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Wilson not sentimental about return to San Jose
By GREG BEACHAMM
December 1, 2008
SAN JOSE, Calif.—Ron Wilson has been hired and fired by enough hockey teams to render him immune to any silly, sentimental longings for an old home or a lost opportunity.
Even if Wilson felt the tiniest bit bittersweet about the San Jose Sharks' outstanding start in their first season since his departure, he would never admit it to the likes of Jeremy Roenick or Joe Thornton.
The blustering coach who led the Sharks to almost every major NHL achievement except the Stanley Cup finals returns to San Jose on Tuesday night behind the Toronto Maple Leafs' bench.
Like any coach, Wilson admires the 20-3-1 powerhouse that has emerged in San Jose under new coach Todd McLellan, but he doesn't anticipate any excess pride or disappointment at the Shark Tank, which is likely to greet him warmly.
"I've been through this three or four times," Wilson said Monday after the Maple Leafs' morning skate in Los Angeles. "How many times have you been fired? If you haven't, you don't know what I'm talking about. Don't assume you know what I'm thinking. Obviously, I have great friendships there. I think I have a lot of good relationships with a lot of the players. It's going to be fun to see them."
Indeed, Wilson is still on cordial terms with Doug Wilson, the general manager who fired him last May. Most of his former players praise their sarcastic, cerebral former leader—even if they're giving him grief via text messages at the same time.
"Joe and J.R. were giving it to me (Sunday)," Wilson acknowledged. "I quieted them down. I gave it back to them a little bit. I talk to Doug Wilson every couple of weeks, text with some of those guys occasionally. They're also friends."
Wilson is the winningest coach in Sharks history, going 206-134-45 after taking over midseason in December 2002. His teams won two Pacific Division titles and reached the Western Conference finals in 2004, winning a playoff round in each of his four full seasons.
Last season's club finished with the NHL's second-best regular season record, but flopped out of the second round of the playoffs for the third straight year. Although the Sharks had won more postseason series than all but two franchises over the previous four years, Doug Wilson replaced him with McLellan, a rookie head coach who had been an assistant in Detroit.
Wilson was surprised and disappointed by the firing, but he quickly landed a plum, high-paying job with rebuilding Toronto, even bringing along Sharks assistant coaches Tim Hunter and Rob Zettler—but not before the same decompression process he performed after losing previous jobs in Anaheim and Washington.
"They fired me, and I was on a red-eye and a golf course the next morning," said Wilson, who spends the offseason in South Carolina. "That's exactly what I did. On my boat in the evening. The first thing I did was bust out the golf clubs and move on. It's as simple as that."
Doug Wilson said he fired Ron Wilson because "sometimes the class needs a new professor, and sometimes the professor needs a new class." Sometimes the professor also needs three outstanding veteran defensemen with Stanley Cup rings, and that's exactly what McLellan got.
With Dan Boyle, Rob Blake and Brad Lukowich providing the most visible difference between last season's solid team and this fall's outstanding group, the Sharks are on top of the NHL standings with a seven-game winning streak, sturdy goaltending and the league's highest-scoring offense.
The Sharks who played for Wilson haven't forgotten his contributions to their current success. Thornton said he's glad Wilson landed with an Eastern Conference team to keep their reunions to a minimum.
"We have to keep it business as usual, and we don't play against the coach," said Roenick, who postponed retirement last year to play another season for Wilson. "I'm sure it will be a bit bittersweet, (but) he's certainly in a media hotbed now, and I think he'll thrive in that situation. I still love him. He's still my buddy."
Moving from one of the league's most laid-back, supportive hockey markets to the sport's epicenter could have shaken a coach with less self-confidence than Wilson. But taking a job in which his every word or line change is endlessly dissected has done little to change Wilson's approach to hockey or life.
