Barry Smith brings his vast hockey experience to the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

CEDAR RAPIDS — There was one more drill before the end of Cedar Rapids RoughRiders practice the other day.

It was a 3-on-2 deal, with the entire group of players split into two teams. Number of goals scored in this drill was the object.

“Losing team has to do push-ups,” declared the coach conducting the drill.

It wasn’t that coach, by the way. RoughRiders boss Mark Carlson was a bystander here, letting someone else take over.

That’d be Barry Smith, who ran much of the day’s practice.

“It’s good for me to go back and work with the younger players,” Smith said. “Because I’m learning at the same time about what works to make a better player and what doesn’t work. I’ve known Mark for awhile, and I had the invite.”

The 72-year-old Smith has virtually seen and done it all in his hockey life. An assistant or associate coach for the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins, Detroit Red Wings, Phoenix Coyotes and Vancouver Canucks.

He worked under Wayne Gretzky in Phoenix.

Smith also was a head coach in Sweden and the KHL in Russia. He was an associate head coach for Sweden in the 1998 Winter Olympics, a Director of Player Evaluation for the Chicago Blackhawks.

He has seven Stanley Cup championship rings in his possession: three while with the Red Wings, two each while with the Penguins and Blackhawks. He even was a head coach for the Wings for five games in 1998-99, a temporary fill-in for Scotty Bowman, who was having medical issues.

“It’s fun to see where the kids are at, it’s fun to see what levels they can compete with, what skill sets they have. It’s just good to meet other coaches and see how it’s going,” Smith said. “Before we went out (for practice), we talked about the actual game today and how we can improve as a team and how we can improve as a player.

  Buy Photo

“So we talked about some different components of the game. We discussed the three different moments of the game, which is possession (of the puck), no possession where you are playing defense and when neither team has possession. We talked about those three things.”

Smith is doing this consulting work, of sorts, with the encouragement of the United States Hockey League. USHL Vice President for Hockey Operations Ian Gentile has embraced it, with Smith saying his plans are to return to Cedar Rapids sometime after Christmas, and that he’s got appointments set up with other clubs in the league.

His plans in the near future are to travel to Vancouver to work at a hockey academy. He also had some things set up at the youth level in the Phoenix area, where he resides.

He says he does this all only for expenses, no actual salary. He wants to make the game better in North America, make players better.

“The problem you have, as I’ve found, is that we have a lot of good individual skill coaches out in the field and you have them during the summer, have the different skill clinics,” Smith said. “It’s all part and parcel, because it helps you get a tool kit with skill. But hockey is played with numerous players, so if I can play well individually but can’t play well collectively, I can’t help the other guys.

“The problem we have is we’re not teaching how to play collectively. That’s what I’m trying to help with right now.”

Smith said while there isn’t much question hockey players today are faster, stronger and more skilled, they don’t think the game as well.

“I think it’s caused by the environmental situation we have, that the player’s hockey sense and hockey IQ aren’t quite what it once was,” he said. “I’ll just give you two points, and this is my own philosophy. I think by not playing multiple sports, it hinders your creativity. And I also think about playing in backyards, in streets and games of hockey that we used to play all over the place. On ponds. If you just go to practice and play, that’s not enough.

“Players are faster, maybe they’re stronger. Sticks are different, so maybe they have a little quicker shot than before because it’s not wood. But how many smarter players do we have? I don’t think we’re building smart players. I just think that’s one thing that we really have to work on. What age can we do that at? That’s what I’m trying to find.”

He believes once a player has moved on to professional hockey, the effectiveness of working on improving hockey sense is minimal. Generally, as you go down age levels, it increases, he said.

“So I’m going to go out into the field and try to help the coaches,” Smith said. “If we can help them understand how the game is played and play collectively, then maybe we can build a couple more players. Don’t just get in line. Anybody can get in line.

“I think we need to take a look at the game in North America and maybe change our practice habits a little bit, so we can replicate the game. That’s basically our philosophy. Let’s replicate the game in practice, so as we play the game, we’ll be better. The reason you practice is to perform in the game.”

Smith was asked the differences in coaching in North America and in Europe. He said he very much enjoyed his time in the Kontinental Hockey League leading SKA Saint Petersburg, despite the obvious language barrier.

“Europe has a real soccer mentality because that’s their number one sport,” he said. “Just to give you an analogy, if I drop a bucket of pucks here, and I turn around on the bench and talk to you, I would hear ‘bang, bang, bang, bang.’ Guys shooting it against the board, nailing pucks, slapping them. If I drop a bucket of pucks in Europe, it’d be ‘swish, swish, swish, swish.’ Stickhandling.

“They love the artist, we love the banger, the big hitter.”

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com