Steve Stirling may have been a rookie head coach in 2003-04, but the New York Islanders' coach has a wealth of experience and success in college and the minors.

Stirling led BU to 1971 NCAA title
By John McGourty | NHL.com
Oct. 26, 2004

New York Islanders coach Steve Stirling captained one of the finest college hockey teams in history to the 1971 NCAA championship. He also coached Providence College to the finals of the 1985 NCAA championship and the 1982 Bridgeport Sound Tigers to the AHL's Calder Cup Finals.

He's been an All-American, two-time NCAA Division II coach of the year at Babson College and the minor pro hockey coach of the year in 2002.

One guesses that Stirling also can operate the Zamboni and sharpen skates since there's little around a rink that he hasn't proven he can do. Stirling completed his first season behind the Islanders' bench with a record of 38-29-11-4, good enough to clinch the team's third straight Stanley Cup playoff berth.

The Islanders were impressed with how Stirling advanced the skills of Rick DiPietro, Justin Mapletoft, Eric Godard and Trent Hunter at Bridgeport. Now, he's directing them in the NHL, 27 years after he hung up his skates as player.

It's been a long odyssey through NCAA Division I and II, college administrative work, scouting and coaching in the minor leagues. He may have entered the NHL as a 54-year-old rookie coach, but Stirling has plenty of experience.

Stirling took time recently to recall the good times, the tough losses and some interesting career decisions.

The 1971 and 1972 Boston University Terriers are the only Eastern hockey teams to win back-to-back NCAA titles. Are they the greatest Eastern college hockey team of all time?

If you'll give it to us, we'll take it. I don't know, some fans of the mid-1960s Cornell teams will argue with you. Those teams that featured Ken Dryden, Doug Ferguson and Harry Orr.

You seemed to be on a pro path growing up in Toronto, but all of a sudden you switched to Boston University.

I grew up in Clarkson, outside Toronto, which doesn't exist anymore, swallowed up in the consolidation of Mississauga and I came up through the Metro system. I was playing for the Dixie Beehives, a junior B team. Back then, they didn't have as big a draft and the Chicago Blackhawks had their Junior A team in St. Catherines and the Dixie Beehives fed into the Blackhawks system. I had been called up a couple of times the year before, as a Midget.

I hadn't thought of college until Wayne Dowling, who played with the Kitchener Rangers the year before, went to BU. We had a great year and went to the All-Ontario finals where Kitchener beat us. I got better as the year progressed and thought I'd go on to St. Catherines. I was confident of making it as a 17-year old. Late in the summer, I sent out letters to Michigan State, the University of New Hampshire and BU. I heard from BU in August, but I told them I was going to Grade 13. Then coach Jack Kelley called and said he might have an opening. I talked to my family and they said take a peek so I drove down with mom and dad and spent the weekend. I liked it and decided to go there.

We had great teams my first two years as well. My first year we had Herb Wakabayashi, a great person, Eddie Wright, Mickey Grey out of Blenheim, Serge Boiley and Mike Hyndman. Billy Hinch was a tough defenseman. We couldn't play as freshmen then, but they welcomed us. They were real good guys, very good players and great leaders. Three teammates went on to be really good college coaches. Toot Cahoon, who is at UMass now, and Dick Toomey, who coached Brown, could skate and skate. Dick was a year ahead of me and Toot a year behind. Ron Anderson, who's scouting now, had a good career coaching Merrimack.

I had Toot as my linemate for my last two years along with Paul Giandomenico out of Walpole, a 5-7 buzz saw and a player similar to Artie Yeomelakis, who played for Matignon and me at Providence. We had a nicely balanced line. You know Robbie Ftorek almost joined us. He was a senior at Needham High and they had me show him around BU. He was one of our top recruits, a great skater, good at everything. He spent the better part of a day and went to a football game with me, but he decided to play juniors.

You and a lot of your teammates tried pro playing careers without great success. You spent five years in the Boston Bruins' minor-league system before finishing up in Europe. It seems like that championship was the result of the sum of the parts rather than standout individual performances.

