Blackhawks Hire Kevin Dineen
The Blackhawks announced Monday that they have hired Kevin Dineen to replace Jamie Kompon as an assistant coach.
Dineen, 50, was the head coach of the Florida Panthers from 2011 to 2013, leading them to their first division championship in 2011-12. After he was relieved of his duties in Florida, Dineen led the Canadian women’s national team to a gold medal in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Dineen also served as head coach for the Portland Pirates (AHL) from 2005 to 2011, winning the AHL’s Coach of the Year award in 2005-06. With the extensions given to Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, there’s no question the Blackhawks are going to need their prospects to play a significant role over the next few seasons. Dineen’s experience as an AHL coach should make him a good fit to work with the younger players as they matriculate their way into the NHL.
He was teammates with Blackhawks Head Coach Joel Quenneville from 1984 to 1990 when both were members of the Hartford Whalers.
Dont know much about him, but from the brief look i took at his coaching record he seems ok. Im curious to look up the numbers of his PK’s and PP’s.
Dineen is a good coach. Jason Garrison got paid because of how effective he was on the PP on Dineen’s 2011-12 Panthers. He won a division and pushed the Cup Final-bound Devils to a Game 7 in the first round that spring… and the top 3 forwards on his roster were Tomas Fleischmann, Stephen Weiss and Kris Versteeg. He’ll certainly enjoy working with the abundance of talent in Chicago.
I don’t know much about Dineen but I like that he has been a head coach in the NHL. Hopefully he fits in well and has a positive influence.
I know there is a difference between Men’s and Women’s Hockey, but the Canadian Women expected to win the gold medal…even being down to the U.S. where the U.S. Women were hoping to win…play like that comes from leadership…players and coaches. I think Dineen will have a positive impact on the Blackhawks and Tab your comment about working with youth cannot be stated enough. If Q is the one who “punishes” youth (not all true Kruger, Saad, Smith, Shaw) and gets them in a tizzy, you have to have a coach who is respected to help balance that out.
Dineen is a close friend of Q’s, so he is a “Q-guy”, but Dineen is a special person…very smart, very good hockey player, and has proven himself to be a very smart hockey coach…he should never have been fired by Tallon, but in FLA they have to do things differently than other franchises to give the fans the sense of trying or getting better.
Dineen is a GREAT selection for us…he becomes instantly the best ASST Coach we have had in a long, long time. He is a disciplinarian like Q, but Dineen is very fair…he teaches very well, and then expects the players to execute what is being taught…those that don’t will have consequences…but at the same time, he does have a built in sensitivity/appreciation for younger players…its been Kevin’s specialty so far in his coaching career…so he knows to let them play to work out their kinks, but reinforces daily what he wants done.
Also, Dineen has always had good S Ts everywhere he has coached…so this is VERY good news for our PP and hopefully PK…Dineen’s style is at odds with Q’s style of PASSIVE S Ts…Dineen’s PK pressures the puck carrier and doesn’t give up the blue line easily, and his PP is designed to get the puck to the point, crash the net, and the shoot, shoot, shoot, and look for rebounds. So he is aggressive and understands the necessity to have big bodies in front of the net…look for Bickell perhaps to play a much bigger role on the PP.
Again, this is great news…so far we have had a “rock star” off season with who we have gotten rid of and who we have added…on top of this our prospects are looking better than advertised…just a great franchise…we are going to win the Cup again this coming season…I feel it.
Dineen is a good hire. I was thinking they might have went the Adam Oates route to help with the PP. But their was no Quenneville connection. It’s crazy how many Whalers are still around.
Dineen is a solid hockey guy. He has his share of detractors, but Mike Babcock and Joel Quenneville have been long-time friends and allies of Dineen. That works for me.
Some of you have to chill on the extreme influence you place on the coach in charge of the PK and PP. Sure, the special team strategy is very important. But it comes down to the players on the ice, and it comes down to EXECUTION on the ice. Kompon did a fine job in Chicago so far as any of us fans know.
