Stuff of Legends: Roger Neilson

Friend of The Hockey Guys, Bill Kellet, dives into another career of a Legend: Roger Nielson.

Innovation has always been the key to hockey changing with the times. The Patrick family are credited with most of the innovations we have come to know. Wayne Gretzky was innovative in as much as the league had to change many rules to facilitate competitiveness with his greatness. The Montreal Canadiens were innovative as well, forcing the league to change the rules when it comes to the man advantage.

But some innovations are more subtle, more under the radar so to speak. One man did have as much influence on the game as the Patrick family and Wayne Gretzky, we just didn’t know it.

That man was the late Roger Neilson.

Roger Paul Neilson was born June 16th, 1934 in Toronto, Ontario Canada. Neilson did not take a conventional route to the NHL. In fact, oddly enough, he never even played the game competitively.

Neilson attended North Toronto Collegiate Institute and McMaster University with a degree in Physical Education. At the time he taught both Hockey and Baseball. Always a student of the game, he was known for spending countless hours studying rule books always looking for that one loophole that could give him a leg up.

After some success in University athletics, the Junior ranks came calling and Neilson was offered the job as head coach with the OHLs Peterbourough Petes, who at the time were associated with the Montreal Canadiens.

Neilson maintained ties to University working for the University of Windsor and running summer hockey camps through the school which eventually expanded all over Canada and even as far as Israel, if you can believe it.

In the 1976-77 season, Neilson was hired as head coach for the Dallas Blackhawks and after only one season there, the pro ranks were upon him. Having liked what they had seen from the improvements he made in Dallas, Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard decided he wanted Neilson for his next coach, and as everyone knew, you didn’t argue with Ballard when he had his mind made up. It would turn out to be a very popular decision in Toronto, however Ballards ego and a few weird incidents were about to befall Neilson on his path to the NHL.

The Maple Leafs organization had become somewhat of a circus act through most of the 70′s and 80′s, with most of it being attributed to owner Harold Ballard. The team desperately needed some positive karma, and Neilson injected that. The team finished with 92 points in 1977-78; his first year behind the bench and they finished third in the division.  This propelled the team into the third round of the playoffs. There was hope once again in Maple Leafs land, but just like the Titanic, the Maple Leafs would hit an iceberg, and it was named Harold Ballard.

In 1978-79 the team dropped in point totals, dipping to 81 points, yet still were to finish a respectable third in the division. But Ballard was growing weary of his coach. Neilson was befriending the players and Ballard didn’t like that. In one of the strangest maneuvers in NHL history, Ballard fired Neilson which enraged the players, the media and the fans altogether. Ballard was sent hate mail, and rumor has it someone even egged his house. It was a terrible decision in hindsight, but Ballard always being the showman thought it would be the right idea to mess with the media a bit and make a show out of it. He was going to search for a new coach, but would not admit to the media who it would be.

Instead he wanted the coach to walk to the bench with a paper bag on his head and before any puck dropped, he would take the bag off and reveal the new coach. The idea was asinine from the beginning, but convincing Ballrad otherwise was almost more impossible than finding a coach who would work for him.

After days of speculation and threats, Ballard relented to the pressure and re-hired Neilson as head coach.

However, Ballard wanted Neilson to follow through with the bag on the head idea. Neilson refused and went out to the bench that game as if nothing had happened, which enraged Ballard even more. The writing was surely on the wall. At the end of that season Neilson was fired.

The first storied chapter in his career had been written, but the book was far from finished.

In 1979-80 Neilson took a hiatus from coaching and ran his hockey schools as well as some University work.

In 1980-81 he was jumped right back into coaching, this time with Buffalo Sabres. The team finished with 99 points and 1st in the division, but Neilson never really fit in there and he was let go after just one season. It wouldn’t be long after this that his greatest legacy would be born.

In 1981, Neilson was hired as assistant coach of the Vancouver Canucks to help head coach Harry Neale. During that season of ’81-’82, the team struggled as usual and towards the end of the campaign, during a game in Quebec City, the fans were getting rowdy and began heckling the Canucks and their head coach Neale. Just like in a scene from Slapshot, Neale and a few players ended up scaling the glass and started a brawl with the fans. The players involved along with head coach Neale were suspended for the remainder of the season, which was approximately seven games. The coaching reigns were handed to Roger Neilson for the remainder of that year.

It would begin a magical journey.

The Canuck managed to win all seven of their remaining games, and when the suspension to Harry Neale was over, Neale decided to let Neilson remain as head coach for the playoffs since he was doing so well. The team would fly through the playoffs looking like nothing could stop them.

