Nolan thankful for one record-breaking season
Ted Nolan owes Moncton Wildcats owner Robert Irving a huge debt.
The former NHL coach of the year, now a best-selling author, a recent recipient of the Order of Canada and inductee to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame said he owes it all to Mr. Irving.
“If it wasn’t for him, it wouldn’t be the finishing touch for me to be in the Sports Hall of Fame, or the Order of Canada or what have you,” he said.
The 67-year-old Nolan was out of hockey after a bad experience with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres in 1997.
“It left a very, very bad taste in my mouth as far as hockey was concerned,” he said. “I went into a depression for a little while over what happened and why it happened. All of a sudden, ten years later, out of the blue, Mr. Irving gives me a call. Just cold, out of the blue. To tell you the truth, when he called me, I had no idea he owned the team.”
Mr. Irving, of course, has owned the team for 29 of its 30 years of existence, rescuing the team from near bankruptcy after their first season in the QMJHL as the Alpines. He rechristened the team as the Wildcats…and the rest is history.
Nolan proved one of the best hires in the history of the franchise. He coached just one season, 2005-06, but his team set franchise records that weren’t broken until last season, when general manager and director of hockey operations Taylor MacDougall teamed up with coach Gardiner MacDougall to win the Gilles Courteau Trophy as Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League champions and advance to the Memorial Cup tournament.
MacDougall’s team lost in the Memorial Cup semifinal to the eventual champion London Knights. Nolan’s 2005-06 team actually did them one better: the host team, they lost in the championship game to the Quebec Remparts.
He said when he first took over he was “a little terrified…a little scared. I didn’t speak the language. I hadn’t coached for ten years. I never wanted to coach. I went in there afraid if I forgot how to coach, or if I knew how to communicate with the players. But as soon as I hopped on the ice for the first time and met some of the players…to me it was just like riding a bike.”
He rode that bike all the way to the Memorial Cup final.
“I still believe we would have won if Brad Marchand had been an 18 or 19 year-old kid,” Nolan said. “He was that good.”
Marchand, now a 37-year-old two-time Stanley Cup champion, had just turned 17 at the time.
Nolan said when he agreed to meet Mr. Irving about the coaching position, he had no intention of taking the job.
“I told my wife ‘I’m going to speak with him just out of respect. But there’s not a chance I’m going to Moncton.’
He changed his mind “the first time he (Mr. Irving) opened up his mouth,” said Nolan. “He just really sold me on his love for the team, his love for his province, his love for the league, for the city…everything. That was the first time I ever worked for an organization that made me feel part of it. He didn’t want me to just coach the team. He wanted me to be part of his team. That sold me.
“Plus, the fact,” said Nolan, chuckling. “He loves to win. Of all the people I worked with in sport, by far..by far, he was the best.”
Mr. Irving’s Wildcats are winning again. They steamrolled through the QMJHL last season with a 53-9-2 record for 108 points, one more than Nolan’s (52-15-3) team achieved over a 70 game regular season schedule. This year’s team is purring nicely, with an 14-6-2 record, tied for second in the Eastern Conference as this is written.
Nolan said he and Mr. Irving still talk regularly.
“Not as often as I’d like to…probably once a month or so, just to check in…especially after those Wildcats have a big win. But we talk just about normal stuff too. It’s not all hockey. What a wonderful, wonderful man he is.”
Article by Bill Hunt
Photo: Daniel St. Louis
