Behind the Bench: Inside the Minds of Hockey's Greatest Coaches

by Craig Custance, Sidney Crosby (Foreword)

They are motivators, key strategists, tough bosses, and choreographers. They can be branded as heroes, ousted as scapegoats, quietly valued as friends, and everything in between. It's all in the job description for an NHL head coach. In Behind the Bench , ESPN's Craig Custance sits down for film sessions and candid conversations with some of the game's most notable modern luminaries—names like Mike Babcock, Joel Quenneville, Dan Bylsma, Todd McLellan, Ken Hitchcock, and Claude Julien—all of whom share their singular views on topics ranging from leadership secrets to on-ice game plans. Dissect some of hockey's greatest moments with the men who set the pieces in motion. Go straight to the source on what it's like to manage a dressing room full of the league's top stars or execute line changes with everything at stake. Signature games, including Stanley Cup finals, Olympic gold medal clashes, and World Championship contests—both wins and losses—are reflected upon and broken down in detail, making this essential reading for current and aspiring coaches, players, and hockey fans alike.

Genres: Hockey, Sports, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2017

About the author

Craig Custance is the author of The Franchise: The Business of Building Winning Teams (2024) and also Behind the Bench: Inside the Minds of Hockey's Greatest Coaches (2017). He is currently the Head of Creative Development at The Athletic, a New York Times company, and was the host of the popular interview podcast The Full 60. He joined The Athletic after nearly a decade covering the NHL as a national hockey writer, the last six as a senior writer for ESPN.com. Before covering the NHL, he was an award-winning journalist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Reviews

[Shawn Bellefeuille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. Loved the perspective from so many coaches and leaders. They all have different perspectives they share about winning championship games.

[Georgie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this book several years after publication meant facing chapters by disgraced former-NHL coaches, Mike Babcock and Joel Quenneville. The transgressions of one of these men are much worse than the other, and honestly made some of the book unreadable.

I ended up skipping the Quenneville chapter, and indeed it was praising the man during the period when he was actively involved in covering up a sexual assault of one of his players, to read a chapter claiming that he 'cares for his players' was quite frankly revolting.

Through no real fault of the author's, these chapters kind of ruined the book for me.

Otherwise, it was okay. A lot of it was just a retelling of cup winning games, but in isolation those games didn't have much context. I've read better hockey books, but this was clearly a passion project for the author, and that passion and care was evident.

[Yamato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the book!!
Wonderful insight into the top coaches in hockey.

What I took away from it is how much each of them love the game, and work on their craft.
They have learnt from failures and are always pushing themselves and their teams for better performance. They all took different paths to the top spots in sports.

How much respect they have garnered from the athletes come through in the comments from the players.

A must read for any hockey fan, but also for anyone learning how to be a leader.

[Dave Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a coach. I really enjoyed all the insights shared from the coaches perspective in this book. It really gives a feel for the type of coach each one of them is and some of the tools they use to approach the game.

It also gave me a different perspective on what I thought about a couple of them and how they actually were behind the cameras.

I might read it again and really study it for some of the insights shared to retain all of them.

[Sydney Stype · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating read! I loved all these deep stories from the minds of amazing coaches and their insights into the biggest games of their careers. But I'm curious...what happened to Craig's recorder?

[Ted Clair · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this! It’s a journey that I thank Craig for sharing with us

[Erik Lindstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly better than expected. A well pieced mix of backstories, journeys and words of wisdom from coaching greats. Lots to glean from these pages. I’m looking forward to more from Custance.