Alumni Corner: Adrian Aucoin

After playing over 1100 games in the NHL over 17 years, Adrian Aucoin may have actually watched that many hockey games or more in the few years since he retired in 2013. Hard to believe, sure, but he has five kids at home ranging in age from nine to 18, and four of them are playing on travel teams. Not only that, but on top of his genuine fatherly desire to see his kids play, he's also the assistant coach for all four of them. As it turns out, he may be spending more time at the rink now than he did during his playing days.
Islander fans remember Aucoin as an excellent offensive defenseman from 2001 through 2004. He played the most consistent hockey of his long career in his three years with the Isles, scoring 34 points in '01- '02, 35 points in '02- '03, and 44 points in '03 - '04 - the year he represented the Islanders in the NHL All-Star game. Aucoin actually scored the first goal of that game, as well as won the hardest shot competition (shared with Sheldon Souray) with a blast that measured 102.2 mph. No wonder he put up such good numbers.

During the lockout that followed that 2004 season, Aucoin went to play for Modo Hockey in Sweden: when NHL play resumed, he signed a four-year deal with the Blackhawks, serving as their captain for the first two years. He actually waived his no-trade clause after two years there, and wound up playing a few years each for Calgary, then Phoenix, and then finished his career playing for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

When he retired, Aucoin was offered coaching jobs by multiple teams, and it's easy to see why. He was always a smart player, a hard worker, and a leader in the locker room. In fact, Columbus wanted him to play another year, but Aucoin felt the game was getting too fast for him. He considered moving back to Long Island to coach - he and his family loved it here - but the Hawks won him over by finding him a job working with their young defense prospects. The key was simple: by then, Aucoin had a few young players on his won team whose development he also wanted to oversee, and the Hawks job was the only one that left him enough time to watch and coach his kids, so that was the offer he took.
ALUMNI CORNER: MARIUSZ CZERKAWSKI
Aucoin loved the working for the Hawks, but after a year or two his kids' hockey schedules got too overwhelming, so he resigned. Luckily for him, three of his four kids now play for the same club - Chicago Mission. Their training facility is the same one the Blackhawks use (only a block away from the United Center), so they're all in the same place, though not necessarily at the same time. The club happens to have one of the strongest youth hockey programs in the US. His 16 year-old, Kyle, has won the national championship at the AAA level the last two years running, and the other kids' teams are close to the top of their leagues as well.
Cameron, his 11 year-old, still says the Islanders his favorite team. And Adrian himself loved the time he spent on Long Island - the players, the coaches, the fans. In fact, he says the Isles' seven-game playoff series against Toronto in 2002 was the highlight of his career - at least in terms of what it felt like to play. "It meant so much," he said. "Those were the type of games you wish you could play every night. The fans were nuts." The locker rooms at the Coliseum are in the basement, but, he said, "Before the game even started, we could actually feel the locker room shaking because the fans were going so crazy."

Of course, he also mentioned the rivalry with that other New York team. He loved the atmosphere of those games and used to look up from the bench just to soak it in. It was such a heated rivalry, he said, he would sometimes see fights breaking out in the stands. In those days it was par for the course for fans to go to the game expecting to see the players fight, but only at an Islanders vs. Rangers game could the players go to the game and expect to see the fans mixing it up. He recalled one Christmas at the Coliseum when anyone dressed as Santa was allowed onto the ice between periods. There were hundreds of Santas there, so it was taking longer than usual to clear the ice. But it turned out it wasn't just the sheer number of fans on the ice holding up the game. A few of the Santas had waited for just the right moment to de-Santa, and proudly display the Ranger jerseys they had been hiding underneath their costumes. Needless to say, the Islander fans were quick to politely explain to them they might want to put their red jackets back on and helped them do that.
ALUMNI CORNER: RICHARD PARK | BRENDAN WITT
Aucoin loves coaching his kids. And he must be pretty good at it too, because Kyle just committed to play for Harvard. There had been loads of D1 schools interested in Kyle, and the decision wasn't easy. He got stuck stressing about a recent college showcase where he'd had a terrible shift, and it was eating away at him. So Aucoin reminded his son of something he learned from coach Mike Keenan as a young player in Vancouver.
Aucoin had had a bad shift himself, he said, and Keenan - a Stanley Cup winner who was notorious for being extremely hard on his players - could see that he was hanging his head and it was hurting his play. "It doesn't matter if you have your best shift or worst shift, come back the bench and park it," Keenan told him. "And get ready for the next shift." Aucoin and his son talked a bit more about hockey, about the future, and about Kyle's choices. Kyle was able to step back put things into perspective. They both agreed he was unlikely to get an offer that would compare with paying at Harvard, and within a few minutes, the decision seemed like an easy one. Suffice it to say, seems like having Aucoin as a player, a coach, or a father is a pretty good deal.