Rufus- you think not having the point men switch sides after establishing position is a good strategy? Or, during 5 on 3’s, having Hossa and Keith at the points, both left handed shots? The 5 on 3 in particular bothered the shit out of me. It was always obvious where the shot was going to come from so the high man of the triangle could cheat towards Hossa.
Wow Rufus, the coaches play a HUGE role in S Ts…especially when your players are guys like Toews, Hossa, Kane, Sharp, Keith…you KNOW what you are going to get from these players, game to game, shift to shift. We KNOW that they are going to execute. Or are you literally telling us that our PP/PK problems during the Q years stem from the fact that the aforementioned players are f$cking brain dead when it comes to S Ts/skilled play???
I mean it is literally funny how you get most everything completely WRONG. Sorry to bring this point up again, but man, when your system on the PK is to tell amazing forecheckers like Toews and Hossa to forget their talents, give up the blue line and then try and stand in front of point shots and clear rebounds, you better f$cking believe there is a problem with the coaches…YOU ALWAYS PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS!
As for our PP, to have Duncan Keith back there time after time fumble around with the puck in our zone, and incredulously watch him attempt to get the puck into the offensive zone without any coherent plan is beyond unbelievable. This defines what Einstein said about insanity!
Dineen’s history is one of AGGRESSIVE S Ts or did you not read that part…so his hiring, as long as he is allowed to run what he has in the past, is a HUGE deal for the Hawks. Improving our PP and PK%’s by even a couple of points will mean another 5 or 6 wins a season, which would give us the best record in hockey every year…yeah, kind of a big deal.
Kompton, who we were told was in charge of the PP, did a poor job while in CHI…and if Kitchen looks after the PK, he should be fired!
Facepalm. To read the daily diatribes of Sr. Brad is to believe that the Hawks are ONLY limited by Coach Joel Quenneville and his band of assistant coaches over the last six seasons. Every one of your posts has an inference of some sort that the Hawks should go 82-0 and win every game by a score of 12-0. That it is so incredibly EASY to absolutely dominate and destroy the rest of the NHL with this roster options available to Quenneville.
You’re a fu(k!ng insuferrable moron. Guess what. The Hawks don’t operate in your Playstation world pal. I’ve played a crap ton more hockey in my life than you pal. And coached and watched many more times as well. You can spout off your armchair criticisms of the PP and PK under Quenneville all you want, that is of course when you take a breather from annointing Jeremy Morin to top 6 status.
Again, if playing in the NHL were ONLY SO SIMPLE as you would like to distill it down to be…heck, even you could be coach then.
Rufus: finish puberty and come back w/ something stronger than “I’ve played more hockey than you.” Not defending Sr. Brad at all – but the “I’ve played more than you” argument is weak sauce.
How about actually addressing what Brad said instead of swearing at him.
P.S. When I first started reading this blog I thought that the Rufus T. Firefly “handle” was a running joke done by one of the posters, portraying the persona of an “ignorant know-it-all fan” but unfortunately you are very real.
Thanks for “not defending me” Tab…when you make comments like that you attempt to lower me to the level/standards of Rufus…DON’T!
Rufus, you have NOT played or coached organized hockey…guaranteed…because I have, at a high level, I KNOW by your comments over time that you are the arm chair QB…and I don’t care, really…just don’t try to pass yourself off as someone who knows the game, YOU DON’T. It is so painfully obvious. Just as obvious as you don’t have Hawk season tickets…I will try and leave your comments “alone” as best I can, but you get things so wrong at times, its just amazing really.
And as I and others have pointed out COUNTLESS times here, you never address our comments to you in hockey related way, at all…you simply lose your composure, freak out, and tirade. Defend your position…talk hockey…you made an incredibly short sighted statement, and I responded in detail…RESPOND TO THE WORDS…when you don’t you simply prove yourself to be either an irascible teenager or cranky old man…anything but a knowledgable hockey fan.
Toews, Hossa, Kane, Keith, Sharp, etc…don’t need to EXECUTE better on S Ts, when the rest of their games they execute so well, they NEED an effective system to EXECUTE.
