Christian Arnold
UNIONDALE, N.Y. — New York Islanders head coach Barry Trotz isn’t one to be afraid to poke fun at himself from time to time. So when a reporter asked what it meant to reach 1,700 games coached in the NHL, the response shouldn’t have surprised anyone.
“It means that I’m old,” Trotz joked Sunday afternoon.
Perhaps he is right, but there is plenty of wisdom that he’s garnered over the course of his 22 years as an NHL coach. what began in Nashville, Tennessee has taken Trotz to Washington D.C. and Now to Long Island. The veteran coach led an expansion franchise to seven playoff appearances during his 15 years in Music City, won a Stanley Cup during his four years in the nation’s capital and helped the Islanders reach the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1993.
“I’m probably a little more reserved in terms of emotions,” Barry Trotz said Tuesday morning when asked what has changed the most over the years about him. “Being able to keep emotions in check versus when I was a young lunatic in the league. I think as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that I probably know more, but I was young and I thought I knew more than everybody else, and I didn’t really know anything.
“I just think you mature as a person, you mature as a coach and I think what experience does is allow you to filter out what’s really important and what’s not.”
Trotz joins an elite, but a small group of coaches to reach the 1,700 mark in his career. In fact, he is only the third NHL coach to reach the milestone.
Legendary bench boss Scotty Bowman coach 2,141 games during the course of his career and Joel Quenneville has coached 1,730 since he entered the league in 1997.
“He’s done it the right way,” Jordan Eberle said about Trotz. “His resume speaks for itself. You don’t get that many games without
