Brad Shaw has a distinct advantage over some of the prospective coaches the Flyers could consider for their head vacancy behind the bench.
He has been booed by Philadelphia.
And he wouldn't mind being booed some more.
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SIGN UP HERE The interim head coach might have an uphill battle at landing the Flyers' full-time job, but that doesn't mean he won't try to win it. He's in his third season with the Flyers, having served as an associate coach for John Tortorella, who was fired a week and a half ago.
As the Flyers' interim head coach, Shaw is 3-1-0 with five games left. He has given the club a knowledgable voice to get this rebuilding season to the finish line. And he should give general manager Danny Briere an internal candidate for the team's head coaching search.
"It has only been three years, but I love my time here," Shaw said Monday after practice at the Wells Fargo Center. "It's a unique city. I love the inherent pressure the fans put on you. I've never been booed more in three years in my life, but I think it's good. I think it's an extra indicator of what the fans think.
"They're not always 100 percent accurate; there were a couple of times we got booed that I wasn't really in agreement with it, but for the most part, it keeps you in check, it makes sure you are doing the little things better. From that point of view, I've loved working here. I don't know if I have to really tell Danny that I would like the job; I think it's probably expected."
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Interim head coaches are almost always in a dire spot. They're taking over for a reason. Change was needed and more change is typically on the way. This offseason, Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones will make their first head coaching hire, a pivotal decision for their rebuild.
"I'm not sure exactly what we're going to be looking for in a coach," Briere said after Tortorella was fired. "One thing I can tell you is we have a young team, a coach that can teach is going to be important."
Shaw has been praised for his ability to teach. He has over 20 seasons of NHL experience as an assistant coach. When asked about the difficulties of an interim role, teaching, in a way, came to Shaw's mind.
"I think one of the biggest challenges is it's kind of the substitute teacher rule," he said with a smile. "Like we all remember school, when the teacher was there, there was some pretty good discipline in the room. And as soon as you had that substitute teacher, certain people took advantage of that said substitute teacher.
"I think I pretty much know which guys are going to try that here, so I've tried to preempt it maybe with some of them and try to maybe watch it a little closer. But it's kind of where we're at. I don't really think I have any way to really be that heavy-handed guy, I don't. It's kind of a tough thing because I do have expectations and I do have a type of game that I think leads to consistent success and can help a team achieve what we didn't achieve this year."
Under Tortorella, Shaw was in charge of the back end and penalty kill. A number of the Flyers' defensemen have grown in Shaw's time here, including Travis Sanheim, while the team's penalty kill was a top-five unit last season and scored a league-leading 16 shorthanded goals.
"What he has done for my game personally, the last few years, the steps that I've taken in my overall game, a lot of credit goes to him," Sanheim said Monday. "I speak highly of him and I'm really happy to see him get this opportunity."
Even though the Flyers scored 15 goals and won their first three games with Shaw running the bench, the interim head coach admitted things weren't perfect.
"I didn't necessarily like how we were playing," Shaw said. "Goals were going in the net and we were outscoring our mistakes, but how we were playing, I think it's hard to sustain. I think there's a smarter game and a more team-based game that I think the majority of the teams that are going to continue playing after the mid-point of April do it, and do it on a consistent basis. I think that's something we have to get better at here obviously."
Shaw doesn't have full-time head coaching experience at the NHL level. He held an interim role with the Islanders for 40 games in 2005-06. He knows well that his fate with the Flyers will be up in the air if a new head coach is hired.
"The one thing that does happen when you get a little taste of head coaching is I would really like to try it and really have the team from midsummer," Shaw said. "Do development camp, from Day 1 in [training] camp, you're implementing what you think should happen. Would love to try that. If that's not in the cards, I have really enjoyed my time here, but it's almost always up to the coach coming in to decide that."