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My guest today is Craig Custance, who is The Athletic’s editor-in-chief for the NHL and the author of Behind the Bench: Inside the Minds of Hockey’s Greatest Coaches, where he explains his 18 month journey to meet with nine of the top hockey coaches in the world to interview them about their philosophies while watching the most important game of their coaching career.

Craig explains the different ways the coaches were able to connect with their players, some of the different motivational tactics, how they grew as coaches during their career, and how they all were risk takers who embraced lifelong learning.

Show Notes:

(1:10) — How he developed the idea for the book

(4:30) — What themes he saw between the coaches he followed

(8:10) — Bob Hartley’s path from a factory worker to hockey coach

(13:10) — Mike Sullivan and John Tortorella 

(19:40) — Mike Babcock’s coaching philosophy

(23:30) — The coaches’ concise and direct communication with players

(28:52) — Ken Hitchcock’s evolution as a coach

(32:30) — Ron Wilson’s philosophy, which differs from most coaches in the book

(35:25) — Claude Julien’s motivational tactics

(41:00) — Joel Quenneville using other coaches and players to speak to the team

(46:00) — Dan Byslma’s use of a motto for the team

(48:30) — How speaking with these coaches impacted him personally

(54:40) —Best practices for coaches to develop good relationships with the media

(58:25) — End of episode questions

 End of Episode Questions

1. What’s 1 book every coach should read?

• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

2. Who is one person you’d want to hear as a guest on this podcast?

John Cooper, Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach

3. What’s one area you’re looking to improve in over the next year?

Drink less to improve overall health.

4. What’s popular advice you hear people say that you think is wrong?

Everything in moderation is fine. 

5. What advice do you have for young coaches who are listening to this?

Figure out what you want to do and reverse engineer your path to get there. 

6. What’s the darkest moment you experienced professionally and how did you overcome it?

When ESPN laid off over 300 people in May, 2017, he was lucky enough to not be laid off, but it was eye-opening.