Wilson excited to be back behind a bench again
Ron Wilson is smiling. Or rather, it sounds like he’s smiling. We cannot know for sure, because he is speaking over the phone. But you can feel the warmness to his voice. He sounds happy.
And why shouldn’t he be? After nearly four years of golfing and watching too much hockey on TV while waiting for a phone call that never came, Wilson is back behind the bench doing what he loves again as the head coach of the U.S. world junior team.
It’s not the National Hockey League. But as Wilson said, it still “feels pretty good.”
“I’m really surprised with how well our team has come together,” he said last week from the team’s selection camp in Boston. “On the first day, I slapped some lines together and right off the bat guys were flying. And I thought, ‘ Well this is your typical first day.’ Guys are trying to impress me. But today they’re even better.
“I’m pleasantly surprised with this.”
This does not sound like the same Wilson who was booed out of Toronto, the one who sparred daily with the media and rubbed some players the wrong way with his caustic comments and remarks that dripped with sarcasm.
He is 60 years old now. Being out of the game has humbled him. He said he is no longer “the monster that some people have tried to make out of me.”
At the same time, he hasn’t completely lost his stripes. He said he wants to upset the Canadians and to win gold. And when this is over, he wants another kick at the NHL — although it has to be on his terms.
“If something pops up because of this and someone wants to take a chance on me, I’d be willing to give it a shot,” said Wilson. “But it would have to be the right team.”
“I’m not going to take over for some fired coach whose team is in last place, because I know in two or three years I’m not going to be coaching anymore.”
Indeed, coaching at the world juniors seems more like a bucket list item than a stepping-stone.
Wilson has coached at the Olympics, the World Cup of Hockey and the world championships. And he has coached 1,401 games in the NHL (fifth on the all-time list). But it was not until NBC broadcaster Pierre McGuire suggested the world juniors that he called up Team USA’s assistant executive director Jim Johannson and asked if he could have the job.
Even Wilson admitted he was surprised when the answer came back yes. “I haven’t really been coaching or doing anything, and to have an opportunity like this is exciting,” said Wilson, whose U.S. Team begins the tournament against Canada on Boxing Day. “I saw what Pat Quinn was able to do with that (Canadian) team in 2009 and I just kind of feel if Pat can do it, I can do it. It’s not like I’ve forgotten hockey or anything like that.”
Indeed, the world juniors are not like coaching in the NHL. There might actually be more pressure, because after the opening round, the games are single elimination.
“That’s the most difficult thing,” said Wilson. “If somebody has a bad night your team could lose. I think it’s important that we’re playing Canada first, but we also have to realize that it’s only the first game against Canada and if we’re going to play them again, I would rather win the second game when it really matters.”
The last time Wilson was in a lose-and-you’re-out position was in March 2012, when the Leafs went on a disastrous stretch where they won just two of 17 games. He was eventually replaced with Randy Carlyle.
“Mike Babcock’s doing a phenomenal job,” Wilson said of the team’s head coach. “I’m happy that Mike is treating some of the guys with the respect that they deserve. Now you’re seeing more guys buy in, which I think is very important. They’re showing results now.”
Wilson said he is particularly happy for players such as Dion Phaneuf and Nazem Kadri, whom he believes have taken a step in their development this season.
“Well, it took Nazem four or five years to mature enough,” said Wilson. “That’s the big difference. He’s willing to listen and Mike has his attention and is rewarding him with the ice time he deserves. To get to Nazem, he has to believe and trust what you’re saying. I think early on in his career, he didn’t trust anybody.”
Maybe Wilson needed time as well. Not so much to mature, but to realize how much he missed the game. “I don’t need the money,” he said. “It’s just something that I love to do, I love to coach. I’m just going to relax and enjoy it as much as I can.”