Coventry Blaze head coach Kevin Moore has backed his team to return to winning ways after consecutive loses to the Guildford Flames and Cardiff Devils last weekend.
Moore, who joined Coventry as bench boss in the offseason, spoke with britishicehockey.co.uk on Friday [15 November], answering questions about his transition to head coaching, recent eligibility updates in the NCAA, and his side’s impressive start to the season.
Here is every word the 36-year-old said:
You’re 6-3-1 to start the season, how does that compare to where you expected to be at the ten-game mark?
Honestly, I didn’t put a win or loss goal on anything. I expected us to be good, I believe in this group, and I was confident in the recruitment process that we had recruited a team to have success. Where I really think we hit the mark is with the mentality and team identity elements that we are trying to implement.
It’s about being present, positive, and able to problem solve – and you can build a really resilient team and maintain a high standard if you have those things as part of your team identity. We hit the mark on that and it’s always really nice to have early success, but we never put a number on how many wins or losses we were hoping for at this stage.
While the Blaze rank third in goals for, you only have one player inside the top-ten for individual scoring. Do you see the fact that your goals and assists are spread across the line-up as a positive?
Absolutely. Hockey is the ultimate team sport and we wanted to build a team – you know, capital letters ‘TEAM’ – and it’s [therefore] not surprising to see the production spread. It just speaks to the quality of our individuals and their ability to work together as units.
Kevin Moore, Coventry Blaze (Image: Scott Wiggins)
What has been the biggest adjustment from your role as an assistant coach with the Nottingham Panthers to being the head coach in Coventry?
In this league, the biggest adjustment from assistant to head is that there have been a lot more five-on-five pre-scout hours for me to put in. Last year, my role was exclusively focused on special teams, defencemen, and goalies, so there’s a larger pool of things to worry about – which is more time consuming. But, in terms of just how I coach and manage interpersonal relationships with the players, nothing has really changed and everything is pretty similar to how it was the year I was a head coach in the NCAA.
It was difficult for you with back-to-back losses last weekend – how has the team responded in training?
It’s been good. We’ve got a hungry group. They’re hungry to get better and have a growth mindset. Like I said, one of our themes is problem solving. After every weekend, good or bad, we reconvene on Tuesday and talk about what went well, what went badly, and we’re very honest in that. From there, it’s just back to work and the team’s been as hard-working as ever because it’s part of their identity.
With the Sheffield Steelers and Nottingham Panthers on the schedule for this weekend, what are you hoping to see from your players?
Honestly, just consistency and a really high work rate. After last weekend, I’d like to see us react to loose pucks better and be a little quicker in our second effort. Really, it’s just about maintaining our standards and the habits we’re trying to build. If you do that, you’re usually pretty happy when the dust settles after a weekend.
With Sheffield in Champions Hockey League action on Tuesday, is now a better time to face them?
No! They’re really well-coached in terms of what they do with their systems and we fully expect them to be the Sheffield Steelers that we’re used to facing.
Kevin Moore, Coventry Blaze (Image: Scott Wiggins)
We’re ready for that challenge and we’re ready to basically be ourselves and push the pace in our own way. We know it’ll be a tough game, just as every game is in this league.
Will Sheffield’s performances in Europe this season help the Elite League recruit players in the seasons to come or will their form only impact their recruitment?
I absolutely think it will help the league. There’s some history to it, too – Belfast got the ball last year and the Steelers have taken it to another level this year. Hopefully, with Sheffield having more success in the Champions League, it will help further.
I know that as the summer went on, respect for our league certainly grew in conversations with players and agents. It seemed like we were a little more well-known than the previous year. It’s been building and that’s great for our league because, to me, we’re one of the best leagues in Europe. It’s just awesome and I do think it’ll help.
Coventry Blaze’s Kevin Moore on Landmark NCAA Ruling:
Canadian Hockey League players will be eligible to play in the NCAA from next season – do you see that as a positive or a negative for the sport and the Elite League, more specifically?
There are always unintended consequences that we can’t see. In the long-term, after all the ups and downs of the change, I think it’s going to be very positive for the sport. But, in the short-term, I think there might be certain unintended consequences that might make it a little rocky at first. It does a variety of things in a positive sense and it will help young people who are stuck in a bad hockey situation in the CHL at least make the jump to the NCAA while getting an education.
Certainly, the transfer portal in the NCAA has almost professionalised all sports, which I think is a negative. But, all in all, allowing players access to NCAA is a very good thing, but it’ll be rocky at first. Even for the coaches, it’s turning the NCAA into a professional league and that’s just a totally different thing for them to handle behind the scenes, with fees and other unintended consequences.
It’s going to be a bit of a wild west for a few years until it settles – will it mean that a young player who is collecting a paycheque in our league could make that jump? Would it be classified on the same level as the CHL? You just don’t know how they’ll classify that in the future.
