Last week readers of the Blueland Blog were given the chance to submit questions for new head coach John Anderson. I caught up with him while he was in town (he's currently in Ontario at a coaching clinic) and asked as many of those questions as I could in the time allotted. Due to time constraints not every question got asked so I chose the ones that I thought would be of the most interest to the broadest range of fans.
Q: How will you increase our defense so we can start playing in the offensive zone? ~ Sean

I think it might be the opposite way around. If we have the puck and we're attacking we don't have to defend. The more we have control of that puck the way we want it the less time we'll spend in our own zone. It's two different philosophies, but I don't want to sit back. I want to make sure that we have the puck and that we're moving forward.

Q. The Wolves have gotten plenty of scoring from the blueline while the Thrashers haven't. Do you have plans to change that? ~ JB

I had Mark Popovic when he was a third year pro, and I looked at his numbers. I don't know how familiar you are with Mark Popovic but he can really skate. He'd been in Cincinnati. I said 'Mark, the way you can skate, how come you only have two or three goals?' Well, they didn't want me to go up. Well I said 'How about this? Green light. It's professional hockey. If you have a lane to go you can take it all the way to the net and we will come back and cover for you. Do you understand?' And if you look at his numbers that first year he got 12, then 16. My D has the green light to go all the way to the net and it's up to the other guys, the forwards, to read who is up ice and cover for them. So we will have some more defensive scoring. I'll even tell Garnet Exelby to do that.

Q. In all of your championships you have won in your coaching tenure, what was the one that meant the most to you as a head coach? ~ JB

They were all the ultimate. This year might have been a little more special after the six-year drought, but there's always a few things in every year that are huge obstacles to overcome, so every one of them was very special to me.

Follow-up from Ben because Anderson wears a championship ring: What ring are you wearing right now?

That's my Quad Cities ring. It was the first one we won. I wear it just to remind myself how hard it is to do. It's very, very difficult.

Q. How do you plan on getting the most out of Ilya Kovalchuk? ~ Andrew

Open the gate and let him go.

Q. What do you think is going to be the biggest difference between Chicago and Atlanta, besides it being the AHL and NHL? ~ Jill

There are a couple of things. Certainly dealing with the referees. I have a tendency to get a little too talkative and certainly my first year as I get to know them maybe I should be a little bit quieter. And when you're in the American league you know the coaches, so you kind of know the styles they play and it helps you going in there. That will be the biggest thing- figuring out the other coaches are going to do on a nightly basis, especially the teams in our division, as quickly as possible.

Q. You are relatively new to the team so how will you evaluate which lines your players will play on? Will you go by who they played with last season or will you make your own judgments on which players have good chemistry together? ~ Floyd

I'm going to talk to our staff, and certainly Donnie. He was there. I'll certainly ask for his opinion and play it a little bit by ear. Nothing is set in stone and that's the beauty of setting up lines and D partners. Nothing is set in stone and you can always change it, even in games. So that doesn't concern me a lot. But I will listen to him for certain input just to start off.

Q. The Thrashers have consistently been at the bottom of the league for penalty killing. How do you plan on improving this aspect of the Thrashers? ~ Floyd

Well, the Wolves last year were very passive. As soon as we see a chance to jump the puck we will. Once one guy jumps everybody moves and they all rotate around the box. We'll be a little more patient than before. We won't like to give the other defensemen the middle so we'll try to cut that off and make them pass it down the wall and try to keep it on the wall and on the outside perimeter. As soon as we see a chance to go after the puck everybody will start rotating. It's worked in the past and if it doesn't we'll try something else.

Q. How will you make this season fun for the players? ~ Floyd

I think just making it a positive environment. I I think spending time together as a team is important and we're going to do a lot of that this year. We'll do some team-building things. I don't want to get into it because it's more of an in-house team thing. I think that everybody feels a need to have some input on the team, whether you play two minutes a game or you play half the game, so if you make everybody feel important in their own little niche I think that makes it important to each player, and of course winning makes it fun too. I think it all goes hand in hand.

 Q. Do you think that having fun is essential to being successful or do you think that fun is a result of being successful? ~ Floyd

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Q. How do you motivate players to succeed in general and do you alter that method of motivation depending on whether the particular player is a veteran or a rookie/offensive skater or defensive skater, netminder? ~ J.B.

I think you just have to deal with the individual. I've had a couple of guys that if I bark at them on the bench, you know, I can tell by how they feel and how they look and how they perform the next shift. If you do that to some guys it puts them in a cocoon and they don't perform. Some guys if I don't bark at them, they don't think I'm serious. I should take Psych 101 or something. I think as a coach you have a feel for who is who and what is what, and it takes a little while to understand each individual, but every
individual has to be coached in his own little way, especially when you're trying to teach or communicate what you want from that player.

Q. What will a training camp under John Anderson look like? ~Sam

Well, I want to set my systems in place right away. There's a lot of them and there's a lot they have to know. Sometimes when you're doing that it's a little boring and it takes away from the flow of practice. So once we initially start that type of process I won't have to go to the board all o the time. I sue different names for different situations that we have so that when I say that name they should be able to recognize right away. If they don't it's back in my office and I'm on the board with them so it doesn't screw up practice. So practice is going to be a little slower, but initially I want to start the things that I want to do as a team systems wise.

Q. How much say is Don Waddell giving you in off season transactions? ~Drock20J

Just a little bit at the draft. I appreciated that he asked for my comments right away at the draft table. Since then we sat down and went over the depth chart a little bit to find out my feelings on certain guys. Although I do know the players, I have to respect his opinion and the staff because they were here. As much as I like to think I know them, I didn't spend 80 games with them. Plus our schedule game was so busy, to watch more than 10-15 Thrashers games was very difficult. We got in cities that didn't even have
hockey coverage, so that was tough.

Q. What coach most influenced you? ~mo wanchuk

Two actually. One was George Armstrong who I talked to at the draft. He was my junior coach for four years. He wasn't the greatest X's and O's guy but he was one of those guys, if he told me to go through the wall I'd ask how far because he made me feel good about myself. Our team was really together and if you ask anyone else from those teams they'll tell you the same thing.

The other one was Roger Neilson because back then we just had VCR decks and stuff like that. We'd play Toronto on Saturday night and then play a game in Boston on Sunday. He'd cut tape all night and have it ready by morning for the afternoon game. So that kind of work ethic, I really appreciate. I didn't understand it at the time but I do now being a coach.

Q. What current hockey coach do you most admire?  ~mo wanchuk

Bruce Boudreau. I respect a lot of the things he does. We talk at least on a weekly basis and we talked about his growth through the Washington thing because every day the pressure was on him to win because they had to do the impossible just to get there. So that was a neat thing to share with him.

Q. Who is your favorite hockey coach of all time?  ~mo wanchuk

George Armstrong.

Q. What do you perceive the role of team captain to be?  ~mo wanchuk

I want him to be a positive person. A person who can lead by example but also have command of the intensity in the room. If there's bull going on he has to stop and say "This is bull." And he can lead that way too. I'm not going to say a bit of a coarse guy, but certainly a guy that's ready to stand up and be counted. I think if a guy stands up and starts yelling and screaming all the time you kind of lose that message. But if a guy is a hard-working guy and he stands up and says "Hey, this isn't right" then guys will respect him.

Follow-up Traditionally, how have you chosen the captains on your teams? Do you pick them or do the players have a say?

I like to do it, but it's not just me. It's the coaching and managerial staff. I'm not the Ayatollah. I don't want that type of environment here. I want input from everybody. If I make the final decision, well somebody has to make it. But I want to hear from everybody.