On The Mic With Gary Green

This Week TheNeilShow sits down with host of XM Radio’s Home Ice “The Power Play” show Gary Green. Gary is former coach of the Washington Capitals and he coached Canada to Gold in 2003 in the Spengler Cup.

TheNeilShow – You were a NHL coach in the past with the Washington Capitals and have coached Team Canada at the Spengler Cup. What was your greatest memory of being a coach at those levels?

Gary Green – My first game behind the bench with the Washington Capitals in Boston Nov/79, at the old Boston Garden. Beating the Montreal Canadians for the first time in the Caps history on Feb 19/80. Coaching Team Canada in Cologne, Germany, in front of the largest crowd (over 18,000) ever to watch any Team Canada play in Europe, and winning the Gold at the Spengler Cup, in Davos, Switzerland in 2003.

TheNeilShow – Who has made the biggest leap forward in your eyes to be a better team heading into this season?

Gary Green – The Philadelphia Flyers by acquiring Timonen, Hartnall, Briere, Lupul, Jason Smith. The NYR and Colorado have also made big moves forward.

TheNeilShow – You are heading over to England for the two games to start off the NHL Season in London.What are you looking forward to the most going over there?

Gary Green – The enthusiasm of the Brits and Europeans at the game against two teams who share the same market and don’t like each other.

TheNeilShow – Are NHL teams healthier now since the lockout? Gary Green – Yes! If not for the CBA, the spread between salaries for teams would probably be as much as
75 million instead of a gap of around 16 million. This has made for a more competitive environment.

TheNeilShow – Who do you feel should be the leader of the NHLPA? There was talk Eric Lindros might be a good candidate.

Gary Green – No one former player. The NHLPA leadership should be in the hands of an executive committee with a top notch experienced and proven businessman, who knows the culture of hockey, at the helm.

TheNeilShow – Who is your pick for rookie of the year this season?

Gary Green – Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks. To me he’s got all the tools, from grit and determination, and an abundance of skill. If he stays healthy, he’ll get lots of ice time with the Blackhawks.

TheNeilShow – What was your worst day of your career in the broadcasting business and why?

Gary Green – The World Juniors in Helsinki, 1998. Canada finished the tournament with one of their worst records ever, but what made it worse broadcasting was that they were designated to play in an arena for one of their later games in the tournament, in which we could not mount a broadcast location for the announcers in the short time frame. Paul Romanuk and I were forced to call the game for national Television in Canada off of very small monitors in the broadcast booth of the arena in Helsinki, while the game between Canada and Russia was being played two hours away.

Two things made matters even worse. Finland was playing against Sweden in the arena in which we were broadcasting our game from, so they had to hang big black curtains around the inside of the broadcast booth so that we would not be distracted. When we wanted an out of town update on the other game , we simply pulled the curtain aside. On top of that, Canada brought the wrong colored uniforms to the game in which Russia were the home team. The Russians refused, even though they had both sets of uniforms with them, to change. So while a Team Canada rep raced back to get the proper sweaters and socks in Helsinki, Team Canada were forced to play the first period in a Finnish team’s sweaters. Because of a size difference, players were not even able to wear their same numbers.

It made Paul’s and my day as broadcasters a complete nightmare. The funny thing was, that not one television critic realized that we weren’t even at the game. I guess that meant we did a pretty good job of stick handling our way around a sticky situation.

TheNeilShow – In your opinion does Gary Bettman have something against adding more Canadian teams to this league?

Winnipeg in my mind could have another team and be a healthier franchise then say a Nashville or a Florida team. From what was reported he had a lot to do with not having a franchise being put into Hamilton. Plus there is more talk about European expansion then adding more clubs in Canada.

Gary Green – I don’ think Gary Bettman is against having more teams in Canada. He may have helped block the Nashville sale, to Jim Ballsillie, because it was obvious, when Jim started to sell tickets in Hamilton before he even acquired the team, and certainly without the league’s permission, that he had no intentions of leaving that team in Nashville, and trying to make it work.

No Commissioner in any sport wants a renegade owner. You also have to remember, that Gary Bettman has an obligation to protect his existing franchises. Hamilton is clearly in the Toronto Maple Leafs market. However, I am very certain that Canada has three more areas that could have successful NHL franchises. The most profitable would be in the Kitchener/London Ontario area.

