Ftorek is back behind the bench

[Rock]

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam040220/ahl_alb-cp.html

Ftorek is back behind the bench

By NEIL STEVENS -- Canadian Press

The only thing Robbie Ftorek doesn't like about his new job as head coach of the AHL's Albany River Rats is that he'll have less chance to be a fan at his sons' hockey games.

He'll be coaching against Sam, 29, who skates for the AHL's Manchester Monarchs, and he'll have little opportunity now to get to Stratford, Ont., where Casey, 19, plays for a junior team that began its playoffs Friday night.

Otherwise, he's in his element -- back behind a bench, where he belongs.

"The interaction with the players," he replies from the New York state capital when asked what it is he likes most about the profession. "I like to try to help them play a game as best as they can, to the point where you can turn to whoever it is you're coaching with and say, 'Isn't this nice, when it works the way it's supposed to work.'

"When you get to that part, that's the exciting part of coaching. That's what you strive for, where everybody is in sync."

New Jersey Devils GM Lou Lamoriello named Ftorek to take over the Albany team Tuesday. The 52-year-old Needham, Mass., native hadn't coached since being fired by the Boston Bruins last March 19.

The freedom of the time off allowed him to watch his sons play hockey, and daughter Anna, 15, help her high school team win a soccer championship. He and his wife, Wendy, also have a 26-year-old daughter, Lucie, who lives in Atlanta.

It's been a hiatus to enjoy the family, walk the dog, go antique hunting, fiddle with some gardening, and watch hockey from the outside.

Now he's back and he's got energy to burn.

"I'm not a real big runner but I jog," he says. "A lot of times I run the stairs in the arenas to stay sharp mentally and physically."

Ftorek's life has been connected to hockey since birth. His mother went into labour at a Bruins game.

He nearly became a figure skater. As a boy, he was coached by Marible Vinson Owen, who coached skaters on the U.S. Olympic team. A plane crash claimed the lives of Owen and the Winter Games-bound skaters in 1960. Ftorek was eight years old. He turned to hockey and set a goal of becoming a professional player.

"I'd probably never been able to play in hockey without that training," he says of the figure skating. "She taught me my edges, my stride. I even did some jumping and stuff."

He won a silver medal as a member of the 1972 U.S. Olympic hockey team, he scored 262 goals in 373 WHA games with the Phoenix Roadrunners and the Cincinnati Stingers, and he scored 77 goals in 334 NHL games with the Detroit Red Wings, Quebec Nordiques and New York Rangers.

His favourite memory from his playing days is helping Roadrunners teammate Bob Liddington achieve a contract bonus. The Calgarian needed to score 20 goals, and he needed something like eight in seven games to cash in. His teammates, including Ftorek, helped him do it.

"He wanted to buy a boat with that extra money and that meant a lot to him and to us," Ftorek explains. "We were on a team where most of the good players had been sold off but those of us who were left were a tight group of guys."

Ftorek began coaching in 1985 with Los Angeles' AHL affiliate in New Haven, Conn., and took over the Kings for nearly two years. He then coached a Halifax AHL team for part of a season before stepping up to the Nordiques as an assistant. He signed on with Lamoriello in 1992 to coach the Devils' AHL teams in Utica, N.Y., then Albany, where he won a Calder Cup and was twice coach of the year.

He was head coach of the Devils for nearly two years, and then he was hired in Boston. In the spring of 2002, he was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year. The Bruins didn't let him finish out the 2002-2003 season.

"I try to be honest and straightforward and, hopefully, that honesty will help you from burning bridges," he says.

He swears the moving around hasn't worn him down -- just the opposite.

"Every time you move around you have adrenalin and enthusiasm from the players you go into the new building with and that allows you to stay up," he says. "The excitement of the new challenge allows you to look forward to going to work every day."

Behind a players' bench, he usually looks ultra-serious.

"There's quite a few things going on when you're behind a bench you have to think about," he explains. "There are things that make you upset -- a bad call -- and things to watch for -- a play another team has been making that you can make sure you can take advantage of or shore up so you're not being taken advantage of.

"I don't look at it as work. But I take it seriously because you want your team to win."

Is he serious all the time?

"No, no," he insists. "But during the hockey season I usually am."

He's got the perseverance and know-how to make it back to the NHL as a head coach again.

"That's what I'd like to do," he says.

Don't be surprised when you see him there. There's only one thing he won't like about it.

"I dislike having to tell somebody they're not going to play," he says.

[nhDEVILSfan]

Earlier this season i saw him in the stands in Manchester watching his son's fir game. Who is a good player btw, but good for him wonder what will happen when the Rats play his son?

[Jas0nMacIsaac]

Earlier this season i saw him in the stands in Manchester watching his son's fir game. Who is a good player btw, but good for him wonder what will happen when the Rats play his son?

Tell Skrlac to go and beat him.....lol

[ratsgirl]

Earlier this season i saw him in the stands in Manchester watching his son's fir game.  Who is a good player btw, but good for him wonder what will happen when the Rats play his son?

luckily that won't be a problem this season since the rats don't play the monarchs again.