Coach’s hiring foreshadows NHL changes

Revolutions sometimes begin quietly. Monday the Chicago Blackhawks named Alpo Suhonen their new head coach. A Finland native, he is the first NHL modern-era, European-born coach. The changes to follow will appear on the ice as well as behind the bench.

Ivan Hlinka is expected to be named the new Pittsburgh Penguins coach, taking over for Herb Brooks. Hlinka is from the Czech Republic and was an assistant for Brooks this year. This change may not happen, as the Pens want Brooks to return, but have not met his money demands. Brooks never wanted to return as a head coach and swore he would only finish the season but the Pens are trying to change his mind.

No matter, Suhonen will not be the last European-born and hockey-trained coach to take the lead for an NHL team. Once comprised almost entirely of Canadian juniors players, the rosters of the expanding NHL have increasingly been filled by Americans, college players and European players.

There is a natural tension in the NHL between those wanting to move toward a more free skating, wide-open European brand of hockey and those believing in the more physical, defense-minded Canadian game.

Suhonen has coached more than 1,000 games in Europe, but also brings coaching experience in the AHL and IHL to his new position. He will be part of an organization effort in Chicago to tilt a traditional black-and-blue physical team toward a more free-skating, European-type style.

Chicago has been a bad team for the past three seasons. They were not winning with a lineup loaded with bang-you-into-submission type players. It was time for a change.

Chicago will quickly fill their roster with speed and finesse players. The rest of the league will watch with interest.

To date, it has not been possible to win a Stanley Cup without a mix of talent weighed toward physical, defensive play. The exceptions were the Wayne Gretzky-dominated Cup teams in Edmonton. They cast a light, not forgotten, that showed what a highly skilled team can do with speed. Nevertheless, they had players who played the body hard when needed.

As the league has grown and the talent spread thinner, the ongoing question is, can a team based on offense and speed win a Cup with a European flavor? Chicago is ready to try.

The final four teams this year play a lot of body, as evidenced by the injuries and bruised faces that still dominate the physical grind for the Cup. It will only take one good run for Lord Stanley’s hardware by a finesse team to send NHL general managers on a search to change the player mix.

With two new teams joining the league next year, there will be more European players crossing the big pond to make their marks, and fortunes, in the NHL.

Players like Jaromir Jagr and Teemu Selanne want to play the wide-open game that best lets them showcase their skills. The NHL, as in all sports, is a league that believes fans want offense. Canada’s game, and Canadian fans, know hockey as a no-holds-barred war on ice. In the U.S., where the league seeks to expand the fan base, individual offensive stars will be the emphasis.

The NHL wants to market players flying down the ice, stick handling between their legs, their locks flying in the jet wash. The European style is a far better forum for such play.

The big, bad Blackhawks going finesse? Yes, and soon. Tradition meets tomorrow in the Midwest today.

NEWS columnist Gary Thorne, an Old Town native, is an ESPN and CBS broadcaster.