Posted by Scott Burnside
PITTSBURGH -- There was a familiar face at Mellon Arena for Game 4: Barry Smith, who was an assistant coach in Pittsburgh during the Penguins' Cup years in the early 1990s before moving with Scotty Bowman to Detroit, where he helped the Wings win Stanley Cups in 1997, 1998 and 2002.
Smith has been coaching the St. Petersburg, Russia, team in the Kontinental Hockey League.
"The hockey's very good," Smith told ESPN.com on Thursday.
Smith said the living conditions can be taxing.
"Over there, it's very bare. There's nothing large, nothing extravagant, no extras," Smith said.
The travel schedule can be onerous, too, with teams spread over seven time zones and four countries (Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Latvia). Smith's team sported a number of former NHLers, including Robert Esche, Sergei Brylin, who was the team's captain, Andreas Johansson and Nils Ekman.
Because teams have a schedule of just 56 games (versus the NHL's 82-game slate), Smith said he's been able to try to incorporate new strategies into his practices. For instance, with the bigger ice surfaces in the KHL, he said he has used two players high for breakout purposes. "I'm trying to do things outside the box," he said.
No doubt Smith would be able to land a job with an NHL coaching staff, but he said he likes the experience in St. Petersburg.
"I'll come back, but it's been a nice experience for me to run the whole show," he said.
When he does come back, he said he'd like to do some lecturing, as well. "I don't have to come back and just take any job," he said.
ESPN.com Stanley Cup playoffs blog