In the third round that year, the Canucks played the Chicago Blackhawks. During one particular game in that series the Canucks were down 4-1 and Bob Myers who was the referee for this game had been calling penalty after penalty. The Canucks were shorthanded five consecutive times. The normally mild mannered Neilson, who players say they never heard swear or say a bad word about anyone, had had enough. In a gesture which will live eternally in the hearts and minds of the Vancouver faithful, Neilson and a few players decided to get back at referee Myers for his unfair calls.

Originally Neilson thought of throwing sticks on the ice and such, however, he later decided on something more subtle. He grabbed a stick and placed a white towel on the end of it, waving it back and forth in mock surrender. A number of players joined in. Myers was so outraged he kicked Neilson and the players out of that game. However, no one had any idea that a spur of the moment idea would become an international phenomenon.

In the next game, back home in Vancouver, Neilson was surprised to see the entire Pacific Coliseum washed away with white towels. Every fan had bought into this as a rallying cry, and “Towel Power” was born. Today, Canucks fans still wave white towels during playoff games as they are handed out at every playoff game and are now required attire to attend a Canucks game. But this simple gesture is much more far reaching than one may think. Almost every team in the NHL have some form of the towel, whether its white towels, pom-poms, orange t-shirts, you name it. Not only that, but other leagues, from the NFL to Soccer, you will see fans often waving white. It will be a Neilson legacy that will last forever.

The Canucks would ride the momentum of towel power all the way to the Stanley Cup finals where they would eventually lose to the New York Islanders. The following season Neilson was named full time head coach of the Canucks, however he would not meet with the same success again, at least in Vancouver. He would last two more season until he was once again fired in the 1983-84 season. He was briefly named coach of the Los Angeles Kings for the remainder of that season, but was replaced that summer.

One of the many innovations Neilson had brought to the game was the approach of analyzing video of the games. It was something he had tried to make popular back with Toronto and he seemed to perfect it in Vancouver. His obsession with video analysis would earn him the nickname “Captain Video”. Many people believed he was a bit strange to begin with, not being the conventional stereotype of an NHL head coach, but his insistence on using video as a tool was something many general managers just thought was a waste of time.

Neilson perfected the strategy, and after being let go by the Kings he worked that playoffs as a video coach for the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers would win the Stanley Cup that season, their first of many and no one really knows the impact that Neilson had on that victory, but his behind the scenes breakdown of video clips, was said to be an integral part to the coaches gaining a better understanding of the game.

Today, video is used as a key tool to analyze games in all leagues all over the world. Once again, Roger Neilson had contributed to one of sports great innovations.

Despite all of this, Neilson would not be given a head coaching position for another five seasons. He bounced around from team to team as assistant, but the head job alluded him for some time.

That all ended in 1989-90 when the New York Rangers came calling. Neilson had worked in two very insane hockey markets in both Toronto and Vancouver, so the pressures he would feel in New York would not be a burden. He was always “Mr. Cool” with the media, never seeming to have a bad word to say about anyone. He was a journalists nightmare, as he was never forthcoming with any controversial quotes or anything of the sort. He just went about his business and got the job done.

In total Neilson would coach four season in New York, the most time he would spend in one location. The team was up and down during his tenure but made the playoffs in every season that he was coach. The team topped out at 105 points under Neilson in 1991-92, but not being able to meet the success of the previous year led to his being let go in 1992-93.

Neilson was not brash enough for the Rangers it seemed, and many of his ideas were frowned upon. He always had an angle to gain the upper hand, but only if the GM was willing to let him follow through on it. Neilson also was known for coaching a strict system of defensive responsibility. It was not a popular concept for a city starved for victory, having waited since 1954.

Neilson was eventually replaced by the brash and arrogant Mike Keenan. The following season of 1993-94 the Rangers would win the long awaited trophy after a thrilling seven game series with the Vancouver Canucks. Just one year removed from the team, Neilson no doubt laid the groundwork for the victory, Keenan just further developed his plan. Once again Neilson had lead a team to victory behind the scenes, just no one knew of his impact on it.

The following season Neilson was given a job which appeared perfect for him,. He would be named the first head coach of the expansion Florida Panthers. The team needed an identity having selected a bunch of rag tag players from other teams. They were set in goal with John Vanbiesbrouck, who Neilson had coached in New York and veteran backup Mark Fitzpatrick. He once again employed a defensive style of play, but what else could he do with this bunch. He needed to teach them discipline and patience, two of the virtues that had always embodied Roger.

The Panthers met with limited success and did not qualify for the playoffs in either of Neilsons two seasons there. After the 1994-95 lockout shortened season, Neilson was fired and replaced by Doug MacLean. 1995-96 would see  the Panthers make a shocking run to the Stanley Cup Finals, losing in a four game sweep to the Colorado Avalanche.

Once again, Neilson had laid the groundwork for greatness with his system, but once again he was not there to bask in the glow. This was becoming a recurring theme in his career and his life in general.

