Shell
03-27-2003, 11:48 PM
Nolan looks forward to coaching again
Canadian Press
3/27/2003
Ted Nolan didn't sulk when Calgary Flames GM Craig Button called him in late December and told him he wasn't their man.
“I'm very positive on my approach right now. That's what I told Craig Button, I've got my mojo back,” Nolan said Thursday from his home in St. Catharines, Ont.
Nolan, who will turn 45 on April 7, is hoping his chance will come as soon as this summer.
“There's some NHL teams that struggled again this year,” Nolan said. “The Rangers haven't made the playoffs for six years now. If I was them I would take a chance on me. They have nothing to lose.”
It's an older and wiser Nolan that continues to await his chance to coach in the NHL again. He's done with feeling sorry for himself after his messy departure from the Buffalo Sabres in the summer of 1997.
“That dark period for two years I was sitting down and waiting for that phone to ring, wondering why nobody would give me a chance,” Nolan said. “It takes a while for that healing process to go through. And I was bitter. I was mad, I was angry, I was putting all that self-pity on myself.
“I had to slap myself in the face and say: `Wake up. Appreciate the things you do have.”'
Who would have imagined such a long wait for the former Soo Greyhounds coach after he went 73-72-19 with the Buffalo Sabres? They were a team not expected to make the playoffs in either 1995-96 or 1996-97. Nolan led the team to a divisional title in his final year and won the Jack Adams Trophy as NHL coach of the year.
After that season, Sabres GM John Muckler was fired amid rumours of a power struggle between himself and Nolan. The team's new GM, Darcy Regier, then offered Nolan a one-year contract at the same salary. Nolan, insulted at the offer, turned him down and put himself on the market.
“The thing that really got me in the first couple of years was all the rumours,” Nolan said. “The rumours that I couldn't work with anybody, power struggles. I was just a young kid trying to coach in the NHL, trying to get some of these players making substantial amounts of money to play hard. That's all I wanted to do.
“All of a sudden you hear rumours about drunkenness, affairs, just rumours that really attacked my integrity more than anything. People can say I can't coach, that's their prerogative. But when they start talking about things that they don't know, that's hard. I bet you 99 per cent of the people who said all those things don't really know who I am.
“I came to a point where I accepted people are going to say vicious things and that's the sad part.”
Nolan said he was interviewed for the New York Islanders head coaching job that went to Peter Laviolette in the summer of 2001 and then was called in by the Rangers last summer but lost out to Bryan Trottier, who has since been fired. Then came the Calgary opening in December, which went to Darryl Sutter.
“I heard rumours about not being in the league for five years, that that was one of the knocks,” Nolan said of the Calgary job.
Nolan, in fact, has kept close tabs with what's going on in the NHL, analysing reams of video tape from all the teams.
“To answer everyone's questions about being out of the league, that has nothing to do with it,” he says. “I personally think I'm a better coach now than I was back then. . .
“To me coaching has always been about communication. If you can communicate with your players and get them to perform at a level that they're capable of and sometimes performing at a level they didn't think was possible, that's what I think I can bring to a team.”
He's been offered head coaching jobs in the OHL, but wasn't interested.
“Everybody just sees me as a hockey coach. They don't realize there's family concerns and family decisions you have to make. When I was coaching I think I moved my family something like four times in six years. And that's extremely hard on young children.
“To uproot them to Sudbury, back to the Soo or to Guelph, they needed stability. If it was just about me, I'd go to Timbuktu to coach.”
Another factor in the last two years was that his oldest son, Brandon, 19, is playing for the OHL's Oshawa Generals. He's a third-round draft pick of the New Jersey Devils.
“I didn't want to coach against him,” Nolan says. “It's his time now.
“When he moves on the door is wide open. I might reconsider the OHL.”
In the meantime, Nolan, an Ojibway who was born and raised on the Garden River Reserve near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., has kept himself quite busy.
He's involved with the aboriginal community in Canada, often as a motivational speaker. He's also worked with the national office of the Assembly of First Nations in Ottawa, developed the Indigenous Hockey Program, been involved with a scholarship for native women across Canada, and done some work for the Southern First Nations organization.
“I just came off an eight-week sprint where I was home for a day and gone for four, home for a day and gone for two and home for a day and gone for three,” Nolan said.
“I tell my wife once in a while, `I need to get back to hockey and get a rest.”'
He finds the work rewarding and meaningful but there's still a burning desire to finish what he started with the Sabres.
“I look at the Muhammad Ali story,” says Nolan. “They took his boxing licence away, kicked him out of the Muslim faith and all that. All of a sudden he came back and said he never stopped being a champion and he never stopped being a Muslim.
“I came to realize I've never stopped being a good coach. I know I am and hopefully I'll have a chance to do it again.”
