Kukla's Korner Hockey
John Tortorella Trying To Avoid Over-Coaching
by Paul on 09/13/16 at 08:22 AM ET
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from Brian Compton of NHL.com,
It's no secret what Team USA coach John Tortorella demands from his players. Conditioning, discipline, the will to compete.
That's why Tortorella admitted after practice at Verizon Center on Monday that it's September and his players are coming in after offseasons of various lengths.
"I do try to keep myself in check as far as over-coaching, but then when you get in the room with the players, you over-coach," said Tortorella, whose team will face Team Finland in a pretournament game for the World Cup of Hockey 2016 here Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN1, TVA Sports). "We over-coach, and if a coach tells you he doesn't, he's a liar. We do because that's just our being, quite honestly, because I think coaches care and they want to prepare their players. But the players, if it's a few minutes there, they'll suck some things in for a few minutes and then they may be looking at you, and you think they're listening but they're really not, so you've got to be really careful how much you give them.
"We're OK. We're OK. Every team's going through it. We're good. We've got a good group of guys. It was a bit of a grind for them today. The ice wasn't that good, which doesn't bother me. I'd rather have them skate on that type of ice because I think it'll help them conditioning-wise. But we're not going to get it all within two weeks here. How much do you give them? That's what I fight every day when we prepare our practices, when we show tape. I showed tape today for a half-hour and I'm saying to myself after, 'Did I touch upon too many things instead of focusing on the most important stuff?' So we fight that every day as coaches."
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