Stars interim coach Rick Wilson has already shown an affinity for one particular word–reality.
The language choice is appropriate for someone who just took over a struggling team last week in time for a 6-1 home loss to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.
As much as people still remember fired coach Ken Hitchcock and departed general manager Bob Gainey, Wilson’s job is to move forward, day by day.
Asked about himself and new GM Doug Armstrong getting jobs on the same day from people they respected, Wilson declined to travel memory lane.
“That’s nice,” he said, “but it doesn’t help us win hockey games.”
Reality is a good word to describe the Stars’ situation. They’ve lost four of six games, they’re under .500 at home and they’ve yielded 26 goals in their last six losses overall.
On his first full day on the job last weekend, Wilson had already waded through the shock and mixed emotions of the previous day’s events. He was at the Stars’ practice facility at 8 a.m. reviewing film, just as he did as an assistant.
“Driving home after the [first] game I was already getting sort of charged up over what I had to do, what the team needed to do and what we as a staff needed to do,” Wilson said.
He’s preaching the same message that Hitchcock did, befitting someone who has been with the team for 10 years as an assistant coach.
Wilson understands what has won in the past and has no plans to change the Stars’ system, outside of a few tweaks.
Instead, the delivery has changed–a new voice, a different tone, an altered pitch.
“It seemed like training camp in a way,” defenseman Darryl Sydor said.
The players who know Wilson best caution not to mistake reduced volume for less intensity.
“I think Rick will definitely go about things different than Hitch,” captain Derian Hatcher said. “You might see a little less yelling but a little more . . . I truly feel if you’re not playing well, whether it be Mike Modano, he’ll sit you. He’s really going to make players accountable. If you’re not playing well, you’re not going to play.”
Wilson’s first target in practice was a deliberate, measured attempt to confront some of the basic tactical defensive problems that have plagued the Stars. Players and coaches have talked about the team’s identity.
Even if progress comes in baby steps, Wilson is trying to effect change.
He’s stressing effort on the ice and realizes that talk is overrated, even though he has chatted a couple times with Hatcher and held a brief team meeting Saturday.
“I don’t want to get into a lot of meetings,” he said. “I think there’s been a lot of meetings in the last months or weeks. As part of the change, it would be nice not to have many meetings and do our work on the ice and a lot less off the ice.
“And try to let that routine on the ice take care of itself.”
The Stars were nothing if not an attentive audience.
“They want direction,” Wilson said. “They want information. They want to work toward becoming a winning team again.”
