Columbus Monthly / December 2010 / December / Scott who?

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Scott who?

The Columbus Blue Jackets--struggling at the gate--are looking to an unknown coach to turn the franchise around. Can Scott Arniel succeed where more proven leaders have failed?

If not for his warm-up suit, baseball cap and whistle clenched between his teeth, it would be hard to tell Blue Jackets head coach Scott Arniel from the players on the Nationwide Arena ice.

For anyone who saw the Jackets practice last year, the sight of the lean, dark-haired Arniel, getting his point across with speedy backward crossovers, chasing down pucks and stopping on the edges of his blades, would know immediately this coach is a far cry from the one he replaced. Ken Hitchcock may have been a hockey guru off the ice, but on it he wobbled like a newborn colt; Arniel, by contrast, thunders like a thoroughbred.

It’s not the only difference. Hitchcock never played in the NHL, but he coached 15 years and hoisted the 1999 Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars. Fired by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2006, Hitchcock was considered the Jackets’ biggest coup when he was hired a month later—believed at the time to be the coach who finally gave Columbus’s team legitimacy and a clear shot at becoming a winner.

His recipe for success, however, resulted in his demise. After taking the Blue Jackets to the playoffs for the first time in 2009, Hitchcock’s vaunted defensive system made the Jackets sluggish and uninspiring, losing almost twice as often as they won the following season. His focus on bruising veterans at the expense of youthful enthusiasm alienated potential superstars—and opened the door for his departure in February.

But Hitchcock was a big name in hockey, and Columbus could be forgiven for asking, “Who the heck is that?” when general manager Scott Howson announced Arniel as Hitchcock’s replacement on June 8. Dispatch columnist Michael Arace summed up the sentiment when he described Arniel as “a household name in exactly one household.”

True, Arniel, who looks younger than 48, had never been a head coach for an NHL minute before the Jackets 2010 home opener. And his was actually the second phone Howson called to offer the coaching job, after the first choice said, “No thanks.” But those who know hockey say Arniel might be the right man for the Jackets, changing Hitchcock’s lumbering, road-blocking lines into a team filled with speed, speed and more speed. And it is Arniel who the Jackets think can turn around a franchise in turmoil—suffering a crisis of faith after a crushing 2009-2010 season defined by a mere 32 wins in 82 games, good for second to last in the Western Conference standings.

Arniel faces tough odds—quite literally. Las Vegas forecasters peg the Jackets, essentially the same team as last year’s horror show, as a 100-1 long shot to win the Stanley Cup. The picture is no prettier off the ice. Season tickets are down 25 percent from last year, and the team still has not publicly hammered out a new deal to replace its money-draining Nationwide Arena lease, which the Jackets say in part has forced the team to lose $80 million over the past seven years.

Still, Arniel likes what he sees in Columbus. “I looked at this team and thought it was a great situation to come into,” he says. “I did my homework. This was a team on the rise. It has to find its identity as a group, but I felt as a first opportunity, this was one exciting opportunity.”

Arniel was a hotly anticipated prospect when the Winnipeg Jets made him its second selection in the 1981 NHL draft. Elite amateur status, however, did not make for NHL stardom. Arniel spent 11 years as a utility winger for the Jets, Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins, playing in 730 regular-season games and scoring an average of 17 goals a season in his prime.

“Scott was a good NHL player—safe, reliable, a 15- to 20-goal scorer who could check and understood the game,” says Craig Heisinger, equipment manager for the Jets when Arniel played and general manager for the Manitoba Moose when Arniel went behind the bench full-time. “Scott’s NHL career was not superstar, but as much as he may have been the 12th or 13th forward, he also had the ability to be the fourth or fifth forward on the top two lines with some pretty good players. It’s an interesting perspective to do that.”

After 11 seasons, the Bruins dropped Arniel in 1992, and while most players would have hung up their skates, Arniel could not let go of hockey. Though he was good enough to bypass the minor leagues on his rise to the NHL, he was happy to take a spot on a lower-tier roster on his way out—for a remarkable seven more years.

“I loved the game, and I loved playing; I didn’t want to quit,” Arniel says. “At the time I couldn’t find a job in the NHL. The love of the game kept me going. I got to play in some great cities like San Diego, Houston and then I came back to Manitoba to finish up. A couple of those I spent as a player-assistant coach—starting in Houston—and that led to me being a coach later on. Being in the minors certainly made me appreciate how hard guys work at that level to try and get to the NHL. It made me have an appreciation for guys who have to ride the bus and play three games in three nights. It was a real good test. Until you’ve done it, you can’t get a feel for how hard it is for some of these guys.”

