To tell you the truth I'm not even sure how good of a coach Tom Landry was but am pretty sure he wore a hat. A proper hat, not a baseball cap either. Which is why if I managed to get an NHL coaching job the press would label me the Tom Landry of hockey. Not because I'd be wearing a hat but because I'd be wearing a helmet. It's dangerous out there.

But, believe you me, I would go down in history. Not because of my great motivational speeches - they'd usually just be a mixture of something from Braveheart and Shawshank Redemption that would leave half of the players thinking we'd be going to Mexico if we won. Not because of my line combinations or systems. Definitely not because of my demeanor on the bench - not sure flinching and screaming like a girl every time play came near the bench would do much but get me ridiculed. But the reason I'd go down in history and ultimately end up in the Hockey Hall of Fame right above Scotty Bowman would be my excellent use of the timeout.

No one's ever seen the time out like I do. Like the piano was to Mozart or Beethoven (Good Will Hunting) the timeout is to Coach Ryan. I just get it. Last night, for instance, when the Lightning iced the puck for the third time in a row with their fourth line out there in the middle of the first period I could not believe that Rick Tochhet didn't call a timeout. And what do you know. The Flyers score an even strength goal and never looked back.

That example is a lay up. Given the chance again Tochhet might have heeded the advice I never got a chance to give him. But my personal style would change the way people viewed the game entirely. Timeouts before the opening face off. Timeouts during the shoot out. Timeouts during the other team's timeout - just to intimidate them. Shit, I might call a couple timeouts during the summer and register them with the league.

If there's anything I know the true value of it's a good break - some "us time." And directly under my little metal face on a plaque in the Hockey Hall of Fame, many years from now, between John Stevens and Kjell Samuelsson, it would read "Coach Ryan, the NHL was never the same after he traded Riley Cote for two extra timeouts, and then used them between the 2nd and third period of a pre-season game against Kalpa of the Finnish Elite League."