New Ducks assistant coach Trent Yawney speaks up

There’s a new voice that booms off the ice at Ducks practices, with more bark than from the sometimes colorful instruction of Coach Bruce Boudreau.

Trent Yawney, a former NHL defenseman who coached the Chicago Blackhawks in 2005-06 and later was an assistant with the San Jose Sharks before coaching the Ducks’ minor league affiliate in Norfolk, Va., last year, doesn’t hesitate to verbally hammer in his lesson.

“We’ve talked about that ... I can’t see everything, and he’s very good with the details of the game,” Boudreau said Tuesday after a Ducks practice at Honda Center. “I’ve given him carte blanche -- ‘You see that, go ahead and talk about that.’ We’ll get better at the little details and work off the stuff that I do.”

The Ducks don’t play another exhibition game until their finale Saturday night against the visiting San Jose Sharks, with a regular-season opener Oct. 9 against the host Pittsburgh Penguins.

So there’ll be plenty of time for practice.

Yawney was an assistant in San Jose when the Sharks reached the Western Conference finals in 2010 and 2011, and at Norfolk, the roster at times included current Ducks John Gibson, Rickard Rakell, Emerson Etem and Devante Smith-Pelly. The Admirals were 40-26-3-7 last season, upsetting Manchester to reach the semifinals.

“If we see something, [we] make sure it gets corrected,” Yawney said. “I know the younger players and some of their tendencies, so I know when they start getting flat a little bit, where to go, where to tell Bruce to go. I bring that experience.

“I came here to win. I didn’t come here to make friends, or anything like that. It’s a good team. There’s a lot of good teams. ... I’ve got to be real. I do bark at times to get things done the right way. Those are my instincts, that’s how I’ve been.”

Yawney’s defense-oriented approach is valued as the Ducks work to rely on the talent that had them ranked ninth in goals-against and eighth in five-on-five goals against while shoring up flaws exposed in last season’s playoffs.

“I watched the playoffs, from the standpoint of what we gave up and have worked from the standpoint of ideas that Bruce has instilled,” Yawney said. “I feel we could’ve cut down on some of that stuff by tweaking a few areas. He was open to adjusting to that, and so far, we haven’t had problems with in the preseason.”

Yawney said preaching that forwards get back quickly on possession changes and that defensemen mind the middle of the ice are critical points.

“I know that it works,” he said. “And I know most teams play the same way, that it comes down to who’s better at executing it best. It’s a process for the regular season. We’ve got a good start on it. Now we need to make sure we don’t get weak in any one area.”