Giving players boundaries, parameters, direction, and feedback

As the new head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, Bob Gainey is working to ensure each player "know[s] exactly what's expected of him."

According to Coach Gainey, who's coached in more than 450 NHL games, he will "try to give them boundaries, parameters, direction and feedback - done well, (or) not done well."

"After a few days, I hope to be able to give the players some key messages that there are places they will be corrected on," said Coach Gainey. "That will give them concentration - that they need to do this particular thing, or they'll be corrected on it."

To play in this league is a privilege

Great quote from new Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, who in addition to playing in more than 400 NHL games had a long minor league playing career:

"To play in this league is a privilege. To not work as hard as you can, that goes against the game."

According to this article, "passion and energy are popular words with Bylsma."

In Coach Bylsma's words, "There will be expectations and demands, and every player needs to work at getting better on their foundation continually. That's something I want the players to be involved in, and I want to be involved with them. My practices will be a lot like games. They will be drills that have a definite purpose in what we're trying to do going forward with our game plan and how we want to play as a team."

Once you start winning, you don't want to go back

In the week leading up to yesterday's Super Bowl, the Phoenix paper had a story about how, in two years, Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt took a team with "a legacy of losing perhaps un- rivaled by any team in sports" to the NFL's championship game.

In the simplest terms, Whisenhunt was trying to change the Cardinals from a team that lost more than it should to one that won as much as it could.

In short, he had to re-work the team's culture.

In a business, or on a football team, he said it boils down to one thing: "Getting people who are talented to work together as a team." But talking about it is easy. Actually doing it is difficult.

Says Coach Whisenhunt: "I think a lot of people want to say culture change. It's really about getting people to believe. Raise the expectations. Be prepared to work. It has to be everything. Practices, off-season workouts, preparation, accountability. It's got to be every day."

According to one management expert, "there was another important factor that led the team to change under Whisenhunt's leadership."

In his words, "Don't laugh when I say this. Winning culture depends a lot on winning" because it makes people willing to work even harder.

"A team gets into a rhythm of winning," the expert said. "It shows that effort leads to reward."

Another important note is that all of Arizona's coaches are on the same page.

Special-teams player Sean Morey, a 10-year veteran in the league, says the coaches are always on the players about how to do things. "They are consistent in holding players accountable," Morey said in the locker room. "Watching tape, sometimes you have this voice, you can hear it in your head, when things go wrong, saying: 'It's not OK. It's not OK.' "

Says Arizona offensive lineman Reggie Wells, who has played for three head coaches in his career with the team, "Whisenhunt's vision just sounded a little bit different."

"You can tell they believe it," Wells said. "They are sincere in how they think we should approach the game. It's not just words. Winning is habitual, just like losing. But once you start winning, you don't want to go back."

If your best players are setting an example, it makes everything easier

Spending the summer with some of the world's best players as part of Team USA helped sharpen Dwayne Wade's leadership skills, according to Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

As Mitch Lawrence writes in today's NY Daily News, "Put young and immature players with a 38-year old rookie coach and it could have been a disaster. But just as Patrick Ewing ran interference for Jeff Van Gundy when he assumed the helm of the Knicks at the age of 34, Spoelstra, the league's youngest coach, is grateful for Wade's leadership."

"It's been one of his two biggest areas of improvement," said Spoelstra, also citing Wade's defense. "He's much more vocal than he's ever been. He's always pulling guys aside and teaching them. And when he got the guys together, he laid down expectations for the season. What they could expect from me. A lot of these guys didn't know me. But he told them how we do things here with the Miami Heat.

Any coach - a veteran or a rookie coach - wants that. If your best players are setting a tone and setting an example, it makes everything much easier. I don't know if the young guys would have progressed as quickly as they have if we didn't have the leadership from Dwyane, along with Udonis and Shawn (Marion). Every day they see them going hard, so it's easy to fall in line. They look and they see, oh, so this is how it's done."