Quinn to coach Canada

by James Mirtle on Sep 2, 2008 2:06 PM CDT Comment 4 comments

Pat Quinn will be given his 10th major international coaching position tomorrow.

Sources close to the scene told The Spectator this morning that the former Toronto Maple Leaf coach will be named Tuesday as the coach of Canada's national junior hockey team for the 2008-09 world junior championships, to be held in Ottawa over the Christmas holiday.
— Hamilton Spectator

A good choice, albeit a bit of a different one. It is almost always an active junior head coach who takes the reins of the Canadian entry, but with Benoit Groulx dropping out late, it makes sense to bring in a heavy hitter.

Coaching Canada is somewhat of a no-win proposition: If the team wins, well, it was supposed to, but if you lose, there'll be a national inquiry.

Still, good for Quinn. He'll be 66 in January, but is angling for a return to the NHL at some point. He really didn't get a lot of interest for any of the eight vacant coaching jobs this summer.

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Wow, it's been 18 hours and no one's tried to tell us Quinn can't coach young guys yet? Clearly, the August mentality is still upon us.

by Doogie2K on Sep 3, 2008 10:54 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Quinn has on junior tournament under his 54 inch belt and he got gold medal out of that one so I say that this was a good choice.

by Anonymous on Sep 3, 2008 3:19 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Like James said, if Canada wins then it was a good choice. Otherwise, it was stupid to put an old, out of work coach at the helm of a young squad.

The drive for five is on! Wonder how many times we'll be hearing that line come mid-December.

by Shane Giroux on Sep 3, 2008 11:05 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

The drive for five is on! Wonder how many times we'll be hearing that line come mid-December.

That depends on how much Gord Miller's cribbed from the Paul Romanuk school of broadcasting, I guess.

by Doogie2K on Sep 4, 2008 1:18 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs