Roger Neilson

Roger Paul Neilson , CM (born June 16, 1934 in Toronto , Ontario , † June 21, 2003 ) was a Canadian ice hockey coach . During his career, he was head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs , Buffalo Sabers , Vancouver Canucks , Los Angeles Kings , New York Rangers , Florida Panthers , Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators in the National Hockey League . He was also the assistant coach of the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues .

Career

Neilson was one of the few coaches who could not look back on a career as a player. He started training children at the age of 17. Between 1951 and 1961 he initially looked after various student teams, with which he was mostly very successful. In 1961 he took over the Junior B-Team of the Aurora Bears. The native Canadian was very successful there and in his subsequent stations. In ten seasons he led his team to the championship title of their league nine times and he also looked after a baseball team.

Neilson took his first major coaching challenge in 1966 with the Peterborough Petes . In his ten years with the Petes they reached in the then Ontario Hockey Association eight times a place in the top three teams with the highest points in the league. He caused a sensation not only with his sporting successes when he and his team reached the final tournament for the Memorial Cup in 1972 , but also with his specialty of interpreting loopholes in the rules in his favor. This earned him the nickname "Rule Book Roger" . His actions partly forced the leagues to adjust their rules. In a decisive match his Petes led shortly before the encounter with a goal start when you are in a 5-on-3 shorthanded situation fell. In every sticky situation, Neilson sent an extra player on the ice. The referee then had to interrupt the game and sent the additional player to the penalty box, but since a minimum of three field players must always be used, the penalty box filled up, but the Petes did not suffer from it. So the game was won, after the end of the season the league management changed the rules so that an excess player in a team with only three players automatically leads to a penalty shot . His training methods were also new to ice hockey. Far ahead of many other teams, his players had to warm up with gymnastic exercises. Video analysis was also a new tool that Neilson introduced. This earned him another nickname with "Captain Video" .

In the summer of 1976 he took over the Dallas Black Hawks in the Central Hockey League , a farm team that the Chicago Black Hawks shared with the Toronto Maple Leafs . In the playoffs he and his team lost to the eventual champions after seven games. Then the Maple Leafs brought him into the National Hockey League . After a decent season, they prevailed in the second round of the playoffs against the dominating New York Islanders and only had to admit defeat to the eventual Stanley Cup winner from Montréal .

After two years in Toronto, he moved to the Buffalo Sabers as assistant coach from Scotty Bowman . In his sophomore year, he took over the Sabers as head coach. Again as an assistant he went to the Vancouver Canucks for the 1981/82 season . Here he was promoted to head coach five games before the end of the season and remained in office for another two years. During this time, the so-called "White Towel Affair" also occurred . Neilson felt disadvantaged by the referees in the playoffs and protested by waving a white towel. For the next game, Butts Giraud, a T-shirt seller, had distributed 5,000 white towels in the stadium, initiating a custom in Vancouver that is still common today. Infected by this spirit, the Canucks reached the final series this season.

In the 1983/84 season he took over the Los Angeles Kings , but could not lead the team into the playoffs. After leaving, his contract ended and he looked after the Edmonton Oilers , who won their first Stanley Cup that season, as a video analyst. After he had worked the following years in the coaching staff of the Chicago Blackhawks, he took over the New York Rangers as head coach for the 1989/90 season . After separating from the Rangers, he became the first coach of the newly formed Florida Panthers . He set up the team very defensively and was successful.

Statue in front of the Rogers Arena

Mike Keenan , who had taken over the Rangers from him, brought him in 1995 as an assistant to the St. Louis Blues . After Keenan's release, he assisted young coach Joel Quenneville . During the 1997/98 season it was the Philadelphia Flyers who finally signed him as head coach. In 2001 he moved to the Ottawa Senators , this time again as an assistant coach. In his second year with the Senators, Jacques Martin gave him command behind the gang for two games. So he reached the mark of 1,000 games as a coach in the NHL.

In 1999, Neilson was diagnosed with bone cancer. In 2003 he died of this disease. A year earlier he had already been honored with the induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame and the award of Member of the Order of Canada . The city of Peterborough named 2003 the street at the Memorial Center Arena in Roger Neilson Way to. The address of the stadium has since been 1 Roger Neilson Way . The Ottawa Senators named the coaching room in their stadium "Roger Neilson Room" . In the Ontario Hockey League, the Roger Neilson Memorial Award has been given to the player with the best academic performance since 2005 .

Web links

• Roger Neilson in the database of the Hockey Hall of Fame (English)
• Roger Neilson at hockeydb.com (English)
• Roger Neilson and the "White Towel affair"