In 1997-98 the Philadelphia Flyers named Neilson their head coach. The Flyers had a great tradition of rough and tumble hockey and of always getting under the oppositions skin. One of the ways they did that was through aggressive play and end to end hockey. When Neilson took over he employed a more controlled system where they would be defensively responsible. The fans were not big supporters of this system, however it met with success as in his three seasons there the team finished with 95, 93 and 105 point seasons. Yet they could never get past the first round in the first two seasons.

It was in his third season that Neilson started feeling a little off. He was coming to the rink very lethargic and feeling ill constantly. A man who always prided himself in physical education and physical activity should not be feeling this way. It was even affecting his judgment on the ice, as a coach. Realizing he could no longer continue the next step was to obtain medical help. The news he received almost floored him, and the entire hockey world.

Roger Neilson was suffering from bone cancer. The cancer would later spread to skin cancer. Nielson applied for medical leave from the Flyers at doctors recommendations. He was replaced as head coach by his assistant Craig Ramsey, but this move did not come without controversy.

Neilson insisted he was feeling better as the playoffs went on that season and urged, then, Flyers GM Bobby Clarke to allow him to come back behind the bench, but was informed by Clarke that his position had been terminated and Ramsey was the new coach. The news devastated Neilson, and although he later would admit that in his condition it was the right move, the way in which it was handled was poor.

Not only that but Clarke had made some comments while Neilson was on leave that irked the fans and media, almost insinuating that Neilson had chosen to get cancer. Clarkes comments were seen as insensitive and cast a cloud on the Flyers that season for the way it was all handled. Neilson was now permanently replaced, and he had no idea what his future held.

Before the 2001-02 season, Roger Neilson was hired as an assistant coach for the Ottawa Senators. He spent a lot of the time in the press box communicating via headset, which was another one of his innovations; one which he perfected over the years and is now widely used in several sports.

The Senators pulled off one of the classiest moves in league history during that season. Being only two games shy of coaching 1000 games, Senators coach Jacques Martin stepped aside for the final two games of thee regular season to allow Neilson to coach and achieve the momentous feat. He would become only the ninth person to coach 1000 games, quite an amazing accomplishment.

However, time was quickly running out. Roger would learn that his cancer was terminal. He decided to call it a day and retire, allowing some peace and quiet to consume him while he battled the toughest challenge of his life. As had been the pattern of his career, the Senators would make it to the Eastern Conference finals the following season, possibly again due to the foundation that Nielson had laid for them. The team was upset they were unable to win the Cup for Roger, a man they had all come to love, admire and respect.

On June 16, 2003 Roger gathered some close friends and family to celebrate his 69th birthday as he felt his time was near. Once again his intuition would prove correct. Just five days later, on June 21, 2003 Roger Neilson succumbed to the disease, and the sports world had lost not only a friend and mentor, but truly an icon.

Since his passing Roger Neilson has had his name involved with a school in Peterbourough, Ontario, the city where he received his first real coaching gig.  They would open the Roger Neilson Public School in 2004.

Also, the Ottawa Senators began a foundation to open a pediatric hospital for sick kids , it became known as Rogers House.

Roger Neilsons legacy will never be forgotten. The man was an innovation genius. It was because of him that we have some of the rules in place which we do today. Neilson once thought it smart to put a defenceman in instead of a goalie for a penalty shot, since a defenseman could then rush the oncoming player.

Because there had been no rule previously statting otherwise, Neilson was allowed to do this for the teams he coached with. The rule would later be changed.

Another tactic Neilson liked to use was, upon pulling his goalie for an extra attacker he would command his goalie to leave the stick lying flat in the crease. When the opposing team would shoot for the empty cage, the puck would careen off the stick and into the corner. Once again, the rule was changed so that nothing could be left in the goal crease when a goalie was pulled.

Neilson never broke a rule in his life, he just found the loophole that would allow him to use his tactics in a positive light. For Roger, until the league created rules to change those tactics, it worked.

He rarely had an ill word for anyone, even people he did not care for like Harrold Ballard and Bobby Clarke.  He would always speak of them as human beings, something instilled in him because of his Christain faith.

Wayne Gretzky was arguably the greatest player to ever lace up the skates. Scotty Bowman is regarded as the greatest coach to ever stand behind a bench. Both of these statements can be argued, depending on point of views.

One thing that can never be argued is that Roger Neilson was an innovator, a teacher and a mentor. He had been a year late on almost everything in his career.  There was potential there which could of seen him as highly regarded as Gretzky was as a player or Bowman was as a coach.

The next time you view a sporting event and you see the fans with their “sea of white” or their “whiteout” or whatever name they want to put to it, think of Roger Neilson, and wave a white towel of your own, not for defeat but for victory.