Pittsburgh Penguins' Assistant Coach and North Bay native Mike Yeo puts the team through their paces during Sunday's practice at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Photos by Kate Adams.
Pittsburgh Penguins' Assistant Coach and North Bay native Mike Yeo puts the team through their paces during Sunday's practice at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Photos by Kate Adams.The Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan is a bee hive of activity as NHL players, coaches, executives, as well as throngs of international media all scurry to make the magic of the play offs come to life, and right in the thick of things is North Bay native Mike Yeo. Yeo, who is the assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins, says he has always had Lord Stanley’s cup in his sights.
“That was my goal absolutely, and I had that goal from the time I was young ... to get to the NHL and to try and complete for the Stanley Cup,” he tells BayToday during an exclusive in person interview Sunday during a team practice.
“I think that is every kid’s dream and every kid’s goal that plays hockey, and I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity in coaching because I couldn’t do it as a player ... but I got here and to see the calibre of players that you are around obviously we knew we had a chance to do something pretty special here.”
Yeo, who played in the OHL (Sudbury Wolves 1990 to 1994) and the IHL (Houston Aeros 1998-99) then became assistant coach with the Penguins’ top minor-league affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after retiring as a player in 2000, was called up to Pittsburgh to join head coach Michel Therrien December 15, 2005, and made a huge contribution as part of the coaching team to lead the Penguins to an historic turnaround in the 2006-07season, which makes their run at this year’s playoff title truly the NHL’s Cinderella story.
“My career as a coach ... I’ve been coaching for a while I didn’t just start here in Pittsburgh, myself like a lot of our players had to start in the minors and learn our trade and we had some success down in the minors and once we were fortunate enough to get up here ... obviously the first year was a struggle but we could see the pieces were in place to really turn things around and towards the end of that first year that came up for a very poor season we were able to play off for the Olympic break for 500 hockey which for at that time of year with our record was quite an accomplishment, so we could see that the pieces were in place and things were starting to head in the right direction,” he explains.
“Then with the new management group coming in Ray Shero and his staff they really gave us some pieces to build around the great players that we had, you know last year 47 point improvement over the year before and getting to the playoffs was a great accomplishment and again it was another step, so it didn’t just happen overnight it’s been something we’ve been building towards for years and it’s nice to see that we are here now.”
Yeo credits much of his success in the world of hockey to his early days in North Bay and the knowledge he gained as a young player coming up through the city ranks.
“North Bay is my home and I played my minor hockey there and I learned so much from the coaches that I played with ... the best part about my experience in North Bay playing hockey and the greatest thing I got from that was the love of the game,” he says.
“And that’s what drives me today to be the kind of guy (I am) ... I pride myself on my work ethic and trying to learn more and grow and be the best coach that I can, and that comes from the love of the game. And that (love of the game) comes from back in the days when I was in North Bay and going to tournaments and the coaches that I had instilling that work ethic and that love of the game for me.”
As a coach leading a team in the top battle hockey has to offer, Yeo looks back to the coaches he had coming up the ranks and credits a couple local guys with helping him get to where he is today.
“Bruce Cazabon, Larry Keenan, and Alex Geisler were my three main coaches and all three of those guys I took things from ... and Butch Turcotte was another guy -- working with him back at the Northland Hockey School back in those days ... I just have so much respect for them and they were always great to me, gave me such a great opportunity to play,” he states.
“But also like I said they made the experience fun for me and I think deep down inside that is what drives me today.”
Yeo says because of North Bay’s love of the game it came to him as no surprise that the title Hockeyville was awarded.
“No surprise at all ... my time in North Bay, the people are so passionate about the game there, there are so many great players, there are so many great coaches and I think that North Bay is what Hockeyville should be ... I mean it’s about people who love the game and people who love watching every level of the game and I was really happy them it was very deserving.”
Click here for Yeo's advice for young players, thoughts on education and family plus a photo gallery.
