Key Takeaways from Greg Brown’s Introductory Press Conference

Greg Brown gave his introductory press conference as the new head coach of the Boston College’s men’s hockey team on Monday, and there’s plenty to dig into from what we heard. Here are some of the key takeaways from Monday morning:

COACHING STAFF IS COMING BACK

After the struggles from this past season, it was fair to question whether or not BC’s new coach would want to shake up the coaching staff from the jump. Brown dismissed any chance of that fairly quickly into his conference, stating how excited he was to get to work with assistant coaches Brooks Orpik, Mike Ayers, and Brendan Buckley. There’s been some valid criticism of the BC coaching staff recently, as the on ice product hasn’t always lived up to expectations in recent years, but Brown seems willing to give them another shot with himself at the helm in 2022-2023.

CULTURE STRESSED, TALENT ALSO NEEDED

It’s not surprising that someone who spent so long coaching under Jerry York would stress the importance of a positive culture when building a winning program, and Brown did just that on Monday. Brown spoke of learning about ‘a culture of joy and positivity’ that also demands accountability at every level from York and mentioned that he knew he was walking into a great culture that he was looking forward to growing under his tenure.

A great can only take you so far, however, and Brown mentioned in almost his next breath the importance of having high end talent on his roster, giving special shoutouts to the recent playoff successes of Chris Krieder and Johnny Gaudreau. It was the mixture of that high end talent and the culture surrounding the team that made the best years of BC hockey feel so special, and it seems like Brown is looking to get back to that perfect blend.

PLENTY OF HOMEWORK FOR THE SUMMER

Though Brown has plenty of experience as a coach at many different levels (including the collegiate level), he’s got plenty of catching up to do for his return to BC. The increased importance of the transfer portal is something that he mentioned he’ll be working with his assistant coaches to get caught up on, and he’ll need to get more accustomed with the incoming group of freshmen as well. Brown said that while he has touched base with all members of the incoming class, he’ll be spending plenty of time over the coming months watching video to get more acquainted with their styles of play in order to be able to hit the ground running in the fall.

He also spoke about the importance of building the foundation of a team through recruiting and using the transfer portal more as a way to fill out a roster if players depart early or decide to transfer themselves. That will be another important part of the head coaching job for Brown to learn as soon as possible.

EASY TO SEE HOW EXCITED HE IS

Maybe this isn’t the most important thing in the world, but it’s just so easy to see how much getting this job means to Greg Brown. He thanked about a dozen or so people in a short time at the beginning of his press conference and it felt like he could have kept going for a while if he didn’t want to keep things brief. This is one of the many things that always made Jerry York feel like a special coach at Boston College, it wasn’t just a job to him, it was THE job. Brown gave off similar vibes on Monday, and while time will tell if his tenure is anywhere near as successful as his predecessor’s, it was great to see the same kind of excitement we’ve been used to seeing will remain behind the bench.