"The last thing I want is guys worrying about my feelings, or (thinking) that I'm saving our energy (Monday night) to win tomorrow's game," Wilson said. "We're not that good. 'Holy cow, we're going to march in and beat the best team in the league tomorrow, or I'm going to cry for three weeks if we don't beat the Sharks,' or anything like that. Don't make it more than any other game.
"I've played Anaheim plenty of times, Washington plenty of times. The games don't take on extra meaning. They don't. It's another game."
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Red Berenson: All Business About Hockey
By Robbie Gomez
December 1, 2008
Michigan head hockey coach and Ross BBA and MBA alum, Gordon "Red" Berenson has had more than a few honors to pin to his hat. Having played for 17 seasons in the NHL, Berenson amassed 658 career NHL points in 987 games. Before he captained and led the St. Louis Blues to three straight Stanley Cup Finals, he was a member of the 1965 Stanley Cup Champion Montreal Canadiens. But it is his coaching prowess that makes him famous in the Ann Arbor circles.
Berenson's 600 career victories, all while coaching the Wolverines, put him 8th on the all time NCAA wins list. Ten Frozen Four appearances, two national championships, the honors go on and on. But Red Berenson, who is entering his 25th of coaching Michigan hockey, has meant so much more to the University than just being good at coaching hockey. Recently, I sat down with Coach Berenson and learned that his advocacy for education has deeply affected his personal views on both hockey and life.
When Berenson was a top prospect of the Montreal Canadiens and playing for the Regina Pats junior hockey team, he realized that he could not guarantee himself lifelong financial security with a life of hockey.
Despite being a highly-touted player in his younger years, Berenson wanted to set himself for the best chance of success. If hockey didn't quite work out, at least he would have his education to fall back on. Against the advice of many, Berenson enrolled at the University of Michigan and decided to play college hockey after junior instead of playing in the minor leagues. At the time, no college hockey player had ever gone on to play in the NHL.
While on a mission to prove the naysayers wrong, Berenson enrolled in the business school after his sophomore year - he previously toiled in engineering and geology before settling on the B-school. After graduating with his bachelor's in business, Berenson turned pro in hockey. However, this happened after he was offered a job.
"I was more secure even though I was in an insecure business (hockey)," Berenson said, "I felt so good when U.S. Steel offered me a job in Gary, IN." He later added, "I was very grounded as a person.
And indeed he was. Even while playing in the NHL for Montreal, Berenson held an offseason job for the Molson Brewing Co. His job was in the accounting department, but he didn't stay with Molson for too long. Beer and professional hockey aren't always the best mix.
"I learned enough that I realized that this was probably something I shouldn't be in if I wanted to keep playing," Berenson told me.
After working for Molson, but still during his NHL days, Berenson returned to Michigan where he earned his MBA. The most direct effect of Berenson's business school education, though, occurred when he was playing in the American Hockey League for the Quebec Aces. While in Quebec, he would often find himself helping out with his teammates' finances.
"One year, I ended up doing most of the players' income taxes," Berenson said, "even in Montreal, I did most of the players' income taxes because I had an idea of what I was doing."
Eventually, Berenson's pro hockey career would come to an end and he started off as an assistant coach for the Blues. After a brief stint as the St. Louis head coach, Berenson found himself back in Ann Arbor where he became his alma mater's head hockey coach in 1984, a position he has yet to let go of.
Ironically, Berenson, who worked his whole life so he could have a successful life after hockey, has yet to have a life after hockey. But the life lessons were never lost on Red, as he continues to preach education to each and every one of his players. He knows that even if hockey didn't keep him employed into his late sixties that he would be well off - the U.S. Steel job offer back in the 1960s proves this. It's this sense of security that Berenson tries to give to his players. Not everyone is going to make it to the NHL, but everyone is going to need a job. Getting one's degree does the best job of assuring that. Therefore, when Red Berenson recruits the top hockey prospects, he doesn't just want the best puck handler, heavy hitter, or sharp shooter, he wants someone who wants to get his education, as well.
"And why not," Berenson rhetorically asked, "they're the best years of your life, after all."
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