Trotz Shares Jack Adams with Coaching Staff

When Barry Trotz posed with the Jack Adams Award on Wednesday night, he made sure that his whole staff was in the picture with him.
That's just his policy. If he gets nominated for the coach of the year award - which he's now won twice - he pays for the whole coaching staff and their wives to come with him.

So Trotz treated Associate Coach Lane Lambert, Assistant Coach John Gruden, Director of Goaltending Mitch Korn, Goaltending Coach Piero Greco, Video Coordinator Matt De Mado and Assistant Video Coordinator Corey Smith all to accompany him to the NHL Awards. When it came time for the picture, he made sure they all squished into the frame.
"To me it's a team award," Trotz said, accentuating his "we over me" philosophy. "I just get an opportunity to represent the Islanders and my staff and the players. You don't have success as a coach without having a buy-in from your staff and a good plan and them executing the plan. And they don't have that without the buy-in from the players and we had a great group this year."

Under Trotz - and his staff's - stewardship, the Islanders finished with 103 points season (a 23-point increase from 2017-18) as well as a second-place finish in the Metropolitan Division, up from seventh a year ago. Defensively, he addressed the team's biggest issue, going from worst to first in goals allowed, cutting the number down by 100.
It all added up to Trotz's second Jack Adams, after previously winning in 2016 with the Washington Capitals. There's not a lot left in the NHL that Trotz hasn't seen or experienced, yet winning the Jack Adams this year stirred something in the Islanders coach.
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"This one feels different," Trotz said. "It has a lot more to it. The group that we had, the expectations were probably not very good at the start of the season based on our summer. Coming in really late and not knowing what I was getting into quite from a standpoint of not knowing the personnel very well, but I had a lot of trust in [General Manager] Lou Lamoriello. I've wanted the opportunity to work with one of the best of all time and I see why he is."
All season, Trotz made sure to give credit to his staff for their work - the tip of the iceberg reminding everyone how much doesn't get seen on the surface.

"We're the talking heads, but a lot of the heavy work has to be done by your coaching staff," Trotz said. "So you have to have some really good lieutenants who can get your message across and get the work done that needs to get done."
Trotz said having Lambert and Korn come with him from Washington helped the quick transition, but credits the new additions for buying into his philosophy. Trotz didn't join the Islanders until June 22 last year and didn't have his full staff together on Long Island until September, so he gives them a lot of credit for coming together quickly.
"We had a completely new staff that really didn't know each other and a lot of work to get done," Trotz said. "They put in the hours, so any success that I had, or we've had as an organization is a reflection on the whole staff."
And that's why they were all there alongside Trotz on Wednesday night.