Ken Wiebe, longtime hockey writer for the Winnipeg Sun, says Arniel was a respected competitor on every team he played. That understanding of players at all levels, Wiebe adds, is a trait that now suits him well as a coach. “Gretzky was a great player, but how can he, as a coach, understand how it is for the 12th and 13th forward?” Wiebe asks.

Arniel’s first assistant coaching job came while playing for the Houston Aeros of the International Hockey League, and upon retirement in 1999, he was named assistant coach of his last American Hockey League team, the Manitoba Moose (an affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks), for whom he is the eighth leading scorer of all time. “Scott is very matter of fact, businesslike and accountable to every detail,” Heisinger says. “He coached with the same intensity and enthusiasm he had as a player. He is a straightforward, honest guy who coaches with a lot of passion.”

He returned to the Sabres to serve as an assistant to coach Lindy Ruff, and after a year thought he was headed back to Manitoba for the newly vacated Moose head coaching job. Instead, the post went to his former Jets teammate, Randy Carlyle, now head coach of the Anaheim Ducks. When Carlyle left after one season, Arniel was again ready to pack his bags for Manitoba, but the call went this time to former Montreal Canadians coach Alain Vigneault, now head coach of the Vancouver Canucks.

“It was a tough thing for him,” says Wiebe. “He thought he was ready—and he probably was—but Randy had been the face of hockey in Winnipeg for quite a long time. And when he left, Alain came into the mix, and it’s not every day that a Jack Adams trophy winner [annually given to the NHL’s best coach] applies for a minor-league hockey job.”

Arniel finally got the job he coveted in the 2006-2007 season, and he turned the inconsistent, underachieving Moose into a solid team, rallying in his first season to 45 wins in 80 games. It wasn’t easy. “The first year Scott had all the answers and not all the questions,” says Heisinger, who was promoted to Moose general manager in 2002 and hired Arniel. “The first year was a learning curve. It’s a different thing being a head coach. In the American Hockey League you may want to play a certain way, but the horses you’re provided can’t run that way. You have to be good at ad-libbing with the personnel given to you. That first year it took a couple of months to get going. But going forward, he understood that. He had a team he could relate to. He made the most of it—as did the players.”

The players ultimately embraced Arniel’s style enough to win 96 games over two seasons, with a trip to the Calder Cup finals. “My biggest challenge early on was selling something to these players,” Arniel adds. “In Manitoba, I had an older team. They knew I didn’t have a lot of experience. It was a challenge trying to get these guys to play at their very best.”

The experience prepared him for his next job. “It’s like what is going on here in Columbus,” he says. “The players have to believe in me, and I have to show trust back to them.”

Arniel’s up-tempo, skate-till-you-drop version of hockey is evident in practice. Players run through drills—skating, shooting, stopping, spinning, snow flying off their skates as they race from one end of the rink to the other—sweat dripping from their faces and soaking through their pants and jerseys. (Arniel has emphasized conditioning, a sore area for the 2009-’10 Jackets, who were described by former interim coach Claude Noel as “three out of 10” on the fitness scale.)

The coach moves from end to end of the ice, instructing, his eyes glued from player to player as the puck moves from stick to stick. When the system is working, Arniel is quiet. When it’s not, the players know about it.

“He wants things done sharply,” says Jackets center and Ohio State product R.J. Umberger. “If he sees guys slacking off or not where he wants you, he’s going to let you know about that.”

Hockey is a small community, where everyone knows each other—and word of Arniel’s Manitoba success spread quickly. But in what must have been déjà vu for Arniel, Howson first offered the Blue Jackets job to Hamilton Bulldogs coach Guy Boucher, another first-time NHL coaching prospect. He was given the weekend to decide—and turned it down, instead taking the helm of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“It was a kick in the stomach, more because it became public,” Howson admits. “I didn’t take it personally, but I felt our franchise was rejected. I moved quickly and positively to Scott. There was not much soul searching or reflecting. I felt, and I believed, that Scott was a very good candidate. Scott was confident and very direct in his interview. He knew how he wanted the team to play. He had done his homework on the team. He knew the personnel, and he knew what he wanted to do with them.”

Arniel says he was not really concerned who was offered the Jackets job first—only who has it now. “I’m honored to be one of 30 coaches in the best league in the world,” he says. “Whatever [Boucher’s] decision, I don’t know why he didn’t take the job. I don’t really care. It’s the job I wanted, the one I was after. I’m really excited about where I am.”

