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player ready...Early this season, after a tough road loss, Doug MacLean arrived home in the wee hours. He was tired and angry as he crawled into bed, but three little words really got his blood boiling.
”Nice power play,” his wife, Jill, said with drowsy sarcasm.
”I didn`t say a word,” said MacLean, Detroit Red Wings assistant coach. ”I wanted to, but I just rolled over and went to sleep.”
That he can tell this story speaks volumes about the strength of his family life, the security he feels in an insecure profession and his ability to share a laugh at his own expense. And it didn`t hurt, as he predicted, that the power play got a lot better.
Lately, MacLean`s duties have expanded well beyond those usually associated with a top NHL assistant. With coach Bryan Murray serving the third game of a five-game suspension Saturday night, MacLean will be behind the Red Wings` bench for San Jose`s first appearance at Joe Louis Arena.
For MacLean, whom many expect to succeed Murray as coach one day, that means perhaps the best job in hockey is even better.
”Nobody in the NHL realizes how good a job I have,” MacLean, 37, said Friday. ”I mean, to go into Maple Leaf Gardens and be a coach, that`s like a dream come true. I still have to pinch myself.”
That was Tuesday, when Detroit lost 4-3 on a goal with two seconds left. The next night in Buffalo, they won 9-4, which makes MacLean 4-2 in games as Murray`s stand-in the last two seasons.
MacLean is a former teacher on his native Prince Edward Island, where one of his pupils was Red Wings forward Gerard Gallant. He has coached at many levels-juniors, college and minors and as an assistant at St. Louis and Washington. A pretty good playmaker as a center in juniors and college, MacLean never made it beyond a tryout with the Blues when he was 19.
His relationship with Murray goes back 18 years to junior hockey, when Murray was coaching and MacLean was one of the better players on another team. Murray coached the league`s all-star team, which included MacLean that season. Later, on Murray`s recommendation, MacLean got a scholarship to play at the University of Prince Edward Island. Their paths didn`t cross again until MacLean was out of a job in St. Louis and Murray was looking for an assistant in Washington.
”It was one of those situations where you sit down and talk with a guy for five minutes and you just know you`re going to be good friends,” MacLean said.
Murray remembers the honesty and sincerity MacLean conveyed in two days of interviews: ”I had the sense that here was a guy who was excited to get a chance. He would do anything to coach in the National League.”
When Murray came to the Red Wings in 1990, he invited MacLean along. MacLean came to Detroit after waffling only slightly: He was also offered the jobs of coach and general manager at Hershey, Philadelphia`s American Hockey League affiliate.
”What an opportunity,” he said of working with Murray. ”I`ve learned a lot about hockey. I`m on the bench with one of the best bench guys in the league. I want to be a head coach in this league, but I`m not panicking. When I get my chance, I don`t want it to be a short-term thing.”
With Murray handling the general manager`s duties as well, MacLean is privy to personnel matters, such as line formations, moving players to and from the minors and trade scenarios. Murray frequently asks MacLean`s opinion. If he doesn`t, MacLean isn`t shy about offering it anyway.
Conversely, now that MacLean is running the bench with assistant Dave Lewis, Murray doesn`t interfere with lineup decisions or strategies.
”He just says: `You`re coaching. You make the decisions. Just win,”`
MacLean said. ”He gives you a little bit of rope.”