Relaxed Wilson happy to be 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, Wilson is back behind the bench doing what he loves 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.
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 beat Canada 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,” Wilson said. “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 cham- pionship. 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 decided why not and called up U. S. assistant executive director Jim Johansson and asked if he could have the job.
Even Wilson admitted that he was surprised when the answer came back yes.
“I haven’ t r eally been coaching or doing anything, and to have an opportunity like this is exciting,” said Wilson, whose U. S. team begins the tournament with a game 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.
“But now, I’m a little nervous. I’m right back in it.”
Indeed, the world junior event is not like coaching the NHL. There actually might be more pressure, because after the opening round the games are single elimination.
But the pressure means Wilson is back in the game, which is exactly where he wants to be.
“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.”