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| | Monday, June 19 Lemaire to coach expansion Wild | |||||
| Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. -- New Minnesota Wild head coach Jacques Lemaire said he knows expansion teams typically lose games -- a whole lot of games -- in their first year. But Lemaire, a Hall of Fame player who has won the Stanley Cup as a player, coach and in management, said Monday he is confident he'll be able to adjust to the inevitable losing during the Wild's first few seasons for one reason: the presence of Doug Risebrough, the team's general manager. "This is a brand new team. I know that I will have to be patient, the fans will have to be patient, but I'm telling you, we will win our share of games," Lemaire said at a news conference. Lemaire, 54, won eight titles in 12 seasons as a player, all with the Montreal Canadiens. He was an assistant general manager when Montreal won the Stanley Cup in 1986 and 1993, and coached the New Jersey Devils to the 1995 championship. He spent the past two seasons as a consultant to Montreal Canadiens general manager Rejean Houle. "This is a great opportunity for me to build a team and a tradition of excellence for the Minnesota Wild organization," Lemaire said. "(Risebrough) and I share the same commitment and patience necessary to develop young players and we understand the devotion required to win the Stanley Cup." Lemaire resigned as Devils coach after the 1997-98 season and, while working for the Canadiens, said he never lost the urge to get back behind an NHL bench. "As soon as I left coaching in New Jersey, I started to go to the arenas and look at the players and I started to regret a little bit the coaching part because I said 'Why don't I coach, because I know I can do this type of job and do it well,' " Lemaire said. Lemaire, who won eight Stanley Cups while playing with Montreal, was a teammate of Risebrough's from 1974-1979, when the Canadiens won four straight titles from 1975-1979. During those years, the two gained an appreciation for each other's skills on the ice and cemented a professional relationship that Lemaire said was integral in accepting the Wild job. "It's not the fact that we were pals," Lemaire said. "I think it's the fact that we played and I knew exactly how he thinks, what he wants, how he wants a team to be, what's important on a hockey team." He said he considered overtures from several teams about returning to coaching, although he declined to specify the teams, but Lemaire answered a resolute "no" when asked if he would have accepted the Wild job if Risebrough wasn't the general manager. The two had long discussions at Lemaire's home in Sarasota, Fla., in April, in which they discussed coaching theories, hockey intricacies, the neutral-zone trap that Lemaire is known for, and the challenges facing an expansion team. "When (Risebrough) approached me, I was really excited," Lemaire said. "It's funny -- when we spent a couple of days in Sarasota, I thought he wanted me because he wouldn't have taken a plane to come down and see me. But I really realized when he called me the week after. He really showed me he wanted me." Lemaire said he hasn't been studying the list of players available in this weekend's expansion and entry drafts, but he knows the next 108 days until the season starts will be extremely busy. "The biggest challenge is probably first to pick the right people," Lemaire said. Risebrough stressed that he and his staff have been working for the past nine months on deciding which players they want, so Lemaire won't be integrally involved in the draft. "We'll be able to select the players, and he'll be able to coach the players," Risebrough said. Lemaire acknowledged the team will face rough going early on. "I don't want to lose," he said. "I think that I have enough patience to work with the players. I want the guys to give what they have to give, do what they do best, and I know we'll win our share of games." Lemaire was unwilling to publicly set a threshold for the number of games the Wild has to win to call the inaugural year a success. "Expectations will come with the team that I'll see when they step on the ice," he said. "As soon as they step on the ice, I'll know what we can achieve, and then working with them, I'll see how high we can get." | AUDIO/VIDEO   Minnesota Wild names Hall of Famer Jacques Lemaire as head coach.RealVideo: | 28.8   Jacques Lemaire looks forward to working with young players.wav: 156 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6  | |||||