What Arniel wants to do, simply put, is win and change the city’s attitude about the team. He knows it won’t be easy. “It’s about building a style of play and respect,” he says. “Within the city, people love winners. When teams win, people love to go there and be part of it. Everyone heard the buzz when we went to the playoffs. We need that buzz again. Consistency helps with season tickets, marketing, everything around. It makes minor hockey grow. Kids want to be the next Rick Nash or Derick Brassard. That’s all the more the reason that I want to be a part of this team here and now. Any success will be great for the city, too.”

Jeff Rimer came to the Blue Jackets to serve as the team’s TV play-by-play man in the lockout-canceled 2004-2005 season, after calling games for the Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers and seeing countless great players and coaches. He recalls a recent conversation with Arniel’s old boss, Buffalo’s Lindy Ruff, during which Rimer asked Ruff to weigh in on his protégé’s NHL potential. The veteran coach minced no words: “This guy knows what he’s doing. He’s going to be a great coach.”

“Scott knows how to motivate young players, and he knows how to get teams to perform,” Howson adds. “That’s what I was looking for. Hitch has a distinct style and was very successful. But I was looking for someone to connect with the players. Scott’s track record with the AHL and Buffalo demonstrates his good connection with his players. That doesn’t mean he’s easy on them. That is what I was looking for, too.”

Arniel laughs and admits he’s “never been labeled innovative,” but at the same time, he says, his greatest strength may be that he knows he doesn’t know everything, and he’s always willing to learn.

“I’m not stubborn or set in my ways,” he says. “You have to coach with the team you have. I’m not afraid to try things. I’m not afraid to have different looks and systems. I’ve played different styles in the course of my coaching career. Development is a big part of being creative.”

And in the early part of the season, the players seemed to respond. By mid November, the team, although inconsistent, had a winning record, showing signs of the aggressive skating and end-to-end enthusiasm Arniel has preached about. “Guys are excited again,” says Antoine Vermette, who came to Columbus two years ago from the Ottawa Senators and last year missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in his career. “It seems like he is an intense guy. He does not like to lose. He brings some attitude, character. He knows what he’s doing, but he listens to what you have to say and is open to discussion. It seems like he has the winning attitude.”

Wiebe agrees.

“Scott does not like to lose at anything—golf or darts or hockey, especially,” he says with a chuckle. “He loves the game, and from a young age he wanted to be a winner. He is also a very good teacher. Those two things allow him to be ready to make a difference in Columbus. He has a young team, hoping to be on the rise. Scott has the will to win and the intensity to get them there.”

Arniel says his office chair has been known to take a beating when a game does not go as planned. But he also knows that if he “blows a gasket” every time his team loses a game, his players will soon tune him out. Finding the right mix of intensity, understanding and inspiration is the key for every coach.

“Bottom line—you have to respect your team and your players,” he says. “The mental makeup of this team will be key to winning. If we have the belief we are a good team and we can compete with top teams, and we can compete with top teams in the playoffs every year, then we will.”

Arniel realizes his main job is to know about hockey, but he also recognizes that being involved in Columbus can only help his acceptance by the community. This summer, just after moving from Winnipeg with his son, Brendan (his wife, Lia, and daughter, Stephanie, will stay north while Stephanie finishes her last year of high school), he flipped the opening coin and stood on the field for the Crew’s July 17 game against the New York Red Bulls. He made a point of eating at every restaurant in the Arena District, although he admitted his wife and daughter became most fond of the Easton stores and restaurants during their visits to Columbus.

A visit to Ohio State, meeting with coach Jim Tressel and a walk on the field of Ohio Stadium piqued his interest in the university, but his support was solidified when Brendan was accepted as a walk-on center on the Buckeye hockey team under new coach Mark Osiecki.

Since he hopes his family visits often, Arniel has taken an apartment close to the airport, in Gahanna, and he is planning to buy a house in the next year.

Although he knows coaching can be transitory—he’s the fifth team leader in the Jacket’s 10-year-old revolving door—Arniel says he hopes and intends to be in Columbus for the long haul. To accomplish that, he knows continuing to sell the sport to a skeptical city will be just as important of a game plan as the Xs and Os he puts on his wipe board.

“I want them to have a team that works hard every time,” he says. “It’s a team that gets to the playoffs, and it isn’t one-time getting to the playoffs and dropping off. Every year we should expect to be in the playoffs—and then we should expect to be in the Stanley Cup. Mentally, if we believe we are a good hockey team, we will have success.”

Nicole Kraft is a freelance writer.