Andrew Campbell couldn’t help but laugh when asked about the biggest adjustment from being an assistant head coach to the head coach with the good cop, bad cop expression. It’s often the reason assistant coaches who are promoted struggle and ultimately fail, since they go from being a player’s coach to a disciplinarian. “I can’t change and be someone I’m not,” he responded in a conversation with Hockey Hot Stove. He was promoted behind the bench and thrown into a mess that was the Belleville Senators’ season.
The team was struggling and needed to change, which is what Campbell instilled in the team. “Some different messaging and different stuff we’re trying to implement into our game,” Campbell noted, and it’s working so far. The Senators are still at the bottom of the North Division in the American Hockey League (AHL) but they’ve played better lately and are rallying behind their younger coach.
Campbell’s Background Makes Him a Player’s Coach
Campbell played in the AHL for over a decade and bounced around from junior hockey to a handful of NHL games as well. He referenced his playing days as the template for his coaching style, as he played for some coaches and under some systems he liked and others he didn’t. Along with the playing days, Campbell was an assistant in the AHL for a few seasons.
It’s why he has that “good cop” or player-friendly reputation. “He lets us play the way we like to play,” Lassi Thompson, who scored the game-winner in a 3-2 overtime win on Wednesday, noted. He’s a coach who understands the players better than most because he was an AHLer for most of his career and is within the organization. How he manages that is tricky but he made it clear that he’s not changing because of the promotion. “The biggest thing is I just want to continue being myself, I can’t change and be someone I’m not.”
This coaching style can go either way. He can get the best out of the group but they know him too well, and it could cause them to be too loose as a team. It’s reflected in how the team plays, which results in a strong offense that averages over three goals per game but a defense that allows 3.64 goals per game.
The Senators are a Tough Team to Navigate
The Ottawa Senators have pushed the chips in on contending for the Stanley Cup, and the cost is a bottom-of-the-league farm system. There aren’t many prospects on the AHL team, and the defense has struggled. They don’t have the shutdown options on their defense, and they allow teams to find open shots in the high-danger areas with ease, requiring the goaltenders to have light-out performances to win games.
Campbell was tasked with making the most of a difficult situation. The Senators aren’t a good team, and the North Division won’t give them any breaks. Yet, they’ve gone 5-0-1-0 in their last six games. The Senators are still struggling but they’ve been better under Campbell’s watch and are slowly improving, especially on the defensive end. “We have to continue to focus on the defensive part of our game,” he added after the recent game.
Campbell is Young & it Shows
It’s evident from the conversation with him that Campbell is learning on the fly. He was thrown into the head coach role and asked to lead a team that isn’t expected to go far. The AHL is known for hiring young head coaches, and he’s young by AHL standards. At 37 years old, he’s only a year older than Chris Terry, the longtime Bridgeport Islanders forward.
The Senators might give him time, and he’s the coach that teams would bet on in the long run. Campbell, with time, can work things out and not only fix the Senators but build them into a competent team. The question is whether the team will be patient with him or not. They gave him the interim tag but a strong finish will urge them to remove that tag. :
