SPECIAL: New head coach Dan Bylsma with Ian Furness, Mike Benton (5/28)

Full interview with new head coach Dan Bylsma, as aired on Sports Radio 93.3 KJR-FM with Ian Furness and Mike Benton at Kraken Community Iceplex on May 28.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Thirty two, Bar and Grill youinternatced with you, and we are joined
now by the new head coach ofthe Seattle Crack and Dan bilsmas Here.
I was just mentioning the damn he'shad a lot of accomplishments in his career.
I just remember him from ninety eightninety nine with the Long Beach in
the International Hockey League. You putup ten goals, eight assists, eighteen
points and fifty eight games that season. What do you remember from that year?

(00:22):
I remember playing the Utah Grizzlies,but that's about it probably, and
your and your head coach was JohnVan Boxber. I think, right box
old school all the way through,old school, all the way through against
Butch Gory coaching the Utah Grizzly.Yeah. Some great battles with those teams.
Yeah. I think you had acouple like skilled small were they Chris

(00:48):
Taylor? Oh yeah, the littleRussian? Yeah yeah, and then you
guys had a bunch of big dudeslike Jutrau and the two. Yeah.
This is this is where hockey haschanged. Claud had four hundred and eight
penalty minutes. Yeah, you don'tsee that anymore. No, that's that's
a career nowadays. I remember ayear a year after that, a year
after that he played for the LosAngeles Kings. I was in the seats

(01:10):
on the glass for the very firstgame as table center. He was in
the lineup. Actually that, Yeah, it's it's your old line mate.
Was he in the Perryer? Ibelieve that. Yeah? And who else
I'm drawing a blank here, Well, could have been could have been Matt
Johnson, could have been Craig Johnson. Yeah, two vastly different players too,
vastly You did play with super guys. We have a mutual Kevin Sawyer

(01:34):
is a good friend of mine whoI got in the ben. Yeah,
and he I texted him earlier andI said, you did you know do
you play with Damn Biles? Whenhe says, he said, oh,
yeah, you know roommates and theline mates in the Anaheim? And I
said, well, I didn't think. I didn't know he was a fourth
liner. We were, we werefourth f Well, listen, welcome to
Seattle. It's not like you aren'tfamiliar with this place. For people don't

(01:57):
know training camp, the all thecoaches at some point or practices and so
forth. Let me take a coupleof steps back. I joke about the
miners, but I think this isan important thing because you know, Mike's
worked in the miners, I've workedin the miners. You obviously a lot
as well. If you really lovethe game, you put the grind in.
And for a guy that's got aStanley Kuppering as a coach, you
went back, you went all theway back Charlotte and then Coachella Valley.

(02:21):
Was this always the goal to getback to the National Hockey League as a
coach, because I think a lotof people said it's probably worst gigs in
the world than coaching at Coachella Valleyin the American Hockey League. Yeah,
I mentioned this a little bit earlier. I think it wasn't necessarily the goal
forty years ago to get back tothe National Hockey League. I think,

(02:46):
yep, it's a grind. Maybeyou call it a grind, but it's
also like it's really a great placeto coach and connect with the players and
connect with your team and develop peoplerelationships and develop their careers. They're they're
all wanting to go somewhere and andso it's a great place to connect with.

(03:07):
What I think is the joy ofcoaching, and that continued in in
CV and and just being able tokind of grab a team and a new
situation, a new organization, anew city, a new group of guys
and develop them as individuals and developedthe team is it was. It was

(03:31):
awesome, It was great. Ithoroughly enjoyed it. It was it was
you know, I told the guyslast year, it was I don't I
try not to remember too far inthe distant future or past, and don't
look too far into the future.Like it's just it was the the best
thing for me and my coaching career. It's the best thing for the situation.

(03:53):
And but it did, it didlead me down the road to to
come into this point. And oneon, I'm super excited about having Dan.
You mentioned four years ago when youwent through that reset in learning how
to communicate differently here with players.Can you give me any example of any
figures you talked to that really kindof helped redefine the mindset of what it

(04:16):
means to connect now with the modernday athlete and find a way to drive
that player to be at his best. Yeah. Well, this we have
had this conversation about coaching in thissituation a lot, and I just I
don't think the player has changed.I think like I wanted to be talked

(04:40):
to. I wanted to be talkedto and coached and told where I could
get better and where I think,you know, my career could go.
When I was a twenty two yearold and when I was in Long Beach,
Ya, I didn't particularly think itwas the greatest thing when it coaches,
you know, screamed and yelled andand kind of you know, didn't

