King to coach in Russia
May 23, 2005 15:39:08 GMT -5
Post by M. Beaux-Eaux on May 23, 2005 15:39:08 GMT -5
King to coach in Russia
By ERIC DUHATSCHEK
Saturday, May 21, 2005 Page S7
He began studying the language tapes last week because Dave King knows one thing for sure: Once he is in the depths of Mother Russia, he will need at least a passing knowledge of "hello" and "goodbye" and also how to tell his players to "get the bleeping puck in deep on the fore-check."
King, the long-time coach of Canada's national team, is about to make a little bit of hockey history next year when he becomes the first Canadian to coach full-time in the Russian Super League.
He will take over the reins of Metallurg Magnitogorsk, last year's third-place finisher, replacing Marek Sykora, father of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks' Petr Sykora.
Magnitogorsk is a steel city, located southeast of Moscow, near the Ural Mountains and not far from the border of Kazakhstan.
King spent last year coaching the Hamburg Freezers of the German Elite League (DEL) and when he was fired with about two weeks to go in the season, landed a new job almost immediately, with IFK Helsinki in the Finnish league. Then Magnitogorsk came calling and paid IFK to free King from his contract.
"To me, it's intriguing," King, 57, said of the chance to coach in Russia. "Some people might go in with trepidation and a lot of uncertainty. I go the other way. I'm anticipating it's going to be different and I'm excited about that fact. The opportunity of seeing Russian hockey from the inside out, that's what really nailed it down for me."
King coached the Calgary Flames to three first-place finishes in the early 1990s and then became the first coach of the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets in 2001. Not only did he coach Canada's national team through two Olympics, he was behind the bench for one of the greatest upsets in history, when his "amateur" team upset the powerful Soviet team of Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov and Slava Fetisov at the 1987 Izvestia tournament in Moscow, Canada's first win on Russian soil since the historic 1972 Summit Series.
"What I find intriguing about Magnitogorsk is, it's got one of the better hockey academies in Russia," King said. "For example, they've got [Alexei] Kaygorodov, who won the scoring title as a 20-year-old and came up through the system. [Evgeni] Malkin, who's 18, was the second top scorer on Magnitogorsk last year and played on the national team at the world championship in Vienna. He's come up through that school.
"I'll live about 300 metres from the arena and I'm a bit of a hockey junkie, so I'm going to have a chance to watch the kids train any time I want. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do differently, because not a lot is known about how they truly develop their players. No one's ever been privy to that. Why are their players so explosive? Why are their players so quick? I know it's the training process and I know there's a recipe for it, but I want to see how they do it for myself."
There was a time, after the fall of the Soviet Union, when it looked as if the entire Russian development system was in disarray and the pipeline of player talent to the NHL would dry up. But after a short lull, the system appears to be as strong as ever.
By ERIC DUHATSCHEK
Saturday, May 21, 2005 Page S7
He began studying the language tapes last week because Dave King knows one thing for sure: Once he is in the depths of Mother Russia, he will need at least a passing knowledge of "hello" and "goodbye" and also how to tell his players to "get the bleeping puck in deep on the fore-check."
King, the long-time coach of Canada's national team, is about to make a little bit of hockey history next year when he becomes the first Canadian to coach full-time in the Russian Super League.
He will take over the reins of Metallurg Magnitogorsk, last year's third-place finisher, replacing Marek Sykora, father of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks' Petr Sykora.
Magnitogorsk is a steel city, located southeast of Moscow, near the Ural Mountains and not far from the border of Kazakhstan.
King spent last year coaching the Hamburg Freezers of the German Elite League (DEL) and when he was fired with about two weeks to go in the season, landed a new job almost immediately, with IFK Helsinki in the Finnish league. Then Magnitogorsk came calling and paid IFK to free King from his contract.
"To me, it's intriguing," King, 57, said of the chance to coach in Russia. "Some people might go in with trepidation and a lot of uncertainty. I go the other way. I'm anticipating it's going to be different and I'm excited about that fact. The opportunity of seeing Russian hockey from the inside out, that's what really nailed it down for me."
King coached the Calgary Flames to three first-place finishes in the early 1990s and then became the first coach of the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets in 2001. Not only did he coach Canada's national team through two Olympics, he was behind the bench for one of the greatest upsets in history, when his "amateur" team upset the powerful Soviet team of Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov and Slava Fetisov at the 1987 Izvestia tournament in Moscow, Canada's first win on Russian soil since the historic 1972 Summit Series.
"What I find intriguing about Magnitogorsk is, it's got one of the better hockey academies in Russia," King said. "For example, they've got [Alexei] Kaygorodov, who won the scoring title as a 20-year-old and came up through the system. [Evgeni] Malkin, who's 18, was the second top scorer on Magnitogorsk last year and played on the national team at the world championship in Vienna. He's come up through that school.
"I'll live about 300 metres from the arena and I'm a bit of a hockey junkie, so I'm going to have a chance to watch the kids train any time I want. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do differently, because not a lot is known about how they truly develop their players. No one's ever been privy to that. Why are their players so explosive? Why are their players so quick? I know it's the training process and I know there's a recipe for it, but I want to see how they do it for myself."
There was a time, after the fall of the Soviet Union, when it looked as if the entire Russian development system was in disarray and the pipeline of player talent to the NHL would dry up. But after a short lull, the system appears to be as strong as ever.
He has wormed himself into our confidence! You are how naive we Russians are 