-Norwegians) here in the Get Ligaen. The imports are extremely important and not just because their numbers are limited. What I have learned is that quality people matter just as much as quality players. If you put yourself in the place of the local Norwegian players, they have seen many imports come and go. Some come to Norway’s top league hoping to use it a steppingstone to the top leagues in Sweden or Russia. Those top leagues pay more. So if these Norwegian teams get players who are interested only in their own self-promotion, their selfishness can be destructive in the room.
The seven imports we have here in Lillehammer this year are very good players but just as importantly, are good and selfless people. Our Norwegian players have told me this might be the best group they have ever had. What this results in is a great chemistry in the room. Because of this great chemistry, I am really enjoying coaching this group. We are continually improving and in the past month, we have become a very good hockey team. We might not have the high-paid talent of a couple of the teams in our league, but I think we are becoming a real threat to making a successful playoff run with a real chance at winning the play-off championship. This is all a coach can ask for.
Part of any formula for success is goaltending. Our goalie is Bemidji native Joe Fallon. He played collegiately at Vermont and has spent the past handful of years in both the AHL and ECHL. One learns quickly that is not easy for goalies over here. There really is only one per team. Goalies in North America are accustomed to having at least two goalies on their team of equal caliber. If one goalie goes in any kind of slump, the other guy can take over for a period of time. A coach can “play the hot goaltender.” That’s not true over here. It’s a lot of pressure on a goaltender when they are the only guy. For us to win the championship, there will be no “playing the hot goaltender.” I will remain focused on helping our goaltender be at his best night after night.
I have grown as a coach in technical ways as well. I have been exposed to different systems over here. There are different habits on power plays and systems of killing penalties. I have certainly spent more time on systems here than I have with my younger teams. That said, I still belong to school of thought promoted by legendary football coach Vince Lombardi that while the system is important, it is more often the team that as Lombardi said, “blocks and tackles the best” that wins the game.
I adopted a 1:3 for the first time in my coaching career. I didn’t see this coming but it is a system that our team was able to execute more efficiently. I have had to develop a drill or two to help our players better execute the system. This is all good for me and has served to make me grow as a coach. In hindsight, I would have used the 1:3 more in Sioux Falls on the small rink there. Well … live and learn!
There are different cultural norms wherever one travels. Those cultural norms extend to hockey as well. Some things that are different here include.
1. Stoic Norwegians … just like we have in Minnesota. Of course there is nothing wrong with being a little on the quiet side, but it’s not good on the ice. I have to remind our guys virtually daily to communicate on the ice, be demanding and be heard.
2. The game in general is played a bit more strategic with less raw aggression. There are more slow regroups with puck possession and waves of attacks. Sounds good but this slowed-down style has a few downsides, too, like allowing defensive teams to get into stronger position. Lucky for me that this team has really embraced what I would call more of a North American style with more aggressive north/south hockey and more physical play. I actually think this aggressive mindset suits this group of players better and more importantly, I think they believe it as well.
3. I have bitten my tongue pretty well over here when it comes to officiating. In my opinion, they call too many insignificant penalties. By the book maybe, but too many penalties and especially stick penalties that they could let go. I haven’t seen any signs that Norway is going to adapt to my world view; it was I (and our import players) who had to adapt to their way.
4. Some players and some teams in general over here think nothing of diving or embellishing to draw penalties. Sometimes I think they are not even trying to draw penalties; they just don’t want to get up and play on. I am not sure how such a habit has developed. That is really not acceptable in North America. Our players have been accepting of my variation of the old adage, “Even tough guys get knocked down, but they get back up as soon as they can move on to whatever is next.” This mantra, I believe, has helped us develop a tough mindset.
When this experience is over, I am going to miss it here. I am going to mostly miss our new friends and the many people I have come to know. And even though most people speak English, I am going to miss hearing the language. Norwegian is a unique sounding language. I have told myself that should we come back to Norway for more coaching, that I am going to try and learn the language. Whatever happens, I am going to miss more than just the Norwegian language.
Kevin Hartzell is the head coach of Lillehammer in Norway’s GET-Ligaen. A St. Paul native and forward for the University of Minnesota from 1978-82, Hartzell coached in the USHL from 1983-89 with the St. Paul Vulcans and from 2005-12 with the Sioux Falls Stampede. His column have appeared in Let’s Play Hockey since the late 1980s.