One word, pure and simple: Balance. We had no superstars, although on numbers, the year I had (27-43-70 in 31 games) and John Danby had (28-36-64 in 31 games) would stand out. Danby also played for Dixie. Jack Kelley was a brilliant coach and tactician. He had Danby on a line with Bobby Gryp and Guy Borrowes, an excellent two-way player. Billy Flynn centered the fourth line. All excellent players. Jack would roll four lines, then three lines and all three lines could play. Robert Brown and Ric Jordan were All-American on defense and got a lot of points. Bob Murray was very steady, a good two-way guy. Peter Yetten, now the football coach at Bentley, killed penalties and was a swing man on defense. In goal, Dan Brady and Tim Regan pushed one another all year. One would get hot and Jack would go with him. He went with Danny in the finals and Danny came big, beating Minnesota, 4-2.

You had a phenomenal season, but almost blew it in the ECAC tournament.

We were very lucky to get to the championship. We had tied Harvard over there in December and that was the first blemish on our record. We hadn't lost when we played Cornell in January and we got slapped. That was a wake-up call and we didn't lose the rest of the regular season. We beat R.P.I. in the first round of the ECAC and then Harvard beat us. We had to play a consolation game the next day. Now, usually the two finalists advanced to the NCAA tournament, but the league had an option. We beat Cornell and Harvard slapped Clarkson in the final, so the committee picked us instead of Clarkson.

We were really lucky and fortunate to have a chance to redeem ourselves. Plus, we figured what do we have to lose? Toot got three goals and we beat Denver, 4-2. Friday was Minnesota vs. Harvard, a real good game that Harvard had won until Minnesota tied it late and then won. So, we played Minnesota. We had beaten them just before Christmas in our place, the then-new Walter Brown Arena. On that trip, their coach, Glen Sonmor, was taking them on to Switzerland for some skiing and they weren't focused. Jack wouldn't let us think about how we had beaten them easily. He had us prepared and we beat them in the Finals.

Brady was great in goal. He stood on his head and made big saves all night long. I scored early on a power play from the slot. Then, I was penalty killing and blocked a shot, Wally Olds's shot I think, at the point and went in on a breakaway and scored. I deked from left to right and the puck started rolling off my stick. I was afraid I wouldn't score. I took a swipe and knocked it in. That was a huge relief. Danby then had a chance and missed and then Minnesota made it 3-1. Craig Sarner, who played on the 1972 U.S. Olympic team with Tim Regan, was on that Minnesota team. I played with him in the AHL with the Boston Braves and Rochester Americans.

After you retired as a player, you became hockey coach at Babson College. Your success there led to your appointment at Providence College.

Paul Schilling, who played at Boston College, built the Babson program from nothing. I arrived in 1978 after playing in Europe. They gave me a chance and I had a pretty good run there. I built something I was proud of. In 1983, I went to work for Lou Lamoriello at Providence. He stepped up from coach when he became athletic director. It was really good working for Lou. He had a little trouble the first year weaning himself away from the players he recruited and coached. For that group of seniors, Lou was coach, parent and counselor. Those kids got really close with Lou. We made it through the quarterfinals of the ECAC.

The next year we had Peter Taglianetti, Tim Army, who's coaching the AHL Portland Pirates, Steve Rooney, Paul Cavallini and Chris Terreri. We had a good run all the way to the NCAA finals, but lost 2-1 to R.P.I with Adam Oates, John Carter, Mike Dark and Ken Hammond.

I learned management style from Lou Lamoriello. There's a right way and a wrong way. Things are black and white, no room for gray. I like that. Islanders GM Mike Millbury is like that. Two-minute conversations, not 10 minutes. You knew where you stood.

Then you left Providence to return to Babson as athletic director.

I probably made a mistake in my career path by doing that. I had a great experience at Providence, between Lou, the players, the priests and the students. I can't say enough good things about Providence College. But I was thinking of my future; doing that "where do I want to be 10 years from now" thing. Babson hired me as coach and assistant athletic director with a promise I could be athletic director when it opened up. My wife told me I was making a mistake by not sticking longer with Division I. I regret not staying longer at Providence. It turned out OK. I got the AD thing out of my system after eight years of doing both and three years just as AD. I realized that isn't what I'm cut out to be. I've got be involved in hockey, so I took a shot at the pros.