(05:05):
talk to you, you know,kicking trash cans and all that. You
know. One of the greatest coachesfor me, I had him for a
number of years, and I probablycould tell you that he talked to me
and said ten words to me thewhole time over three years. Like it
just wasn't you didn't you didn't getthat relationship from the head coach. And

(05:26):
and I think coaches have had tochange, not the players. But I
wanted it so for me and andkind of how I wanted to be as
a coach was to to to getto that, to have a relationship,
to get on the same ground level, to get in with the player and
have a clear plan and a clearexpectation about where I could go, where

(05:47):
we could go, what you coulddo in your career, and so you
know, I that's just kind ofbeen great about the last couple of years
is you get to do it withYou get to do it with these young
guys that are developing their career.They got a mission and a plan to
go somewhere and be some be somethingas a player, and it's really rewarding.

(06:08):
Coaches will often say that, youknow, you want to find a
way to extract offense, but ofcourse you have to have a structure defensively.
Fans love seeing goals, they lovescoring, they love the exciting part
of the game. Here to youwhat you know for anybody. But I
think I think in this case,to you, what defines effective offense?

(06:30):
It's it's a good question, andI think you know there's we all talk
about sometimes having line combinations that canhave chemistry so they can score goals.
And I would beg you to definewhat chemistry means. It means you know

(06:55):
what the person is going to doand they know you can count on them
doing these things in these circumstances sothat you can give you a chance to
have success. So I think Ithink you can build chemistry. I think
you can with being a reliable,reliable in certain routes, certain places,

(07:18):
You're going to be certain things you'regoing to continually do time after time.
Again. That's so I know whatthat's gonna happen. I think when you
do that, when you got thatin your group, when you got that
in your line, when you gotthat in your team, you can create
create more offense for for the group. And you know that's last year,
you know around talks that we neededto score more goals than you know,

(07:41):
the two years ago we were agreat scoring team and the whole team scored
in and throughout the lineup, andand that was missing a little bit last
year. And and you know that'sthat that that will be a challenge for
the group going forward, is tryingto find a little more a few more
of those goals or get that excitementin the game, because well that's and
that Dan Biles been joining us atInfiness and Mike bent with you at thirty

(08:05):
two Bar and Grill. I readsomething this morning. I'm not sure if
it was the Chef and the Timesor the Athletic and yeah, well it's
scared no no, No, thisis actually good. I thought you were
laughing because you said the guy fromUtah that he read something. Yeah.
Well, first of all, thatis a big thing for me, like
not a big part of my repertoire. But but I did reach about how

(08:26):
like in today's world, you mentionedcoaches have to change, and I think
there's a lot of times when wekind of put coaches like in a box,
right, like, Hey, thisguy is gonna run a you know,
a one two too, or he'sgonna do it, He's gonna trap
here, do this, do that? What I saw from someone that I
think was knowledgeable about it, saidthe thing with Dan Biles, but he

(08:46):
is a guy that will adjust tohis personnel. And I made the comparison
when the Seahawks hire Pete Carroll.They went out and they are a guy
he had a weird roster and hemade it work with these guys that were
kind of misfits and he built aroundthem. Are you a guy that I
mean, everyone likes structure, Buthow would you describe yourself in terms of
the style of play you want toplay? Mike wants to see goals.

(09:07):
I want to see goals. SamanthaHolly wants to see goals. We all
want to see goals, But howwould you describe how that style is.
Well, I want to be aI would like our team to be a
predictable team to each other, ateam that can count on each other for
playing a certain way and playing playinga certain style. But that would be

(09:31):
unpredictable to the opposition. And youknow, there's a certain when we're all
on the same page and we're allpredictable to each other, you can make
adjustments to the opposition with a differentpart of the playbook, with a different
piece of the puzzle. If youget a different piece of the puzzle and

(09:54):
we need to play a different wayas a result of it, we can
we can all well, we canall do that and make that adjustment.
So I'm gonna implore the guys tobe a good teammate. And being a
good teammate means being predictable to eachother and to you know, our standard

(10:15):
of work and what you can expectfrom from each other. And when we
do that, we can be anunpredictable team to the opposition. And that's
kind of the key to making anadjustment to a different personnel and different to
the different opponent. What's your relationshipwith any of the guys that are currently
on the roster. I mean there'sa kind of a core group guys like