And I have given Coach Q TONS of props for the things he does and has done well. S Ts is NOT one of them…go back over his entire coaching career and show me where ANY of his teams have had prolonged success with either the PP or the PK. Q is old school and he sticks with what has worked for him…on the positive side, that’s 2 way, defensively responsible play, which I support a 100%. But his dependency on aging veterans, his lack of skill at creating lines, and his dinosaur-like approaches to S Ts are NOT part of greatness…remember, prior to coming to CHI, Q’s teams had NOT WON A SINGLE significant playoff series in his entire career. There was no HOF talk about Q until after he arrived as the “step father” to Toews and Kane.
Deal with it sport.
Tab, you might give some SERIOUS thought to a “moron” moderator. It’s fun to chuckle when reading some of this stuff, but at some point, it would be nice if your posters maintained some sense of maturity. Do we not profess to be ADULTS here?
In my opinion I think KD will be a nice addition to the Hawks staff. We’re getting a great guy and a decent coach. He’s developed many players such as Dustin Penner, Bobby Ryan and Tyler Ennis to name a few. His ability to work with young players are definitely one of his strengths. His father Bill Dineen was a head coach for the Flyers and was with the Hawks for a cup of coffee in the late fifties I believe. I think the young guys are going to like his style.
Reports out of Boston are that he talked with the Bruins about their vacant assistant coach job but chose Chicago instead. I’m sure the Whale connection with Q came into play along with the talent that he has to work with now AND into the foreseeable future. I’d have to say I like his decision making so far.
Rufus- the Coaches aren’t really important on the S T’s???
Gotta disagree there.
And I don’t have to have ANY HOCKEY experience to tell you simple Geometry/Math!!!
When the PK is pressuring 88 w/ Puck on boards around the Goal line… and no one is in the Middle of ice (between circles or in 1-3-1 set)… Kane will have 1 less pass available- and the passing lanes he has are of low/no scoring value…
Simple remedy- when being pressured by aggressive PK’s- go to 1-3-1 set to give more passing lanes to all PP guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RTF- are you suggesting the Hawks were coached to do so, and they chose not to…
If they were coached to do that… then I would have to agree- it’s on the Players…
But I have to believe they were not coached to use a 1-3-1 set…
It’s on the Coaches…
And Please stop your Rant on Morin… I always agreed with you on Pirri- not being a good enough skater… BUT- you are wrong on Morin… Just like you are wrong on Danault so far!!!
NEW COACHING LINEUP FOR THE 2014-2015 BLACKHAWKS!!!
Head Coach: Tab Bamford. Tab has extensive experience running a blog and being a huge sports fan. He will make a fantastic head coach.
Asst Coach: Sr. Brad. He enjoys hockey and also loves rooting for his “favourite” team, the Blackhawks. On occasion he will name drop or get some insider information from one of his Canadian neighbor pals who knows something the rest of us don’t. He is a connoisseur of the Power Play and will give every youngster in the organIzation a fair shot. Sr. Brad is a firm believer of drafting well and developing within.
Asst Coach: Rufus T. Firefly. Mr. Rufus thinks outside of the box and takes the road less traveled, but in his own words, “that has made all the difference.” He can catch flack from his associate coaches for this kind of thinking, but it has proven to work in his years of playing more hockey than Sr. Brad and Tab combined. *For the record, has Tab ever played hockey?
I played organized floor hockey for a couple of seasons. I scored a goal once. I also went out really quickly and bought myself some racquetball goggles, because the floor hockey ball, when hit as a slapshot by big half-drunk guys who used to play ice hockey, can really hurt when they go off your noggin. Please note that I’m not calling anyone on this board who played real hockey a big half-drunk guy.
Oh, and on the hiring of the new assistant coach….I like it a lot.
Sigh.
United Center season tickets. Section 219. 2 seats split with family member and in name for 14 consecutive seasons
Chicago Stadium. Partial season tickets from 1986 thru 1990.
Deerfield Hockey Club, 1976-81.
Northern Illinois University club RW, 1981-84.
