From Seattle to Tri-City to Spokane, Don Nachbaur's tour of duty as a head coach in the Western Hockey League's U.S. Division has him approaching membership in an exclusive club.
With 475 wins and counting, Nachbaur is coming close to that magical 500 mark.
Now into his 13th season calling the shots behind the bench of a WHL team, Nachbaur has his Spokane Chiefs in good position to take a run at the WHL playoff title, one honour that has so far eluded the guy who still refers to Prince George as home.
"At the start of the year we were picked at the bottom of the ladder in our conference and our guys have fed off that," said Nachbaur, a native of Kitimat who grew up in Prince George.
"We always believed, in our locker room, that we were more talented than what the writers were giving us credit for and it was up to us to prove them wrong. The guys have done a pretty good job of that because we're right in the race with Portland."
The Chiefs latched on to the 51-year-old Nachbaur last summer and they've become one of the best teams in the WHL. With 92 points, Spokane (43-17-4-2) is now just one point behind the conference-leading Portland Winterhawks.
The Chiefs won both games in Prince George last weekend, defeating the Cougars 5-2 and 4-2.
"I thought we had a real tough time [in both games in Prince George]," Nachbaur said.
"We came up to Prince George to try to stay in the race and it was a tough task and we were able to get two wins and we're happy about that."
Nachbaur, a hard-nosed centre, played 223 NHL games over seven seasons with Hartford, Edmonton and Philadelphia. He started coaching in 1994 with Seattle and was a WHL head coach for six seasons until joined the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL as an assistant in 2000. After two seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers' top farm team, he returned to the WHL and converted the Tri-City Americans into a winning team in six seasons as head coach. He went back to the AHL last season to take over as head coach of the Binghampton Senators, but resigned last June due to personal reasons.
"It's good to be back in the league, it was a short stint [last season in the AHL with Binghampton] but I've landed on my feet in a really good organization," he said. "I've got a real good guy to work with as the GM [Tim Speltz] and the ownership's unbelievable. They've treated me real well and I'm happy. It's been a good change."
The Chiefs have the WHL's top power-play, successful 26.9 per cent of the time and they don't give up many goals, second only to Red Deer in that department. They were without Jared Cowen, their top defenceman, for 12 games while he was with the Ottawa Senators and Canada's world junior team, but with forward Tyler Johnson leading the way on offence, they didn't miss a beat.
"The young guys have really picked up, and [defenceman Brenden Kichton] really took it over," said Nachbaur. "We've got good kids in our locker room and they've made big steps this year."
The Spokane-Tri-City rivalry is one of the fiercest in the WHL, one that Nachbaur has seen from either side of the bench. The Chiefs have a 6-4-0-0 record against the Americans with two games left in the series, including tonight's game in Spokane.
"It's different being behind the other fence and it's just like being a player, one minute you're here and the next day you're throwing another jersey on," he said. "My allegiance and loyalties are to these guys and we've done pretty well this year."
