November 21, 2011
No place like home
Phantoms coach Joe Paterson has a bond with his professional city going back a full generation
by Tim McManus/
Joe Paterson (photo: Andy Camp)
GLENS FALLS, N.Y. -- Once in a while, on an off day when all is quiet around the rink, Joe Paterson will bring one of his dogs to work. He’ll take him right into the coach’s office at the Glens Falls Civic Center.
It’s one of the perks of living just a few miles away. This arena doesn’t just feel like home for the Adirondack Phantoms head coach. It is home.
Paterson was born in Toronto. But ever since playing for the Adirondack Red Wings for parts of four seasons in the early ’80s, Paterson has found irresistible the lure of this small city tucked into the southern edge of the Adirondack foothills.
The big city kid fell in love with the outdoors. At 23, he bought a townhouse here as an investment property.
His 11-year career as a player took him to Detroit, Los Angeles, Hershey -- even New York City with the Rangers. But his heart remained with Adirondack.
“It seemed like every summer I’d come back even if I was playing somewhere else,” Paterson said. “I had been traded to the L.A. Kings but I came back here, even if it was for a two-week visit.”
After his playing days ended in 1992 with a stint in Binghamton, Paterson had a hockey reason to return to Glens Falls.
He took a job as an assistant coach with the Adirondack Red Wings, a position he’d hold for three seasons. Paterson finally got to live in the house he’d purchased as a young player nearly a decade before.
He went on to become a head coach for two seasons in the OHL and earned his first AHL head coaching job with the now-defunct Louisville Panthers. After two seasons and no playoff series victories, Paterson joined the Toronto organization, where he spent the next five seasons as an AHL assistant.
When the Phantoms moved from Philadelphia to Glens Falls before the 2009-10 season, Paterson interviewed for the head coaching job.
Fans wanted someone like him, or perhaps a son of legendary Red Wings coach Bill Dineen, who had deep ties to the Adirondack Red Wings. With four Calder Cups and just two missed playoffs in 20 seasons, the era has a special place in the city’s hockey history.
Instead, the Flyers went with Greg Gilbert, whom Paterson had been an assistant to with the Toronto Marlies.
Paterson took a job as a scout with the Atlanta organization based out of Glens Falls. It was a job that allowed him to see many Phantoms games.
After a sub-par first season, the Phantoms opened the 2010-11 season a dreadful 2-11. Philadelphia Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren fired Gilbert on Nov. 8, 2010.
In a late evening conference call about the firing, Holmgren made an announcement that surprised even his own public relations staff listening in: Paterson would come on as an assistant to interim coach John Paddock.
After 15 years without a formal role, Adirondack hockey was calling him again.
"It was like a circle kind of thing," Paterson said. "I guess things have a way of happening."
Though Paddock, the Flyers’ assistant general manager, was given the head job, Paterson’s addition was the handwriting on the wall. The job was clearly his to lose in the long run.
Things didn’t around immediately under Paddock -- the team suffered its second 10-game losing streak of the season and won just four of its first 29 games -- but on Dec. 20, after a modest two-game winning streak, Paddock turned the reins over to Paterson.
The Phantoms went 26-16-2-6 the rest of the way, a mark that made them one of their division’s better teams over the second half of the season. Once on track to set several records for all-time futility, Adirondack ended up finishing ahead of Bridgeport and Albany in the final conference standings.
The Phantoms were particularly good on home ice, something that surely made Paterson’s weekly visits to Poopie’s diner easier. They won their last seven games at the Civic Center.
"He had to put a head coaching stamp or mentality on the team and he did, obviously, or the team wouldn't have been as successful," Paddock said. "I think he's a good one-on-one teacher. I think he has tremendous passion about everything he does, probably in life. But he has tremendous passion about the game, about hockey, about winning."
Paterson has a quiet, professorial demeanor. But get him riled up, like after a spring game against the Albany Devils when he felt his players were the victims of a few cheap hits, and you can see the anger flash that made him a tough customer on the ice, plenty willing to fight.
Paterson played 291 games in the NHL and another 392 in the AHL. His steadiest NHL years came between 1986 and ‘88 with the Los Angeles Kings. His best year was 1986, when he had nine goals and 18 assists in 47 games with the Kings.
"As a player, I was kind of like in between leagues," Paterson said. "There was some times I'd play down here and be able to play a little more. And then there were other times where I went up there and played a role, more of a guy who'd forecheck hard and get in on pucks, play more of a limited role."
It was a role that former Adirondack teammate Greg Joly said Paterson always played well, putting to good use his 6-foot-2 frame and 205-pound playing weight in the corners.
"I think he tends to be quiet, but there's a lot more spunk there than you think," Joly said. "Joe's a good listener. But if he has something to tell you, he's not afraid to voice his opinion, either. Let's put it this way, after you finished playing Joe in a game, you knew you had played against someone. He never made it easy.”
AHL opponents are finding that out now in his second go-around as a head coach in the league.
The Phantoms, who brought back almost all of their core from last year, opened this season by winning five of their first seven games and being tied for first place in the Northeast Division through the first three weeks. It’s the first time the team has been two games above .500 since moving to Glens Falls for the 2009-10 season.
“These guys know me, I know them, we all know what to expect from each other,” Paterson said. “The communication is great and we’re ready to go.”
Tim McManus can be reached at feedback@nyhockeyjournal.com.
AROUND THE AHL
The Phantoms opened the season 5-2, tied for first place in the Northeast Division and second in the conference, but were outshot in every game. ... The Albany Devils opened the season by going a league-worst 1-for-25 on the power play through their first six games. They busted out by going 4-for-5 against Adirondack on Oct. 22. ... The defending Calder Cup champion Binghamton Senators, who returned just a shell of that championship team, were allowing 3.71 goals per game through their first seven games, ranking them 27th in the league in that category. ... The Syracuse Crunch may have the league’s best top line the early going as Kyle Palmieri (Smithtown, N.Y.), Nick Bonino and Patrick Maroon combined for 27 points in the team’s first six games. ... Rochester rookie right wing Zack Kassian was leading the Amerks in scoring early in the season. He had three goals and four assists in the first eight games.
TIM McMANUS
