Orlando Solar Bears coach Anthony Noreen is prepping for his season by studying and watching the talent up in Toronto with the parent club.
The Orlando Solar Bears will begin their fourth season out of hibernation within the next month. First though, they need to put together a roster (more on that later). And a big part of that will come in decisions made in Toronto.
Right now, the Toronto Maple Leafs are holding their training camp. Several of the rookies and players who do not make the cut there will get sent to the Toronto Marlies and then again from the Marlies to the Solar Bears.
In preparation for that, Solar Bears coach Anthony Noreen is in Toronto observing practice and beginning to take notes on the players who might be available to him and his organization. The first-year head coach for the Solar Bears is also trying to gain notes from noted NHL coach Mike Babcock in his first year with the Maple Leafs.
What is becoming clearer as he watches these practices, he told Jesse Liebman of OrlandoSolarBearsHockey.com, a philosophy for the Solar Bears themselves has emerged:
“We just want to be a team that’s hard to play against. One of the things I believe in is to create space for yourself and not for the opponent. You have to work and move your feet. You have to know the structure, and buy into the structure and help out your teammates and get better every day.
One of my favorite things about the teams I’ve coached is that we always play better down the stretch. I’d say I’m definitely a more modern-thinking coach. We’re going to value controlled zone exits and entries. We want to spend time with the puck and grind other teams down and force them into giving us space or taking penalties and putting us on the power play.”
With not complete control over the player pool he has to pick from — the Maple Leafs traded five prospects recently, taking players out of the system and out of the player pool for the Solar Bears. That is life as a minor league organization.
Noreen said he is controlling what he can control. That is all he can worry about. And so matters of who will actually be on the roster are not in his power at the moment. That power will come to him in a few weeks.
It was also encouraging to see Solar Bears goalie Garrett Sparks playing well too. There may be the potential that he gets called up to the Marlies this season rather than playing with the Solar Bears.
There is a lot of promise in this year for the Solar Bears. And it starts from the coach down.