Canadian Press
3/27/2003
Ted Nolan didn't sulk when Calgary Flames GM Craig Button called him in late December and told him he wasn't their man.
“I'm very positive on my approach right now. That's what I told Craig Button, I've got my mojo back,” Nolan said Thursday from his home in St. Catharines, Ont.
Nolan, who will turn 45 on April 7, is hoping his chance will come as soon as this summer.
“There's some NHL teams that struggled again this year,” Nolan said. “The Rangers haven't made the playoffs for six years now. If I was them I would take a chance on me. They have nothing to lose.”
It's an older and wiser Nolan that continues to await his chance to coach in the NHL again. He's done with feeling sorry for himself after his messy departure from the Buffalo Sabres in the summer of 1997.
“That dark period for two years I was sitting down and waiting for that phone to ring, wondering why nobody would give me a chance,” Nolan said. “It takes a while for that healing process to go through. And I was bitter. I was mad, I was angry, I was putting all that self-pity on myself.
“I had to slap myself in the face and say: `Wake up. Appreciate the things you do have.”'
Who would have imagined such a long wait for the former Soo Greyhounds coach after he went 73-72-19 with the Buffalo Sabres? They were a team not expected to make the playoffs in either 1995-96 or 1996-97. Nolan led the team to a divisional title in his final year and won the Jack Adams Trophy as NHL coach of the year.
After that season, Sabres GM John Muckler was fired amid rumours of a power struggle between himself and Nolan. The team's new GM, Darcy Regier, then offered Nolan a one-year contract at the same salary. Nolan, insulted at the offer, turned him down and put himself on the market.
“The thing that really got me in the first couple of years was all the rumours,” Nolan said. “The rumours that I couldn't work with anybody, power struggles. I was just a young kid trying to coach in the NHL, trying to get some of these players making substantial amounts of money to play hard. That's all I wanted to do.
“All of a sudden you hear rumours about drunkenness, affairs, just rumours that really attacked my integrity more than anything. People can say I can't coach, that's their prerogative. But when they start talking about things that they don't know, that's hard. I bet you 99 per cent of the people who said all those things don't really know who I am.
“I came to a point where I accepted people are going to say vicious things and that's the sad part.”
Nolan said he was interviewed for the New York Islanders head coaching job that went to Peter Laviolette in the summer of 2001 and then was called in by the Rangers last summer but lost out to Bryan Trottier, who has since been fired. Then came the Calgary opening in December, which went to Darryl Sutter.
“I heard rumours about not being in the league for five years, that that was one of the knocks,” Nolan said of the Calgary job.
Nolan, in fact, has kept close tabs with what's going on in the NHL, analysing reams of video tape from all the teams.
“To answer everyone's questions about being out of the league, that has nothing to do with it,” he says. “I personally think I'm a better coach now than I was back then. . .
“To me coaching has always been about communication. If you can communicate with your players and get them to perform at a level that they're capable of and sometimes performing at a level they didn't think was possible, that's what I think I can bring to a team.”
He's been offered head coaching jobs in the OHL, but wasn't interested.
“Everybody just sees me as a hockey coach. They don't realize there's family concerns and family decisions you have to make. When I was coaching I think I moved my family something like four times in six years. And that's extremely hard on young children.
“To uproot them to Sudbury, back to the Soo or to Guelph, they needed stability. If it was just about me, I'd go to Timbuktu to coach.”
Another factor in the last two years was that his oldest son, Brandon, 19, is playing for the OHL's Oshawa Generals. He's a third-round draft pick of the New Jersey Devils.
“I didn't want to coach against him,” Nolan says. “It's his time now.
“When he moves on the door is wide open. I might reconsider the OHL.”
In the meantime, Nolan, an Ojibway who was born and raised on the Garden River Reserve near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., has kept himself quite busy.
He's involved with the aboriginal community in Canada, often as a motivational speaker. He's also worked with the national office of the Assembly of First Nations in Ottawa, developed the Indigenous Hockey Program, been involved with a scholarship for native women across Canada, and done some work for the Southern First Nations organization.
“I just came off an eight-week sprint where I was home for a day and gone for four, home for a day and gone for two and home for a day and gone for three,” Nolan said.
“I tell my wife once in a while, `I need to get back to hockey and get a rest.”'
He finds the work rewarding and meaningful but there's still a burning desire to finish what he started with the Sabres.
“I look at the Muhammad Ali story,” says Nolan. “They took his boxing licence away, kicked him out of the Muslim faith and all that. All of a sudden he came back and said he never stopped being a champion and he never stopped being a Muslim.
“I came to realize I've never stopped being a good coach. I know I am and hopefully I'll have a chance to do it again.”