On Randy Cunneyworth's hiring as coach of the Rochester Americans

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


The 2005-06 NHL heralded in great change for the NHL. After owners locked out the players for the entirety of the 2004-05 season, something that had never been done before in any of the four major North American sports, the league was coming back with a new financial structure to satisfy owners and a new, more wide open product on the ice for fans.

Cost-certainty was the key word for owners as players salaries were now tied to revenue via the salary cap. Prior to the cap, 76% of revenue went towards players salaries, a situation that caused owners to collectively lose $273 million during the 2003-04 season. With the cap in place the players share of hockey related revenue dropped down to 54% the first year of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. With this in place, the Buffalo Sabres, who for many years were operating in the red, found themselves on an even level with the rest of the teams.

On the ice, hockey fans were introduced to "The New NHL." After a decade of "clutching and grabbing," where star players were continually impeded (mugged) by the not so gifted, the NHL cracked down on any impedance to skill and created a European-style "no-touch" league where speed and talent would once again dominate the sport.

These changes lead to a rebalancing in the NHL where teams like the mighty Boston Bruins and the free-spending Toronto Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference would be replaced by the small-market Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres coming out of the lockout, the latter two teams playing in the Eastern Conference Finals.


Against this backdrop, the Sabres, who'd been languishing near the bottom of the Northeast Division since the 2001-02 season, benefitted from exceptional timing as the new-NHL and the rebalancing of power afforded them a legitimate shot at the Stanley Cup. Buffalo had a tight group of players who'd spent the entire 2004-05 season in Rochester playing for the Amerks under head coach Randy Cunneyworth. This would be a group known as GM Darcy Regier's "core," or as former team president Ted Black called them, "the Rochester guys."

A full 10 years later and with only two conference finals, four playoff appearances and no playoff series wins since 2007, nearly everyone is gone from that front office group. Owner Tom Golisano sold to Terry Pegula. Team President Larry Quinn was replaced by Black who was replaced by Russ Brandon on Monday. Regier was replaced in part by Director of Hockey Operations, Pat LaFontaine until he found a new GM in Tim Murray. Long-time coach Lindy Ruff was replaced by Ron Rolston, then Ted Nolan (for his second stint) who was fired after this season and replaced by Dan Bylsma.

Over in Rochester, had Cunneyworth lead the Amerks to the league's best record with "the Rochester guys" during the 2004-05 NHL lockout. He left the Amerks in 2008, one year after the Sabres broke their affiliation with Rochester and headed to Portland, Maine. He and his staff had been coaching the Amerks dual affiliation with the Sabres and Florida Panthers in 2006-07 and he was retained by the Panthers after when Florida took full control the following year when Buffalo left Rochester for Portland. Since the 2004-05 NHL lockout season, Rochester has made the playoffs five times never making it past the first round.

Nearly all the main front office personnel of that time period in Buffalo are now gone. Yet when it came time to hire a coach to try and bring back a winning tradition to the Rochester Americans, Murray tabbed Cunneyworth, who was already in the organization in the player development area, for the position .

Back on November 2, 2013, with the walls crumbling around the team that he built, Regier hired Cunneyworth to come on board as a professional scout for the club. Less than two weeks later, both Regier and Rolston were fired. Cunneyworth remained in that role until LaFontaine promoted him to  Special Assistant and Player Development Coach/Administrator for the organization on January 8, 2014. In his new role he would assure continuity throughout the system. LaFontaine said at the time, "This is an exciting opportunity to fully utilize all of Randy’s expertise as a hockey coach and mentor, [he] will work to ensure that the link between the Sabres and Amerks grows even stronger."

One day later Murray was hired as general manager of the Buffalo Sabres and on August 21, 2014 Murray promoted Cunneyworth to the position of Buffalo Sabres Player Development Coach overseeing the development of the youngins.

Cunneyworth's position was an organizational one which put him behind the scenes for the entirety of the 2014-15 season and into this offseason before he was named head coach of the Rochester Americans on Thursday. “[Cunneyworth] has already established himself as a valuable member of our hockey department in his previous role as development coach," said Murray via a press release, "and his track record for winning in the AHL and developing young players make him the ideal candidate to lead the Amerks.” 

The Amerks previous head coach, Chadd Cassidy, had done an outstanding job developing the young players, but he wasn't able to win and after finishing 27th in the AHL last season, he was fired on May 1st. "You can teach and win at the same time," Murray said last month. "I'm confident we can develop there and win there. I hate losing down there." With the winning portion of the equation being very important to Murray and the organization, Murray went back to the future while Cunneyworth's taking on a bigger role in the brave new Buffalo sports world that is Pegula Sports and Entertainment.

"A lot of good things are happening in Buffalo and Rochester," said Cunneyworth at the presser announcing his hiring/promotion. "The Pegulas have afforded us a great opportunity to see some great sports. When I go to Buffalo I see a totally different downtown core, I see an exciting team that's about to come into [their own]. Just the new things that are going on [around] the city and I think we can do the same thing here and get back to our winning ways."

Cunneyworth had a 306-273-61 record over eight seasons in his first stint as Amerks coach, guiding them to playoff appearances in six of those eight seasons. In 2004-05, he was named AHL coach of the year in leading Rochester an AHL-best 51-19-6-4 regular season record.

His first foray into the NHL coaching ranks saw him as an assistant with the Atlanta Thrashers from 2008-2010 before he headed back to the AHL to coach the Hamilton Bulldogs, affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens. He lead the Bulldogs to a first-place finish in the AHL’s North Division followed by a trip to the Western Conference Final during the 2011 Calder Cup Playoffs.

