Maurice is Canadian but says he’s suited to coaching ‘underdog’ Team Europe

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This article was published 23/12/2015 (3607 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

His eye for games and players hasn’t changed, only added another layer.

Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice does have his hands full with his own NHL team this season, seventh and last in the Central Division, but he’s mindful of a bigger picture after being named in November to the coaching staff of Team Europe for the upcoming World Cup.

The eight-team tournament is scheduled for late summer and early fall in Toronto.

Maurice and St. Louis associate Brad Shaw will be assisting head coach Ralph Kruger on the team that will be comprised of European players not from Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic.

“There’s a general idea of the pool of players that will be considered,” Maurice said this week, asked how the preparation process is unfolding in his head. “I usually watch our game and then watch their game, watch the other team play. So yeah, I’m trying to keep an eye on some of these guys.

“I think the first day after it got announced, we were in Minnesota and (Austrian Thomas) Vanek had two and (Switzerland’s Nino) Niederreiter had one… I don’t know that it helps and I hope it didn’t have much to do with it.

“But yeah, I’m watching.”

Some have wondered if Maurice has had to resolve any feelings of being a Canadian but coaching a team of non-Canadians for the World Cup.

The answer is a clear “no problem.”

“I’m perfectly suited for the situation because I’ve coached a fair number of underdog teams,” he said. “The advantage that Team Europe has is that all those guys are coming from countries so small that they’ve really never legitimately had a chance in any of these tournaments.

“They were just holding on and hoping. Now they’ll put a deep enough team in there and that’s our challenge, to get them to play as a team, a group, in a short amount of time and they’ll have a chance.”

Maurice outlined his connection with Winnipeg native Kruger a month ago but elaborated this week on why he’s drawn to the assignment with the longtime European player and coach and former coach of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers.

“Ralph worked as a scout with the Carolina Hurricanes when I was there, and it was just at the drafts we’d talk,” he said. “The coaches would sit at the other end of the table and we’d talk hockey for 10 hours and it was really interesting, sharing experiences with him.

“I think Ralph did a really, really good job in Edmonton when he was there and I think people are now appreciating that. And he’s an interesting, interesting man in terms of the work he’s done in leadership and team-building so I have great interest in picking his brain.”

Maurice’s season-and-a-half coaching in the KHL in Russia with Magnitogorsk is, in his mind, a clear factor why he’s been asked to join the Team Europe staff.

“I still think that my time in Russia has been a benefit, that European experience,” he said. “There wouldn’t be a lot of NHL guys, other than international tournaments, that would have spent some time over there and that would have a better exposure to the European game.

“So there was a brief meeting (with Kruger) and a relationship and the fact that I’d been in the league a while and I have European experience and he knows that, and Ralph has an interest in putting together more of an NHL bench than necessarily a bunch of head coaches and running it like that.

“So you look at the structure of Team Europe and it’s a little different than you’re seeing.”

The time away from the Jets before the 2015-16 season will be minimal. NHL training camps will be delayed a few days to accommodate the tournament — it’s an NHL and NHLPA production — and the preliminary round will be complete by Sept. 22. The World Cup final game will be either Sept. 29 or Oct. 1.

Team Europe’s camp will open Sept. 4 in Quebec City and Montreal.

“The video is done by the middle of August,” Maurice said. “The prep work for camp’s first week, well, we did more scrimmaging and less practising last year, and I liked our start better at 8-4-2, so we may (do that again). That first week of camp… I’m really hopeful I miss that first week and the players are hoping that, too… and everybody will be happy.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca