FEATURE: Mark Dennehy Relishing Function of AHL Head Coach

NEWARK, NJ – Behind each NHL coach, there may be an AHL coach.And for New Jersey Devils head coach John Hynes, that counterpart is Mark Dennehy – head coach of the Binghamton Devils.Video: 1 ON 1 | Mark DennehyDennehy is about to enter his second season with Binghamton, though he has solely been with the group for 11 months. The 51-year-old coach was employed on August 1, 2018, lacking out on final years Improvement Camp. This 12 months, Dennehy is on the helm, serving to implement the New Jersey Satan technique to the staff’s prospects.”As a coach your essential job is to set an ordinary and half me of getting this job was understanding what an ideal job Hynsey has finished of importing a tradition right here,” Dennehy mentioned solely to NewJerseyDevils.com. “There’s a tradition right here that exists and so I’ve bought the blueprint, now it is only a matter of actually making an attempt to get it established in Binghamton. My job is ‘right here is that this tradition’ and ‘these are the expectations, that is the usual in New Jersey’ so we will deliver that.In his first season with the AHL Devils, Dennehy was offered with a singular problem. The buildup of accidents on the NHL degree meant that Dennehy and his teaching workers which embrace assistant coaches Sergei Brylin and Ryan Father or mother, had been tasked with having to cope with an ever-changing roster with all of the call-ups to the NHL degree.Dennehy needed to take pause. He was new to the AHL recreation.”The working joke was after we bought to December and I am speaking to the workers and the fellows which were part of this group, I am like ‘Is that this regular?’ and so they’re like ‘Oh yeah, that is regular,'” Dennehy mentioned.”Then we bought to January and I am like ‘alright, is that this regular?’ and so they say ‘Yeah, fairly regular.’ However then we get to February and so they’re like ‘yeah, this is not regular anymore!’ That is an outlier, between accidents, commerce deadline, and trades.”There was, nonetheless, a silver lining. On a number of events, it was Dennehy who bought to ship the information to a number of of his gamers that their dream of being referred to as as much as the NHL was about to occur. His first such second got here with a participant he knew effectively. Ahead Brett Seney was referred to as up and Dennehy, who has identified Seney since he was a child and coached him on the collegiate degree at Merrimack bought to be the one to inform him. Simply recalling that second made Dennehy emotional.”I feel the primary participant I advised professionally that was going to the NHL [for the first time] was Brett Seney and that was actually cool for me,” he mentioned. “I get emotional simply serious about it, as a result of I’ve identified him since he was a child and this was his dream. I bought to inform a number of guys final 12 months that they had been going to the NHL and that is an ideal a part of my job.”A number of of the gamers Dennehy despatched off to the NHL degree discovered success of their roles whereas referred to as upon in New Jersey, Seney joined Joey Anderson, Nate Bastian and Mackenzie Blackwood amongst these to make an impression, which is all a part of the cohesion between Dennehy’s workers and John Hynes’ workers. It is a part of what he enjoys a lot in his function as a coach.”For me teaching is about instructing,” he mentioned. “It is about serving to a teen obtain their goals. It is in regards to the competitors which is what all of us crave, but in addition, it is teamwork. Not simply serving to an individual obtain their goals, however serving to a teen, different folks like John Hynes, Sergei [Brylin], the event coaches, all with one focus.”Ask any participant with the Binghamton Devils and even those that are assembly Dennehy for the primary time at this 12 months’s growth camp and you may study rapidly that gamers have a keenness for him, usually calling him robust however truthful. He runs intense practices, expects so much from his gamers and whereas not every thing can at all times go proper, Dennehy has a powerful understanding of his influence on younger careers.”You need to generally put your self again of their state of affairs and keep in mind a few of these children, that is the primary time they have been away from dwelling, we have a variety of gamers who, and I’ve such respect for these guys, they arrive in and English is their second language. They arrive in and haven’t got an enormous basis, so children are going to make errors so it is about studying from them. That is the place the ‘truthful’ half is available in. However on the finish of the day you need to maintain them accountable. To get [to the NHL] they should perceive what the usual is, what the tradition is for them to have success.”And to date, in simply 11 months with the Devils group, Dennehy has confirmed he made for the method. Whether or not or not it’s telling a participant they’re referred to as to the NHL or serving to a participant by the frustration of being despatched again down, Dennehy feels he is proper the place he belongs.”I identical to going to work day-after-day,” he mentioned. “For me it is about who I am working with. I like being a coach, I’ve actually loved working with New Jersey. Ray has finished an unbelievable job and the household really feel. I actually like our workers whether or not it is Ian, Sarge or Ryan. We’ve enjoyable day-after-day, and hopefully the gamers really feel that on the ice.”