BY PATRICK KING
sportsnet.ca
Guy Carbonneau is back where he feels he belongs.
No, it's not behind the bench of a National Hockey League team, nor is it what he perceives to be his final coaching destination. The former Montreal Canadiens head coach is, however, in a comfort zone managing a bench in the Québec Major Junior Hockey League.
"It was something that obviously I felt comfortable doing in the past -- I really enjoy it," Carbonneau said Wednesday.
Since joining his new team, Carbonneau has been adjusting to teaching teenagers whose experience and knowledge aren't on par with the lessons he preached in the NHL.
"I think it's like everything else, you kind of learn on the fly," he said. "You adjust."
Those are two good summations of Carbonneau's short time in Chicoutimi. After hanging up his track suit and whistle in Montreal two seasons ago, Carbonneau has been itching to get back behind a bench -- just not necessarily a junior bench.
The question mark looming over his head is as prevalent today as it was five weeks earlier when he stepped behind the Chicoutimi bench. It's not that he couldn't see himself back as the Saguenéens' head coach next season, it's just that he isn't ready to bet his immediate future on it.
"I've said this all along, when I took the job, it's for the end of the year until the end of the playoffs and then we'll evaluate it in the summer," Carbonneau said. "I was not ready at the time to say yes and then I end up in the summer and change my mind."
Like the players he coach's, Carbonneau retains National Hockey League aspirations. His plans never included this step behind the bench.
But as a managing partner of the Saguenéens, Carbonneau was the logical choice as Richard Martel's replacement when the team fired its long-time head coach in early February. Even Carbonneau admits the move was born out of convenience.
After spending previous seasons at a distance, Carbonneau immersed himself with the team this season. He spent nearly two weeks in training camp with the team behind the bench and rode on the bus for road games.
"To keep myself sharp," he said, "I felt in the past I had a chance to go see the team on the road a couple times and every time I went, I felt that the guys were intimidated."
Any trepidation has now been lifted.
Not that there was time for a proper introduction. With little over a month remaining in the season when he took over, Carbonneau didn't exactly have time to re-invent the wheel in Chicoutimi.
He structures his game-plan knowing his team's strengths and weaknesses. What the Saguenéens are, in Carbonneau's estimation, is a young team whose defensive efforts can overcome its offensive shortcomings.
"I think now we have more structure," he said, comparing the team now to his first few games behind the bench. "We just have to get better in different areas."
After losing the first game after he took over, the Saguenéens won six of their next seven games. Since then, however, the team lost its last five straight games and will finish no higher than 12th in the 18-team league.
Chicoutimi will be a huge underdog in its first round playoff series against either Drummondville or Gatineau. Carbonneau now preaches his players to believe in their ability to produce an upset.
"Surprises happen all the time," he said.
He cited the Pittsburgh Penguins overcoming the injuries of stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin as one example in the NHL this season.
Among another example he can draw upon is the 1993 NHL playoffs when the Canadiens became the last Canadian-based franchise to win the Stanley Cup. Montreal was an underdog then and were surprising league champions with Carbonneau as its captain.
"It's just experience I have in the past that I can relay to them and just every day you kind of draw from experience," he said.
As Carbonneau will try to get his players to relate to his playing experience, he can relate to theirs now. In addition to being one of the Saguenéens proudest alumni, Carbonneau is living their lifestyle. Rather than staying in a hotel during his stint this season with the team, he has been living in his wife's parent's basement in Chicoutimi.
He's not sure where his coaching travels will take him, but Carbonneau is learning to live in the moment.
"It's like everything else," Carbonneau explains. "If you like what you do and you do it for the right reason, there's not a lot of place for frustration."
