For one night, coaches join Tucson Roadrunners' roster shuffle

Like many of their American Hockey League counterparts, the Tucson Roadrunners have seen quite a bit of movement on their roster over the last month.

But one NHL call-up also brought changes to the Roadrunners’ coaching staff.

Tucson coach Jay Varady was recalled to the bench of the Arizona Coyotes earlier this month after COVID-19 protocols affected the NHL club’s coaching staff.

So on Jan. 12, Tucson associate coach Steve Potvin was put back in a familiar spot: the head coach’s seat. In what would prove to be Tucson’s only win in its last eight outings, Potvin served as Tucson’s head coach, flanked by assistant coach John Slaney, in a 4-3 victory over San Jose.

Potvin spent the entire 2021 slate as the Roadrunners’ head coach while Varady spent the year with the Coyotes.

When Varady was reassigned to Tucson this offseason, Potvin elected to stick around, stepping back into an assistant’s role and overseeing forwards and the power play alongside Slaney, the team’s defensive and penalty-kill whiz.

“Honestly, it’s been great this year learning from Jay,” Potvin said reflecting on the movement he’s experienced in his own coaching career during the last 12 months or so. “It’s a lot harder to really appreciate scenarios or situations when you’re an assistant coach, and how you view or internalize how a coach deals with things. But when you’ve been in his shoes, it’s a lot easier to really grasp what he’s doing and see the net from a different perspective.”

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Potvin said last season gave him a new respect not only for Varady, but the circumstances any coach faces during an up-and-down season.

“Once you’re in that chair, there is so much that you have to be on top of and you’re so aware of everything,” he said. “I think assistant coaches are definitely aware, but not everything really falls on your shoulders like that.”

Despite Tucson’s struggles overall of late, one area — the power play unit — has thrived. It’s the element of the Roadrunners’ attack that falls primarily on Potvin’s shoulders.

Tucson is 10 of 42 on power plays in the month of January, including five for its last 15. The Roadrunners (12-16-2-1) have climbed from one of the worst power play units in the AHL early this season to tied for ninth at 20.3% heading into Wednesday night’s 6:30 p.m. home matchup against the Bakersfield Condors (14-9-3-3). That’s the first of three games with Bakersfield over four nights in Tucson Arena, with the clubs also facing off both Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.

Potvin noted that even that power play success can be attributed to the dynamics of Tucson’s coaching staff. A year ago, the Tucson bench consisted of only Potvin and Slaney. Before that, and again this season, a three-man bench has been commonplace.

“When you have a three-man staff, it’s so much easier to pay particular attention to the special teams,” he said. “I take care of the power play and John takes care of the penalty kill. When it’s just a two-man staff, a lot of times things can be overlooked.

“Having the dual role of head coach, Potvin added, “it’s hard to kind of mix sometimes the two.”