Richard Matvichuk couldn't help but wonder aloud after the noon-hour event Thursday introducing him as the new head coach of the Prince George Cougars whether the free hot dogs were behind the huge turnout.
Sir, you're not in Kansas City anymore.
That's where Matvichuk was for the past two years. During his tenure coaching the Missouri Mavericks of the East Coast Hockey League, he won the coach of the year award. This past season, the Mavericks skated to a 52-15-5 record.
The Kansas City Star posted a short story of Matvichuk's departure on their website Thursday afternoon but it's small news in a city that has Major League Baseball and National Football League franchises.
In Prince George, the 43-year-old Edmonton native will discover it's hockey, not hot dogs, that gets local residents excited and that the Cougars are the Prince George equivalent of the Chiefs and the Royals combined. That means when Matvichuk visits the grocery store or the shopping mall, he will run into people who will ask pointed questions about specific decisions he made behind the bench and then offer suggestions on how he could get it right next time.
It won't get any better at the rink.
"This is my 23rd season as a season-ticket holder and all I want is a banner," long-time resident B.J. Gair said after Cougars general manager Todd Harkins introduced Matvichuk to a crowd of about 150 hockey zealots in the Kin Centre atrium.
"And I'm not getting any younger," she added with a laugh.
That's the kind of attention - and the pressure that comes with it - that Matvichuk will quickly have to get used to as the head coach of a Canadian Hockey League team.
Fortunately, he's no stranger to performing under pressure. He played for three seasons with the Saskatoon Blades and was a first-round NHL draft pick.
He's also no stranger to success. During his 14 NHL seasons, he won a Stanley Cup in Dallas in 1999.
And he's no stranger to successful hockey people.
He considers Ken Hitchcock, the current coach of the St. Louis Blues and his coach on that Cup-winning Dallas team, as his mentor. At the same time Matvichuk was a junior in Saskatoon, Hitchcock was in Kamloops, winning some of those banners Gair wants to see, including a couple of league championships.
To follow in Hitchcock's footsteps, however, Matvichuk will need to rely not just on his hockey knowledge but his ability to motivate young men.
At this level, his success or failure will hinge on forging teenaged boys into men who happen to be hockey players.
That's a daunting task but it's simply preparation for where he'd eventually like to be: coaching in the NHL, motivating young men who happen to be millionaires and household names.
In other words, Matvichuk's career has comefull circle.
He's trying to break into the big leagues, just like his players.
The CHL is a development league not just for the boys dreaming of being drafted and one day playing in the NHL, but also for coaches and general managers, too.
The EDGEPRO ownership team don't just want to see Cougars alumni win Stanley Cups, they'd like to see Harkins and Matvichuk enjoy that level of success as a manager and coach.
To have that opportunity, they will have to make the Cougars a winner and deliver those banners Gair has been waiting extremely patiently for.
The fans will follow, with their money and their support.
As the Vancouver Canucks found out, successful teams are far more likely to sell out the joint than the team at the bottom of the standings.
But first things first.
For Matvichuk, there are a lot of long bus rides on cold January nights through the Cariboo ahead and plenty of drama dealing with the trials and tribulations of boys who left home young to pursue their hockey dream.
That's the path he's chosen as he chases his own hockey dream, now as a coach.
Sir, you're not in Kansas City anymore.
You're in Prince George now, but you're one step closer to your goal.
And hopefully that puts Gair one step closer to her dream.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