(10:35):
Everley McCann, Vince Dunn. I'mjust kind of picking up a few guys,
but just that kind of core groupof guys, Johnny Gored, You
have a relationship with any of thoseguys at all from past years? You
know, we kind of I feellike I've been here a lot in the
last you know, three years backtraining camp, training camps a month long,

(10:56):
and we were here in year twofor until November tenth, two months
then, so we were in andevery day with the group, and we
I've interacted with all those guys.I've interrupted with Ebs and Canner and and
the team for frankly, we've andso you know, I went to a
game in l A here two monthsago and you know, talked with done

(11:22):
Her and talked with those those guysthat was was talking with more Tye and
the young guys that were up atthe time, like her and Writer was
there, and WinCE was there,and Morrison was there. But talked to
Joey Decord and talked to ty Carteand talked to Vince Done and talked to
a lot of them, you know, just briefly. But I feel like

(11:46):
I I've I don't want to sayI have a good relationship with him because
it's it's not as good as it'sgoing to be. But interrupt you.
That goes back to what you talkingabout before, the relationship part of it,
Like the relationship you have with thoseyoung guys. I mean Ty was
here and Ryker was Riker was here, most of your Tie was here all
year, you know, Ryan Winnardand we saw him Morrison, et cetera.
That relationship building, it's obvious.I mean, Jeff ro what about

(12:09):
in this paper today about the likewatching you and watching those guys interact?
Is that something that maybe you've gottenbetter at as a coach over the years
one hundred percent? I I itgives me great pride to hear the description
and to probably know that those playersfeel that way and feel like we have

(12:31):
that relationship, because that's to melike, I, yes, I've gotten
a lot better at that. Andyou know, I can be critical of
myself over the course of my coachingcareer as to when I you know,
I failed at that failed or didn'tdo as well. So you know,
that's that's again that's kind of mychallenge now to bring that to to the

(12:54):
crack In and bring it to thislevel, bring it to the National Hockey
League in this group. So damnmany of us were talking about a month
ago of when's next captain going toarrive here for this team? How long
do you think you need to kindof figure it out, get the feel
of your roster, and maybe fromthere what criteria under your eye would fit

(13:16):
best for captaincy here. Well,that'd be part of the conversation that you
know, I've already started to havewith Ron over the past couple of weeks,
and and one we're going to behave going forward. So having said
that, I haven't given a tonof immediate thought at this particular second.

(13:39):
I kind of, you know,have my own thoughts about, you know,
what the captaincy means to the organization, and what the captaincy means to
the team, and what captain meansto the players, and I think all
those things are a little bit different, and things will consider when we you

(14:05):
know, when when that decision ismade going forward. You had a couple
of players Sidney Crosby, Brian,you know, in the last couple of
stops. I mean, how muchdo you take away from from what they
did and how they were able tolead a room to kind of fit that
into today. Maybe yeah, Ithink, you know, I think I

(14:28):
don't think a leadership is a prescribedthing to the to the team. Putting
the sea on the jersey does notmake the person the captain. How they
act and how they play and howthey work and the presence that they bring
to the team makes them the captainof the team. And you know,

(14:48):
each person can kind of do thatin their distinct own way. But you
know, Sidney Cross, maybe you'retalking about, you know, the example
that he set daily, the personthat he is daily, the work ethic
that he has daily makes him auh, you know, a great captain.

(15:11):
And the same for you know,Brian Gionta as well. And we
have those We have a lot ofthose guys here in our room and maybe
in the stage of going in theircareer, but we have a lot of
those presences in our room. Well, Dan, we'll let you go.
We appreciate the time giving us hereon the Home of the Crack in Anty
three point three k r FM.Next time we see in the fall,
I know you'll be giving us everylineup. We want every start, Goldenender,

(15:33):
we want online combinations, all thosethings. Open book is what we
hear the passionate market here. Yeah, open Ron said an open book.
It's like we want everything, justjust like Toronto. It'd be easy for
any of the safe light down theirbible. This was this was our best
time together, by the way,this was it. This was this is
our high water mark. Just youknow what. I'm glad we know that

(15:56):
right now. That's it's good toset those parameters and I'll look forward to
what's going to come downhill in thenext couple of years. Good luck in
Coachella Valley going a cup. That'dbe awesome. Dan Bilesman joining us take
a quick break, comeback with morefrom the thirty two Barn Grill nine three
point three KJFM