Milwaukee Steel recreational league, 1986-88
Various other adult rec leagues thru 2005
Current Asst Coach Glacier Ice Marauders, 2008-present
Head Coach Glacier Ice Marauders (three differnt youth levels, to include girls team), 1996-2003
Assistant Coach Carmel Catholic HS, 2003-04
Head c
Haha, the old I played the game argument.
I believe Obi Wan Kenobi said it best “from a certain point of view”
Cool they got that filled. Apparently Campbell and Sharp were holding hands at a cubs game so ill stir the #salarydump pot again.
re: Rufus & Brad
Is your junior high pissing contest over yet? The rest of us would like to talk about professional hockey players
SOLID hockey Resume Rufus.
Sr. Brad…care to share yours?
First, once again, good signing by the Hawks…Dineen has traits and skills that will help our team!
Tab calling the kettle black…wow…how about you commenting on hockey…care to weigh in on coaching special teams?
Rufus, if any of that is true, good on you for playing the game and helping out others. Giving back is a special act that benefits many.
As for judging players, you said the same things about Shaw, Saad, Leddy, Kruger, and especially Ben Smith…then you pissed on the success that Pirri and Hayes had in Florida, essentially calling Florida a joke to justify the numbers put up by both players there…then you make comments like the Hawks are falling into NHL parity with their salary cap issues, which again, conflicts what you said earlier…coaches don’t make comments like these, and they aren’t consistently wrong on players…they just aren’t Rufus. I have given “predictions” on all these players that have matched their level of success. I stick behind my actual evaluations of Morin, Dahlbeck and Clendening.
Now, how about answering a hockey question Coach? Contrary to Tab’s opinion I have talked hockey throughout the day…answer the hockey questions addressed to you, if you care to…as a coach how do you justify your comments about the PP and PK??? Unless you misspoke, there isn’t a person in the hockey fraternity that would agree with you..
JS has asked, Wall has asked, I have asked…
Fansince2010, good stuff! I think its important for non Canadians to understand, EVERY Canadian knows an NHL player past or present…small population and most people play hockey…its just how Canada is.
My 3 year old son knows that coaches influence special teams.
Ode to the Hartford Whalers
Name the movie,….”Breakfast, shmreakfast. Look at the score, for Christ’s sake. It’s only the second period and I’m up 12 to 2. Breakfasts come and go, Rene, but Hartford, “the Whale,” they only beat Vancouver once, maybe twice in a lifetime.”
I like the Dineen signing. Around the ref community, he had a lot of respect because of two things: 1. He didn’t come unglued when things didn’t go his way. He respected the players, the ref’s and the game itself. 2. He is willing to change and adapt in the middle of a game. His awareness and his ability to find solutions to problems is really what makes him so great.
Most coaches wait until a period is over to make an adjustment or identify what is happening, but Dineen is a “do it now” type of coach. He will make a difference.
He will be a head coach, again, too.
Although the chest pumping, jabs and occasional hay makers are mildly amusing lets focus on the Hawks and hockey-Cease Fire!
I’m so pumped that Morin (I hope) will be given a true shot-Been a fan since his junior days–I think he will add something that has been missing. (and this team hasn’t been missing much) If in a year or two he doesn’t stack up then the detractors can pipe up.
First, I do not want to share our personal histories and wasn’t asking Rufus to…2010, if anyone wants more detailed information about my hockey past (who cares?), email Tab privately and I can provide direct email contact with you. Short list, Victoria Cougars as a player ’79/’80/’81 seasons…missed playing in the Memorial Cup because I was called up to the NHL…played 2 and 1/2 seasons, suffered a career ending injury…Grant Fuhr was one of my team mates with the Cougs, (his nickname was Coco, and I can tell you the real reason why) along with my childhood friend Geoff Courtnall…I was born in Victoria, not Duncan as the history books state.
Head Coach Victoria Kings (Major Midget) 3 Provincial Cups in 4 years. Now retired, and I have a home in Canada and a home in Mexico.
None of this makes any of my opinions better than any of yours…it simply will let you know why a lot of my talent assessments in the younger players are accurate.
