Milton Resident Jim Madigan Discusses his New Coaching Job

Jim Madigan, a Milton resident since 1989, accepted the men’s hockey head coaching position at his alma mater, Northeastern, earlier this month. A two-time Beanpot champion as a player and one more as a coach for the Huskies, Madigan returns to the college ranks after spending several years in the NHL as a scout.

His culminating moment came in 2009 when the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup and he was able to celebrate with the cherished trophy in Milton.

Patch got an opportunity to catch up with the new coach of the Huskies hockey program.

Tell us about the process of getting involved with the coaching search at Northeastern?

Greg Cronin was going to pursue a job with the Toronto Maple Leafs, so it opened up. It’s something having been part of the university for many years, both as a coach and adminstrator and also being in the pro game, I just thought watching how Greg built the program that this could be a good opportunity to build on the momentum and the success that he’s established. I’ve always had a passion, an interest and an enthusiasm for the university and this hockey program. It’s always been at a high level and I began having conversations with the athletic director.

Was being the head coach at Northeastern always something you wanted to do?

I was fortunate right after I graduated to coach at Northeastern for a few years. At one point I was potentially going to be the next coach at Northeastern, and life takes different twists and turns. My professional goal was to always be the head coach at Northeastern and always be involved with the hockey program. Life took a little side step and you don’t know when those opportunites are going to come back. When this opportunity came I just went full speed ahead at it. I’m a little more mature, more seasoned on the hockey side and in the administrative side.

Did the NHL job help you relate with players a little bit more?

When you are at the NHL level and you are around great hockey people, from the general manager to the player personnel to the assistant GM to the coaches, you get a different perspective. It’s not a better perspective, but a different perspective. It allows you to be a lot more analytical and go through some stronger self assessment. For the last 18 years I’ve been able to do that more or less on the player evalutation side and player development side. But I’m looking forward to taking those skills and bringing them over to the college side. There’s a coaching component that’s very important as well as bringing in the best student-athletes that you can.

Does it help to have the foundation for helping build a Stanley Cup team (Pittsburgh 2009) under your resume when you recruit for your new program?

It’s always nice to have a Stanley Cup under your belt. Those memories I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. Going through the process with Pittsburgh and how we wanted to be as a scouting department and the experiences I learned from it is what gives me the confidence as we continue to develop the top players. It’s that experience and the quality of people that I’ve learned from with the Penguins that gives me the ability and the confidence to handle good players.

Tell us about your playing days.

I played from 1981-85. I was able to be around some real good coaches and then I was more fortunate to be around real good players. In the 80s, if you look through the annals, it was a good decade for Northeastern hockey. We won the Beanpot in 1980, which I wasn’t part of, but then the next two (1984, 85’) I was a part of. In 1981 we won the ECAC and went to the Final Four. That continued after playing as a coach we won another Beanpot in 1988. We went to the NCAA tournament in 1988 as well. We had some success in the 80s. It was a great experience. I’ve got friendships to this day that continue to exist from those teams.

What are your short-term goals for the program?

 It’s to build a staff, which we are doing right now, and to put our student-athletes in the best position as possible. They’ve had good coaching to date. It will be a little different philosophy and for all of us to get on that same page at the end of September or October when we get on the ice. We are looking for each day to get better, because it’s a new staff and the staff is getting adapated to the players and the players are getting adapted to the staff. I think it’s the most important factor when we embark on this new venture with this coaching staff. We are going to keep it simple. We aren’t going to be promising too many thing and we are going to get better each day.

I look at things and you always have goals and aspirations, but you try not to get too far down the road. If you get too far down the road you forget about doing things the right way. You look at a team like the New England Patriots and there goal is to win the Super Bowl. But they don’t look too far down the road on the first game of the year. But it’s getting better each game, each week and that’s what we want to do. Certainly we want to compete at the highest level in the Hockey East, because when you do that you don’t even have to worry about the national picture because of the strength of Hockey East. It’s going to get you into that national picture. I’ve been fortunate to win the Beanpot as a player and as a coach. It’s a wonderful feeling that carries with you for the rest of your life. I would love for all of our players to have that expereience of winning one. We are not setting ourselves to just win the Beanpot. We are setting ourselves up to get better each day, win hockey games and progress for the rest of the year.