Chilly Posted February 16, 2006 Report Share Posted February 16, 2006 Tonight ESPN's special on the Trifecta is Ted Nolan. Ted did a great job, but it seems like he was undercutting John Muckler. This ended up being the feeling around the NHL, including with the Sabres, and he got "blackballed" with the NHL. John Esposito offered him the Tampa Bay Lightning head coaching job 5 months after he got fired from the Sabres, but he turned it down, thinking he could get a better job. Jim Kelley thinks that he did in fact get blackballed, and he made a big time mistake. He has been coaching Junior's this year, and apparently the Islanders' have inquired about their head coaching job with him. Best of luck to Ted! If anyone can catch it this morning, tis extremely interesting, I'd recommend it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corp000085 Posted February 16, 2006 Report Share Posted February 16, 2006 I'd love to know the true story behind Ted Nolan. Was he really doing mrs. hasek? Did he get into a fistfight with muckler? This was a bad time for the sabres, as the knoxs had just died and that irish guy (can't think of his name) was brought in with quinn. Oh to be a fly on the wall... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetweenThePipes00 Posted February 16, 2006 Report Share Posted February 16, 2006 I have never felt that sorry for Nolan ... Do I think he got a bit of a raw deal from the Sabres? Yes. But a new GM came in and wanted to hire his guy ... this happens all the time in sports. I understand he was coach of the year, but it's not like he won the stanley cup either. he was a GOOD coach, not a GREAT one. They could have given the award to Hasek along with the Hart and Vezina and no one would have argued. Also, you can't say "I was blackballed except for that offer from Tampa Bay!" So basically, TWO teams, Buffalo and Tampa, offered him head coaching jobs, and he turned both down because they were not on his terms. Can you blame other teams for shying away? Can you even use the term blackballed when you got 2 offers? Should he have gotten another chance by now? probably, but he brought a lot of it on himself with his stubborness ... he had at least one chance to get back in the NHL as an assistant, and he refused it ... had he taken it it could be argued if he was that good he's be a head coach by now. Aside from all that, isn't it ironic how the Nolan-Hasek dynamic played out ... hasek hates him (for whatever reason), but his stellar play ends up winning the guy coach of the year award ... which completely changed how Nolan viewed himself and actually may have hurt him in the long run ... if he doesn't win that award, does he take the Tampa job because he's not thinking "I deserve better, I'm coach of the year!"? Does he maybe even accept Regier's one-year offer? We'll never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Eric_in_north_buffalo Posted February 16, 2006 Report Share Posted February 16, 2006 Tonight ESPN's special on the Trifecta is Ted Nolan. Ted did a great job, but it seems like he was undercutting John Muckler. This ended up being the feeling around the NHL, including with the Sabres, and he got "blackballed" with the NHL. John Esposito offered him the Tampa Bay Lightning head coaching job 5 months after he got fired from the Sabres, but he turned it down, thinking he could get a better job. Jim Kelley thinks that he did in fact get blackballed, and he made a big time mistake. He has been coaching Junior's this year, and apparently the Islanders' have inquired about their head coaching job with him. Best of luck to Ted! If anyone can catch it this morning, tis extremely interesting, I'd recommend it. Nolan was simply lucky. You could of had a monkey coach that team and with Hasek backstopping them they would have won. Can't call a guy with a super human goalie a great coach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted February 16, 2006 Report Share Posted February 16, 2006 Nolan was simply lucky. You could of had a monkey coach that team and with Hasek backstopping them they would have won. Can't call a guy with a super human goalie a great coach Nolan did one thing that I will forever be glad that he was the coach of the Sabres. He managed to get a team of individuals play like a team. (Granted, losing Mogilny helped in that turnaround.) Pretty much since Scotty started making over the team, they NEVER played like a team. I don't think Nolan was good enough with X's and O's to get the team to the Finals like Ruff did, heck I don't think Nolan would have ever gotten them into the Conf. Finals even with Hasek. But without Nolan having been there, I doubt that Ruff would have been able to do it either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cjpearl2 Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Yawn. Old Story. Who cares? It was almost 10 years ago. 10 years. Old news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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