Coaches can't win games, but calm demeanor may have been a factor

Adam Foote with assistant Vernon Fiddler - Shoot the Breeze Photo

Coaches can't win hockey games. Sure, they can be influencers, but it is the players on the ice that ultimately decide the outcome. That said, what Kelowna Rockets head coach Adam Foote did, or should I say didn't do, played a massive factor in last night's 4-3 win.
With the Rockets holding a 3-2 second period lead, defenceman Carsen Sass went back to retrieve a puck along the end boards in his own zone. Kamloops Blazers forward Ryley Appelt, chasing Sass from behind, slashed the 20 year-old's stick right out of his hands. The official, five feet away, didn't make what can only be described as a no-brainer call. The Blazers promptly controlled the puck and scored no less than 10 seconds after.
3-3.
The majority of the crowd was angry. Many, like us in the broadcast booth, were stunned at the no-call. But it was the reaction of Adam Foote on the Rockets bench that amazed me as the referee failed to put up his arm, whistle the play dead and issue Appelt a well deserved two minute minor penalty for slashing.
The often fiery Foote didn't holler or jump up and down like a little kid who had just had his favourite toy taken away from him. Foote, by the grace of the 'Hockey God's, found a quiet place within his body and didn't let frustration boil over.
He had all the right in the world to do so, but he didn't.
As intense as they come, Foote could have gone off the handle and subsequently rattled his own team in the process. Who knows, maybe he comes unglued to the point where he receives a bench minor for berating the referee and the Blazers score on the ensuing power play.
Game. Set. Match. Another loss.
It could have gone horribly wrong. Instead it went wonderfully right.
Foote's team was playing without Kyle Topping and Pavel Novak. Three of his best players had spent the week playing for Team WHL against the Russian Selects in Saskatoon and Prince Albert. The trio were not exactly fresh going into a game against a rival that has owned them this season. The Rockets had lost four in a row and four straight against the Blazers, so it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to come to the conclusion that the confidence level of his group was fragile.
Yet Foote calmly made his opinion known that a penalty should have been called despite the Blazers having a goal gift wrapped for them.
At periods end, Foote stayed on the bench and wanted to further get his disappointment across to the officials, yet essentially did it from 30 feet away with calm hand gestures that it was a blatant slash.
Did his demeanor play a factor in his teams ability to settle down, face even more adversity and eventually pull out the win with a gutsy third period goal of their own?
Yes.
In my opinion, this was Foote's greatest moment in his short tenure as a junior coach.
On this night it wasn't a player that won the game, it was the calm demeanor of its true leader, the head coach, that paved the way to victory.