Montreal promoted him to Canadiens assistant coach for the 2011-12 season and when head coach Jacques Martin was fired on December 17, 2011, Cunneyworth took the reigns as interim head coach for the final 50 games of the season. Although his lackluster 18-23-9 record would be a reason for the team not to remove the "interim" tag, language also played a part. Cunneyworth didn't speak French and according to an Associated Press release, "his hiring has created a frenzy of media reaction [in Quebec], including calls for a boycott of products associated with the Canadiens."

Owner Jeff Molson sent a letter to the fans to explain the hiring, according to the AP piece. "The action was taken to remedy the situation without further delay," Molson wrote. "Randy Cunneyworth is a qualified and experienced coach who has earned the respect of the players and everyone within the organization." The AP piece also said, "Molson said language would be a factor when, at the end of the season, the team hires a permanent coach. He said finding a coach who can win is the main priority, but language ability will also count."

Cunneyworth was out as head coach at the end of the season.

As we've come to find out through the years, Regier is very loyal to the people he hires. For 16 years Regier and Ruff partnered with the Sabres as the longest GM/Coach tandem before Ruff was fired on February 20, 2013. Rolston, who was fired along with Regier, was hired by Regier as a scout for the Arizona Coyotes and just recently Rolston was named head coach of their AHL affiliate the Springfield Falcons. Regier never forgot about Cunneyworth either and a little over a year after Cunneyworth was tarred and feathered in Montreal, Regier brought him back to the Sabres organization in a pro scout role.

Now Cunnyworth's headed back into a position he knows very well. "The last couple of years have been pretty exciting in itself, but very different, a little bit more laid back approach to helping the team" he said at the presser. "I was focused on a player or two in trying to make them individually better.

"Now, coming on board as a coach throws you right back into the fire and I think things get pretty intense from here on in."

Intensity and scrutiny always come with the job, as Cunneyworth knows very well from his stint in Montreal, but how a coach handles it and what affect it has on the players oft-times is a key factor in on-ice success. For long-time Amerks announcer Don Stevens, "Rochester is very fortunate to have Randy back behind the bench."

"[He's] is one of the most experienced, and winningest coaches in the history of the AHL and the Amerks," Stevens told me of the hiring. "He returns to Rochester with even more experience than before, including having coached in, some will say, the toughest place to coach in all of hockey--Montreal.

"More than anything," continued Stevens, "[he] makes the game fun again. The players want to play hard for him. He's an excellent teacher for the young, and at the same time allows the veterans to show their leadership abilities."

One of Regier's "core" players who was a part of that successful lockout season in Rochester was Jason Pominville, arguably the most "beloved" of that group. Pominville, a former Sabre who's now in Minnesota with the Wild, was a 2001 second round pick of Regier's and was waived to make room on the opening 2005-06 roster. Luckily for the franchise Pominville went unclaimed. He would end up scoring one of the most famous goals in Sabres history in the playoffs that season when he scored a short-handed goal in overtime to eliminate the Ottawa Senators. It was the first time ever a team clinched a series on an overtime shortie.

Pominville talked about the Sabres hiring Cunneyworth on Hockey Hotline. "The franchise should be excited to have Cunny there," he said. "He's an easy guy to play for. He's a likeable guy, he stays on the ice with the guys for a long time after practice and tries to help everyone out in any way he can.

"He was a big factor in me having success and being able to make it at the next level. A lot of guys who played for him had some pretty successful NHL careers."

Cunneyworth has made Rochester his home since 1983. He was drafted by the Sabres in the 8th round of the 1980 NHL draft and played in 866 games over his 16-year NHL career. His AHL player includes 239 points (101+138) in 377 games over parts of seven seasons, highlighted by a Calder Cup championship in 1982-83. He finished his playing career with Rochester as a player assistant for the 1999-2000 season.

"It started with the Buffalo Sabres, for them drafting me, first of all, just allowing me to be involved,” he said. “Then going away and making me feel welcome to come home again. I’m very grateful.”

He heads back into the AHL coaching ranks with 306 Amerks wins, placing him second all-time behind John Van Boxmeer.  Cunneyworth heads into the season needing 28 victories to surpass Van Boxmeer for the franchise lead in victories.

As a player's coach, Cunneyworth's formula for success is pretty simple, "Obviously the goal is to win more hockey games," he said. "It makes it a lot more fun. I think when you're winning hockey games it's a lot easier to have fun and enjoy coming into work everyday.

"I'll have a coaching staff that I'll be able to confide in and bounce things off of to do what's best for the players and do what's best so we can win games."

In looking at the past decade and a half, save for the two seasons after the 2004-05 lockout, there hasn't been a lot of fun associated with the franchise. Prior to that the Sabres went through a multitude of changes from ownership to player personnel and during the past two seasons we saw the nearly complete dismantling of the management and coaching staff. The Sabres finished in last place both seasons while the Amerks finished 27th last season.

Taking into account everything that's transpired over that time frame, bringing back Cunneyworth will help stabilize Rochester and his successful track record of developing youngins in a winning atmosphere bodes well for the organization moving forward. "We've always said over the years, when you win it helps in the development of bringing [players] along. Confidence is a big thing when you get to the next level, also here [in Rochester]. It's important to have that growth and combine it with winning.

“Tim has made it very clear what the mandate is, and it involves a lot of winning. We have to be ready to win."

Which is something fans of both teams are ready for as well.