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COACHING!!!

Posted November 20, 2000

He said so many times that he didn’t want to coach, and yeah, we could understand how the hours would be tough, the travel would be tiring...

But didn’t you always wonder just how long Guy Carbonneau could resist getting back on the ice?

On Monday, November 20, the Montreal Canadiens announced a shake up in their management and coaching staff which included making Carbo their new assistant coach.

Said Guy, commenting that he had not wanted after retirement to be far from the ice: «Là, je suis pas mal proche! J'ai arrêté de jouer parce que je ne voulais plus voyager autant et demeurer près de ma famille. Je l'aurai fait pendant trois mois.» ("There, I'm not so far off! I stopped playing because I didn't want to travel so much and wanted to stay near my family. And so I did, for three months!")

No one could have predicted an opening such as this would occur so soon after Carbonneau’s retirement. But this man who has lived by his skates for nearly his entire lifetime, who knows no other passion quite like the one he feels for hockey, was sure to long for the ice while bound to a desk. When I used to watch him on the bench during games, shouting advice and encouragement to his teammates, talking strategy with whomever was within earshot, I wondered how he would deal with no longer having those outlets.*

Carbonneau seemed to me to be born to coach. And I’m hardly the first one to say so.

One day last season I read in a Texas paper that Guy didn’t want to pursue coaching after he retired. I think I shed as many tears that day as the one when he announced he was done playing. It grieved me so to think hockey might never be blessed by the gifts Carbo possesses in this regard.

That was then, this is now, and now he has his chance to try it.

The job will be no bed of roses. The Canadiens are in last place, plagued by injuries, humiliated and demoralized. Does the phrase "nowhere to go but up" come to mind?

Now there’s hope, and I’m not the only one who finds hope simply in that name, Carbonneau. Ask just about anyone in Québec.

One final personal word on this situation that has me dancing with glee: I’m planning a vacation in Montréal a week after the regular season ends. As of yesterday I didn’t have much hope of seeing a playoff game during my visit.

But now I’m thinking, I may be buying a ticket to the Molson Center after all.

*See also Carbonneau at Ice Level