Roger also introduced us to proper off ice conditioning, got us working on face-off plays and he probably came up with the first (defined chart) of scoring chances. “It was new, but refreshing and I was all for it. “We were all packed in a little room under the stands at the Gardens when he showed us those first videos, on a basic TV, going over power play and penalty killing. “All that had to start somewhere,” said Darryl Sittler, who was Leaf captain for Neilson’s first training camp in September of 1977. Analytics nerds also owe Neilson their gratitude. Coaches have tablets right on the bench to give immediate feedback on a play or to challenge a call. In 2017, almost every pro team employs a video coach and state-of-the-art tech.
The old black attache case that once held his tapes, marked with a giant Leaf logo, is now in the Canadian Museum of History’s hockey display. Neilson is gone, but Captain Video lives on, every time someone picks up a remote in a special teams meeting.
He brought the classroom to the dressing room - math, science and phys ed - yet is most revered today for cross-wiring offence, defence and forechecking to record, pause and rewind. No one knew what to make of the curly-topped coach when he first walked into Maple Leaf Gardens, carting his workbooks, scads of paper stats and rudimentary electronics.įorty years on, coaches around the world wonder what they’d have done without Roger Neilson.
