Gaston Marcotte

Those clinics, attended by perhaps 20 Montrealers at every level, provided me a decent grounding in coaching and teaching techniques.

And thirdly, attending the International Hockey Research Symposiums at Laval University, where I connected with Gaston Marcotte, who for years was considered one of the preeminent teachers of hockey skills anywhere.

I ended up working for him at his Montreal and Detroit hockey schools and tried to carry over the technical teaching to my teams, with, I'd have to admit, varying degrees of frustration and sporadic success.

Because while I became a strong technician and skills teacher, my coaching was all over the place.