Coaching adjustments needed with new generation of players in NHL

The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2018-19 NHL season by one of four former NHL coaches and assistants who will turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher.
In this edition, Curt Fraser, who coached the Atlanta Thrashers for four seasons and served as an assistant with the New York Islanders, St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars, discusses the psychology of coaching the modern player.

I've been coaching for 28 years, including 14 in the NHL, and one of the biggest changes in the past few decades is what it takes to effectively communicate with the players.
While it is more challenging now to connect with them than it was 10 years ago, it is an enjoyable challenge to come up with new and interesting ways to convey your messages effectively and in ways that work to help the player be more successful and your team reach its goals.
Fundamentally, the players of the present generation face the same demands as past generations. Competing hard is still essential. Winning one-on-one battles is key.
The biggest difference is that the older generation was told what to do and did it. Now, before players buy in, they want to know why you want them to do it that way.
Coaches used to communicate with body language or ice time. Now players need things explained.

Athletes today require more individual attention from the coaching staff. They've been raised on video analysis and they want personalized video instruction. They require more communication and clearer definition of roles and responsibilities.
They also want constant feedback. They want to know how they are doing, what they can do to improve and they need positive encouragement, especially when adversity hits.
Dany Heatley was a special young player when I had him with the Atlanta Thrashers, but in his first year he used to ask me every week what he could do better to help with our team. I used to tell him, "Well, you've got seven points in the last three games, so you keep doing what you're doing and that will help build our group."
If that were today, I would work on offering him a solution even if he was playing well. I would show him positive clips of things he was doing well to reinforce the point.
It can be a difficult balance to strike, though, because while players may want as much information as possible, as a coach you can't overwhelm them with good or bad. Coaches must be cognizant of that as they present the information to players.
There is a slight fragility to today's player too. That doesn't make it bad, it just makes it different from the old-school player, who was fine even if you got right in his face and were extremely tough on him.
I'd need 20,000 words to share half of the unbelievable stories from my time in Atlanta, but I think one helps illustrate the change in communication.
I was furious in between periods during an awful game, so I grabbed a stick and chucked it at the wall, like a lot of coaches would back in the day. That stick ricocheted and almost knocked Ray Ferraro's head off.

Ray was a tough dude and just shrugged it off, but to say that doesn't work in today's game is an understatement. There are a lot fewer sticks being tossed around now.
Coaching today's player requires a softer approach. Berating a player, which used to be commonplace, is now just noise to the player. If it's not information and answers; it's not productive.
Players want structure, discipline and a simple game plan because that will give them the best chance to win. Confrontation becomes a negative because it's not quality instruction.
That said, though, there are still players today who can carry out stern orders. Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn is the perfect example. If you give him an earful to go out there and make something happen, a few shifts later he'd have knocked two guys out of their skates and scored a goal. He always rises to the occasion. He's a real throwback.

However, guys like that are becoming rare in today's game, so it's important that coaches learn the nuances of communicating with this generation.
One of those nuances is figuring out how to handle the distractions the modern athlete deals with in life. They have personal skill coaches who want a say. Many have parents who want to be a part of their path as professionals. They have friends breaking down their games, agents directing them, fans on social media reacting to them instantaneously. Constant texting, podcasts and video games all interfere with their preparation.
Attention spans are also somewhat limited today because of how much players have on their plates. Long meetings, extended standing around time in practices, too much analysis of the opponent, it can all be overwhelming and non-productive.
Time management becomes critical. Everything we do as coaches now needs to be quick, organized and to the point. We need to be concise and direct, but non-confrontational.
It used to be common for a video session to be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. In the last 10 years, it's gone down to about 15 minutes max. I always try to keep my video meetings around five minutes.
Duration is just one component; the players need to be engaged.
Something I've found to be effective in getting players to sit up and be sharp in meetings is to play a funny video before getting into the game tape. Throwing on a clip from "Step Brothers" gets the players laughing, injects fun into the meeting and gets the energy up in the room.
It also works great to put together a highlight tape of your team's best goals, hits or saves. These are just a couple of ways to make what can be repetitive meetings fun for the players and get them feeling good before practice or a game.