Marc Habscheid neuer Coach von Team Canada
Marc Habscheid named head coach of Canada's men's national team
CALGARY (CP) - Marc Habscheid was named head coach of Canada's national men's team Wednesday, agreeing with Hockey Canada to a three-year deal that ultimately will see him behind the bench at the Turin Winter Olympics in 2006.
Habscheid, who coached Canada to world junior silver in January 2003, will coach Canada through 2007, including the world hockey championships as well as the Spengler Cup, Deutschland Cup, Slovak Cup and Hungarian Cup.
"Just being a part of the national program is what's so exciting," Habscheid said in an interview Wednesday. "I was part of it as a player and part of it as a coach at the world juniors.
"The draw of the Maple Leaf was really the main thing."
His national junior team fell just short after losing to Russia in the gold medal final in January 2003.
"I really enjoyed that, being at home in Halifax, it didn't quite turn out the way we wanted but it was a great experience," he said.
He'll have a chance at extending Canada's gold medal run at the men's world championship next spring in Austria. Canada has won back-to-back world championships.
"It's something that people in the spring have become more accustomed to watching on TV and players now are more excited about going," Habscheid said. "That should be an exciting challenge."
With the NHL unlikely to commit to Turin because of its current labour problems, Hockey Canada needed to plan ahead. It appears Canada's Olympic team will be comprised of the best non-NHLers available, as was always the case before the NHL went to Nagano in 1998 and Salt Lake City in 2002.
"What happens there, who knows? But what's important is that we're ready either way," Habscheid said.
Habscheid is guaranteed a spot on the coaching staff for the 2006 Olympic team, and likely the head coaching job if there's no NHL participation in Turin.
Since Hockey Canada disbanded its full-time men's team program in 2000, the governing body of hockey in Canada has had a men's coach to serve either as head coach or as an assistant on national teams for the world championship, Olympics, Spengler Cup and other tournaments.
Wayne Fleming filled that role until he joined the Philadelphia Flyers' coaching staff and was replaced by Mike Pelino. The job had been vacant since Pelino left Hockey Canada last summer.
Habscheid resigned Monday after five seasons as head coach of the Western Hockey League's Kelowna Rockets after leading the club to a Memorial Cup championship last month.
The 41-year-old from Swift Current, Sask., played 14 NHL seasons for Edmonton, Minnesota, Detroit and Calgary, and also played for the Canadian national team in 1987 and 1988 when there was a full-time men's team. He also played for Canada at the 1988 Olympics and 1992 world championship.
Habscheid, the leading scorer on the Canadian junior team that won gold in 1982, was also an assistant coach on Canada's world champion under-18 team in August 1999.
"Marc has had tremendous success at the junior level, winning the Memorial Cup last month, as well as did a great job with our under-18 and national junior team program, and we feel that he brings the right mix of experience and ability to lead our national team on the international stage," Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson said in a statement.
www.canada.com
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