Post by Score on Oct 24, 2007 0:05:46 GMT -4
Coaching's in his blood
QMJHL veteran Guy Chouinard was quick to accept the head coaching job with the P.E.I. Rocket
The Guardian
For Guy Chouinard, once a coach, always a coach.
“It’s the passion for the game. (Being) on the ice, behind the bench you miss that,” said Chouinard, who was introduced as the new head coach of the P.E.I. Rocket Tuesday in Charlottetown.
“You’re a coach and you’ll always be a coach.”
Chouinard, a 16-year Quebec Major Junior Hockey League coaching veteran, will be behind the bench tonight when the Rocket hosts Cape Breton (12-3-1).
Game time is 7 p.m. at the Civic Centre.
Chouinard takes over a 7-7-1 Rocket team, winner of three straight games, from Yanick Jean, who was fired on Monday after a 68-82 record in 150 games since joining the team in 2005.
Chouinard, who takes the helm of his sixth QMJHL team, said taking the Rocket job was a simple process.
“(I got) a phone call from (Rocket president and GM Serge Savard Jr. asking) ‘would you be interested in coming back?’ I said, ‘I’ll think about it’ and in a couple of days it was done.”
Chouinard signed a three-year deal which expires in 2010. Terms weren’t released.
Savard said his choice for a new coach was clear and called the idle Chouinard last week.
Chouinard is the Rocket’s fifth head coach since its inception in 1999 in Montreal and third since it moved to P.E.I. in 2003. Past coaches include Gaston Therrien, Gilbert Delorme and Alain Vigneault.
Chouinard, 51, hasn’t coached since January 2006 after being fired from the semi-pro Thetford-Mines Prolab team of the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey in Quebec.
He started with the Prolab in 2002 after being axed from the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL that year.
He’d been with Quebec since 1997 and guided the squad to five straight playoff appearances.
Chouinard ran the Rocket practice Tuesday after the news conference.
Because he has watched the team for only just one period, he said he can’t assess it accurately so he won’t, except to say it’s a fresh start for everyone.
“Like I told the players I can’t judge from the past, I’ll be judging as of today. So guys that think they’re having a good year so far can just keep on doing it. And the guys maybe that have (so far) a so-so year, in their minds, this is a new start,” he said.
But his coaching philosophy remains consistent.
“I’m a teacher more than anything else. I like to make sure the guys improve individually. If you do that the team will improve,” he said. “But not only that, I think that on the ice, off the ice it’s very important that (because) not all those kids will become (pro) hockey players, they could be good people all-around in whatever endeavours they chose to do afterwards.”
After a 10-year NHL career with Atlanta, Calgary and St. Louis, Chouinard started coaching with the Longueuil Chevaliers of the QMJHL?in 1985.
The Chevaliers became Victoriaville in 1987.
Along the way were stints with Verdun, Trois-Rivieres (now the Lewiston Maineiacs) and Laval (now Acadie-Bathurst).
This is not the first time he has taken over a team.
In 1991-92, Chouinard guided a 19-11-3 Trois-Rivieres squad to a 45-21-4 finish, good for 94 points and second-place overall.
The team went 26-10-1 in its final 37 games and reached the President’s Cup final where it lost to the Verdun College Francais.
Here on P.E.I., Chouinard admits he doesn’t know the players beyond their positions, so he will rely on assistant coach Corrado Micalef, also a new addition this season, and goaltender coach Jamie Blanchard to assess the squad.
And for the team, the players in the ice, Chouinard offers this: “It’s tough. There’s not much they can do now and there’s not much I can do now. (We’re) making a new start, a new beginning, and let’s make the best of it.”
QMJHL veteran Guy Chouinard was quick to accept the head coaching job with the P.E.I. Rocket
The Guardian
For Guy Chouinard, once a coach, always a coach.
“It’s the passion for the game. (Being) on the ice, behind the bench you miss that,” said Chouinard, who was introduced as the new head coach of the P.E.I. Rocket Tuesday in Charlottetown.
“You’re a coach and you’ll always be a coach.”
Chouinard, a 16-year Quebec Major Junior Hockey League coaching veteran, will be behind the bench tonight when the Rocket hosts Cape Breton (12-3-1).
Game time is 7 p.m. at the Civic Centre.
Chouinard takes over a 7-7-1 Rocket team, winner of three straight games, from Yanick Jean, who was fired on Monday after a 68-82 record in 150 games since joining the team in 2005.
Chouinard, who takes the helm of his sixth QMJHL team, said taking the Rocket job was a simple process.
“(I got) a phone call from (Rocket president and GM Serge Savard Jr. asking) ‘would you be interested in coming back?’ I said, ‘I’ll think about it’ and in a couple of days it was done.”
Chouinard signed a three-year deal which expires in 2010. Terms weren’t released.
Savard said his choice for a new coach was clear and called the idle Chouinard last week.
Chouinard is the Rocket’s fifth head coach since its inception in 1999 in Montreal and third since it moved to P.E.I. in 2003. Past coaches include Gaston Therrien, Gilbert Delorme and Alain Vigneault.
Chouinard, 51, hasn’t coached since January 2006 after being fired from the semi-pro Thetford-Mines Prolab team of the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey in Quebec.
He started with the Prolab in 2002 after being axed from the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL that year.
He’d been with Quebec since 1997 and guided the squad to five straight playoff appearances.
Chouinard ran the Rocket practice Tuesday after the news conference.
Because he has watched the team for only just one period, he said he can’t assess it accurately so he won’t, except to say it’s a fresh start for everyone.
“Like I told the players I can’t judge from the past, I’ll be judging as of today. So guys that think they’re having a good year so far can just keep on doing it. And the guys maybe that have (so far) a so-so year, in their minds, this is a new start,” he said.
But his coaching philosophy remains consistent.
“I’m a teacher more than anything else. I like to make sure the guys improve individually. If you do that the team will improve,” he said. “But not only that, I think that on the ice, off the ice it’s very important that (because) not all those kids will become (pro) hockey players, they could be good people all-around in whatever endeavours they chose to do afterwards.”
After a 10-year NHL career with Atlanta, Calgary and St. Louis, Chouinard started coaching with the Longueuil Chevaliers of the QMJHL?in 1985.
The Chevaliers became Victoriaville in 1987.
Along the way were stints with Verdun, Trois-Rivieres (now the Lewiston Maineiacs) and Laval (now Acadie-Bathurst).
This is not the first time he has taken over a team.
In 1991-92, Chouinard guided a 19-11-3 Trois-Rivieres squad to a 45-21-4 finish, good for 94 points and second-place overall.
The team went 26-10-1 in its final 37 games and reached the President’s Cup final where it lost to the Verdun College Francais.
Here on P.E.I., Chouinard admits he doesn’t know the players beyond their positions, so he will rely on assistant coach Corrado Micalef, also a new addition this season, and goaltender coach Jamie Blanchard to assess the squad.
And for the team, the players in the ice, Chouinard offers this: “It’s tough. There’s not much they can do now and there’s not much I can do now. (We’re) making a new start, a new beginning, and let’s make the best of it.”
