Interview: Corey Neilson of Nottingham Panthers

Do you think you can do the same this year?
We are trying. Replicating last year will be tough. It’s been like this for a while. Each team is gunning for us, just because we are the Panthers and we have had success. It does get tougher and tougher every year, but we have a strong team, a strong franchise and hopefully we can maintain where we are. That’s the goal. In reality, we have the European competition, which has more games and, with the roster size, it’s tough to imagine winning everything, especially since we progressed to this next round. Let’s see -we’re ambitious, but we’re realistic at the same time.

Out of the League, Challenge Cup, play-offs, which would you give up if you had to?
I don’t really want to talk about giving up. People in this league try to marginalise the Challenge Cup, but we don’t. We think winning it year in, year out – it’s kind of built our franchise and basically our dynasty here.

Was it a difficult decision to step down from playing?
I really enjoyed playing and I had a lot of fun doing it. I do miss it, but I was looking for a new challenge anyways. Playing always came pretty easy for me naturally and the coaching was a new step. It was the right time. The organisation was growing out of a player-coach and I was keen for a challenge and it just helped to push me, to give me the reason to go.

You’ve said before that you regret the 2-1 loss to Edinburgh being your last ever game. Any other regrets?
For my whole career? Jeez. Tons of them. My biggest mistake was probably leaving the US after my first year pro to go to Germany. I’ve had a bunch of other doozies along the way, but I was in the system, I was up and down in the American League, then I decided to go and do something else, which was a ‘whoops’ moment.

How does the partnership between you and Rich Strachan work?
I’m here every day and Rick is alongside of me for generally three practices a week and obviously he’s full-time all weekend. We bounce ideas off each other. We look at the current roster, places, situations, and injuries. I do a lot of the video stuff. He does a lot of the statistical analysis. It’s another pair of eyes. Different people have different perspectives and he’s always a sounding board. If I get stumped, I know I’ve got an experienced guy to help me through it.

There have only ever been five Panthers shirts retired – did you really not know until the night of league title presentation that your shirt was being retired?
Our General Manager, Gary Moran, kept it totally under wraps. It was pretty special and probably the highlight of my playing career. You never forget your championships and your team mates, but something as individual as that goes towards your legacy. People will forget what I did here and there, and the kind of player, but they will always see something like that, the number and the name, and it’s special.

Why did you choose number 77, you were born in 1976?
The year I went to Germany, I chose number 7, and the coach said I couldn’t be an offensive-defenseman wearing number 7, that’s a defensive guy’s number. You’ve got to wear 77, so I did. It was a fun year in Germany. It was a great year, just a bad career move. Calle was here in my first year at Panthers, so I had to wear 76 for a year then.

Which team do you think is the biggest threat to Panthers this season?
There’s three of them that are shaking things up at the moment. It’s a tough question to answer because Dundee and Braehead are playing against Edinburgh week in, week out. They are in very good positions to succeed because the competition isn’t quite as high, whereas each and every night, statistically, we will be playing against better hockey clubs. But, Belfast has really impressed me this year. They have the depth and quality there to do something if they put it together, which I am sure they probably will at some point. Coventry are quite explosive too. Cardiff are a mess.

Do Panthers players really hate the Sheffield Steelers? There are new players each year, so how is the rivalry continued?
The rivalry is the fans’ rivalry. The guys that have been here who have sensed it and experienced it – we let the new guys know. You build rivalries from competition and when they’re as explosive as those are sometimes, you keep those memories.

Does it hurt when you get checked into the boards?
Yes it does. How much depends on who is hitting you and how fast they are going. Force has to have acceleration, so for a guy like me, when I hit people, even though I was big and weighed a lot, I generally wasn’t going that fast. But guys who are flying, like Rob Bellamy – when they hit you quickly, that really hurts. The biggest thing to know about getting hit along the boards is that if you’re up next to it and someone hits you, the board absorbs the impact and it doesn’t hurt. But if you get the collision away from the board and are pushed into it, then that’s when people get hurt and injuries happen.

What’s the most pain you have ever felt on the ice?
That’s a tough one. I’ve had so many injuries. I’ve done my knees three times, hands, I’ve played with a pulled oblique for most of one of my seasons here, that was very hard. I broke an elbow in the last full year. The game has really changed. Players don’t play through any type of injury now.

There was an NHL player that pulled a tooth out on the bench this week, did you see that?
Yes. Pascal Dupuis. That’s the way it used to be. That’s why watching football is so frustrating.

Do you ever have to tell players not to fight? How do you stop Henley and Salters doing their own thing?
I don’t generally tell people to fight, or not to fight. These guys have been ringing for a long time and it’s up to them. I mean fighting is such an explosive event. It happens, sometimes it’s spur of the moment, sometimes it develops through scorelines, energy and different things. These guys are pretty smart to understand their roles. I don’t really have to tell them.

Most players are not familiar with Nottingham when they arrive. How do you and the off ice team settle them in to the place?
We rely a lot on the leadership group here and on the former players. To be honest, I’m trying to teach them how we play hockey, so I don’t get involved in the other bits of the job. The office staff provide them with some food and show them where things are. That’s not me.

You've been in Nottingham for a while. What do you like about the city?
This is my eighth year. The schooling is good. My kids go to school here and enjoy it. I definitely don’t enjoy the weather or the coffee. It’s like with anything, there’s highs and lows, positives and negatives. There are definitely more positives here.

Ice hockey’s the national sport in Canada and a minority sport here. How did you adjust?
It wasn’t an adjustment for me. I just do my thing and play.

You’re Assistant Coach for GB now. How do you see GB hockey moving forward?
It’s a tough call, I don’t know. That will be up to the national federation to make sure that they are coaching the coaches, to make sure that the coaches are teaching the kids and developing players, and that we are given an opportunity to succeed by giving them time to train.

If you could coach any other team in the whole world, who would it be?
I grew up loving the Edmonton Oilers, then I got drafted by them, so it would be pretty neat to coach them.

You now have dual citizenship; do you feel more Canadian or British?
I was brought up in Canada, although I’ve been here eight years now. I don’t even think about it.

If you could have only one player back from last season that you haven’t got at the moment, who would it be?
That’s too tough to call. Foxy was pretty good, but so were Linger, Bruce, Gali, Beckett and Lepine. They all brought so many different elements.

David Ling was a real character. What’s your favourite Ling story?
I’d been bothering him, coaching him all year, trying to get him to do this one thing. On one face-off, he was supposed to swing a certain way, which he never did. Then there was one game, probably just before Christmas, when he finally did it and as he was swinging through, he was looking at me, waving, saying “hey coach, I’m doing it. Coach, I’m doing it” and the puck came to him and he wasn’t even looking, he was waving at me, which … that doesn’t happen.

How long do you think you’ll stay in Nottingham? I know you have family in Scotland, are you ever tempted to move North?
The boys are settled, I’m settled, so we’re here for the near future.

Lastly, some quick fire questions about you. Favourite hockey film?
Slapshot.

Best hockey player – Gretzky or Orr?
Gretzky.

The Maple Leafs or Montreal Canadians?
Neither.

Favorite sport, outside of hockey?
Badminton. Fun sport, but I can never find anyone to play. Not soccer ball.

Molson or Blue?
Neither particularly.

Favourite city in the world?
Tough, but I like Edinburgh a lot.

Cat or dog?
Definitely neither.

Pet hate?
Tardiness.

Three words your players would use to describe you?
You’d have to ask them! Big hockey nerd.