This is a site to share ideas and opinions about hockey and in particular the Chicago Blackhawks…we should all be “friendly” to one another for many, many reasons, but obviously the main one being that we all want the same thing…I post here, because of the many great contributors like yourself, Wall, JS, Mike, Tim, Pete, Peter, Negzz, ER, RD, HN4, the list goes on and on…it is therapeutic for me, as it keeps me in touch with the game I love…my wife hates it…I am just one of the guys here with an opinion, nothing more.
Next topic, there is a prospect camp underway and Adam Clendening is looking great…
Reg, good info on Dineen, thanks for sharing that.
Tab, let’s get your 3 year old out to the main camp this year please…
Well said by several, let’s talk pucks. Nicely done with the video Tab. Classic Farley.
One other note on Clendining from today’s observation. He showed solid leadership on the ice. A solid skill that can’t be taught. The young man carried himself well today.
As far as the Dineen signing, bravo we once again took a step in the right direction by bringing in a solid hockey mind/player/coach. He will pay quick dividends toward success.
Great signing by the Hawks. Dineen was the heart and soul for the Whalers (along with Francis). It’s too bad they moved to Carolina. Those used to be fantastic games between Hartford,Montreal and Quebec. Those able to attend the prospects camp thank you for the insights and evaluations. I love hearing all the inside scope on who is doing what. Keep up the great work.
My hockey experience started with Ice Hockey on the Nintendo. I quickly learned the value of fat guys with heavy shots that are hard to take off the puck… but also how invaluable the speedy skinny guys were at puck retrieval.
From there I went to NHL93 on the Sega Gensis. I learned how unstoppable Jeremy Roenick was and how goalies didn’t matter because you could score on the same move every time. Also, two line passes were dumb.
After that, my neighbor, also a skilled hockey player, bought a Nintendo 64. We played NHL99 regularly. I was so good at the hockey that I was able to beat the Red Wings with the lowly Phoenix Coyotes.
After sustaining a wrist injury in the summer of 2002, I was forced to hang up the skates for a few years. Since then I’ve only been an occasional player of the EA NHL series. I’m hoping one day to start back up, maybe make a dynasty of a franchise.
JS- That was gold… thanks for that…
My resume:
1991-1994 Wayne Gretzky Hockey NES
1994-1997 NHL ’94 Sega Genesis
1997-1998 NHL 97 Sega Genesis
1998 -1999 Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey ’98 Sony Playstation
1999 -2001 NHL 99 Sony Playstation
2001-2002 NHL Hitz 20-02 Xbox
2002-2003 NHL 2003 Xbox
2003-2004 NHL 2004 Xbox
2004-2007 NHL 2005 Xbox
2006 – 2007 NHL 07 Xbox 360
2007 -2008 NHL 08 Xbox 360
2008-2009 NHL 09 Xbox 360
2009-2010 NHL 10 Xbox 360
2010-2011 NHL 11 Xbox 360
2011-2012 NHL 12 Xbox 360
2012-2013 NHL 13 Xbox 360
2013-2014 NHL 14 Xbox 360
Elmhurst YMCA Huskies, 1969-71
Downers Grove Ice Arena league, 1971-72
Stopped playing when I got to High School, too expensive, and I wasn’t very good.
Been to at least 10 Hawks games total between old and new Chicago stadiums!
I think you guys are ruining the bit now.
Sr Brad,
I didn’t make your list.
JS,
the new ps4 will have the next generation tech. for nhl15 in 1080p (native) def. in about 8wks from now. ai is getting better.
When I was in high school my dad and I golfed with Rick Tocchet, Kevin Dineen and Kerry Huffman at Greate Bay & Gallaway/AC-NJ for Uncle Tuckers tournament.
Kevin and Kerry are cool dudes.
I heard that Rick Tocchet was taking bets on which way the drives would break………………hahahahahah……..LOL………sorry Morrison, I couldn’t resist!!
Reg,
I don’t have anything against Tocchet, but he wasn’t too cool then.
Dineen was and Huffman is a great guy.