Windsor ties will be strong behind World Cup benches
Quenneville, Julien, Maurice to play a part at competition in Toronto
Joel Quenneville calls it an honour and a privilege.
Paul Maurice views it as the ultimate learning opportunity.
It’s officially called the World Cup of Hockey but behind the benches of the teams involved, it’s turned into the Windsor Cup.
Three coaches with ties to the city will be involved in the tournament.
Riverside’s Quenneville, coach of the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks, will serve as an assistant on Mike Babcock’s Canadian staff, as will Boston’s Claude Julien, like Quenneville a former Windsor Spitfires captain.
Winnipeg Jets coach Maurice, another former Spitfires captain who also served as an assistant coach on Windsor’s 1987-88 Memorial Cup team, will work with Ralph Krueger’s staff with Team Europe.
Originally, there was a quartet, but San Jose Sharks coach Pete DeBoer, another ex- Spitfires captain, recently stepped down from his role as an assistant with Team North America for personal reasons.
Regardless, Windsor will still be well-represented on hockey’s biggest stage.
“I think it’s exciting,” Quenneville said.
“I think it’s a privilege for the guys that are going to get a chance to play in a great environment on a very competitive stage.
“You get to play among the best players in the world.”
And, Maurice figures, they’ll get to share with and learn from the best coaches in the world.
“There is almost no professional development for hockey coaches,” Maurice said. “At the meetings, no one is sharing anything but when you get to those tournaments, everybody puts everything they have on the table and you get to talk to really interesting coaches.
“Ralph Krueger has done a lot of work on leadership and has had a very interesting career over in Europe and coached in the NHL. (Team Europe assistant coach) Brad Shaw has a big impact on a real good penalty-killing unit in St. Louis.
“There’s lots of things you can learn and then it’s one of those unusual tournaments because it’s at the start of the year. Everyone’s fresh, everybody’s talking about hockey.
“It’s going to be great.”