The second and third areas would be that of Winnipeg and Halifax, provided that all three had venues that could hold 18,000 people and have the revenue streams within the building that could support an NHL franchise in this day and age, and for the future. As far as Europe goes, there are 8 areas which I have no doubt that NHL teams would be very successful in–Moscow, Prague, Stockholm, Helsinki, Zurich/Bern, Frankfurt/Cologne, Hamburg, & London.

TheNeilShow – With the NHL revealing the new RBK jerseys last week, do you like the new look? And do you have a personal favorite?

Gary Green – They do look lean and fast, however, I am a bit of a traditionalist and it will take getting used to. I like the Blackhawks sweater and always have, regardless of the changes.

TheNeilShow – Last year, Islanders defenseman Sean Hill was discovered to have used performance enhancing substances. Do you feel the NHL has a good program in effect to prevent this?

Gary Green – How do you control what a player wants to do in their own privacy away from the team? The NHL has a random testing program that has obviously worked, or Sean Hill wouldn’t be in the position he is in.

TheNeilShow – Do you think the NHL will eventually expand into Europe? Can it work?

Gary Green – Absolutely! Why not take hockey to cities that already know hockey and have had a history of it for almost a hundred years. Half of the league’s players now come from across the ocean. We, as the NHL, should be there before the other major sports from North America.

TheNeilShow – It looks as though the NHL has moved the NHL trade deadline up a bit this year. This year it is Feb.26th.Do you feel a deadline would be better like MLB does (minus the waiver holes baseball has) months before the season ends, to prevent teams from rent a players?

Gary Green – Yes. My mentor was Roger Neilson and he always believed that the best scenario for the success of your team and for the good of the players was to make any trades that were necessary prior to Christmas each season. That gave you plenty of time as a coach or GM to analyze your needs and deficiencies, and make the necessary changes. I know that is a stretch, but I would sure like to at least see the trade deadline moved up to a day prior to the All-Star break.

TheNeilShow – From your coaching experience, is Wayne Gretzky doing a good job out in Arizona, seeing how he hasn’t had the same success he has had in his playing career?

Gary Green – I don’t think the best coaches in the world, including Scotty Bowman could have done a lot more with the Coyotes. Any coach or former coach knows that you have got to have the horses to win any race. I think Wayne is a good coach, and like everyone else, gets better as he gets more coaching experience. It’s amazing how history has shown that having a great goaltender for example, can all of a sudden make a coach so much better.

TheNeilShow – From Bobby Clarke last year signing restricted free agent Ryan Kesler to a offer sheet and to Kevin Lowe this year signing a couple to offer sheets. Do teams having their players taking away like that really take that personally and is it a new wave of business in the NHL? Its seems the Sabres are still bitter at Edmonton as they stated in last week press conference promoting the outdoor game.

Gary Green – Edmonton played by the rules. It’s a tough business and it requires, as a GM, making tough decisions. That might be in trading a fans’ favorite player, or by pissing off another GM that used to be a good friend. The rules are there to be played by, but not broken. Unwritten rules should not exist.

TheNeilShow – Would you change any rules in the NHL if you were commissioner? What would you change?

Gary Green – No pre-game skates the day of the game. I’ve been a long time believer that on game day all focus and energies should go towards the game that night, and not be used up in fighting traffic to and from the arena. I believe the players would give a better performance on the ice if they didn’t have to deal with this ritual, known as the pre-game skate, the first 5 or 6 hours of their day.

As one former GM said, the pre-game skates have become for the benefit of the media. As being part of the media, we could all adjust and fulfill our needs prior to game time, if the league and media worked together.

TheNeilShow – Who is the most talented player you coached?

Gary Green – Larry Murphy in Peterborough and Bengt Gustaffson. Of course I also was the asst. coach of the Petes when Wayne Gretzky played 3 games for us when we brought him up from our Jr. B team in Toronto.

TheNeilShow – Who is your breakout player this season?

Gary Green – Radulov, but watch out for Nathan Horton in Florida.

TheNeilShow – Who is your early Stanley Cup pick this year? Gary Green-The Ducks

We here at nhldigest.com would like to thank Gary Green for sitting down with us. Gary is one of my personal favorites in the hockey broadcasting business. I encourage you all to check out “The Power Play” show on XM Satellite radio home ice channel 204 every weekday.
http://www.xmradio.com/onxm/channelpage.xmc?ch=204

Look for more from TheNeilShow throughout the season as he interviews various sports media members as well as coaches and players from around the NHL.
If you have any questions or comments, please share a comment on the site or email Neil at theneilshow@nhldigest.com.