Winnipeg Jets' coach Claude Noel looks up at the clock after calling a time out against the Vancouver Canucks during the third period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday March 8, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckDarryl Dyck/The Canadian Press
Winnipeg Jets coach Claude Noel is among the more colourful coaches in the NHL. So much so that St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, an old colleague, suggested that Noel charge admission to his press conferences. Here's why:
When asked what he could do about his team's slow start: "Besides kill them?"
On the Jets improved power play after weeks of ineptitude: "Unbelievable isn't it? That's coaching. It's just like when you win it's good coaching, when you lose it's bad players. It's a philosophy that I have."
When asked about the Boston Bruins, and with eyes rolling: "They are a really soft team. Really poor goal differential. They don't play very well. I don't know how they won the Stanley Cup."
After a tough 5-4 overtime loss against the Philadelphia Flyers: "How demoralized do you want to get? What do you want to do? Go home and put the knives and ropes away? What are you going to do?"
When asked what he thought about during a wild 9-8 victory over the Flyers: "I thought to myself, 'Self, you are sick man trying to make logic of this.' "
When asked what he learned from that game: "You learn that you might need a sports psychologist just to manage the brains of the coach."
On greeting reporters at a pre-game press conference: "You guys are always beauties. Sometimes you're just gems, but you are always beauties."
While launching into a story about playing for the Buffalo Norsemen in 1975: "It's not like we're sitting around for a fireside chat having a beer with you guys or anything." Asked during a losing streak last October if he was frustrated with the team: "I'm frustrated with Shaw cable."
Asked if he was more frustrated with the team or poor Shaw cable service at his house: "No, Shaw right now is the top of the list. The worst is they keep you on the line for half an hour and try to guide you through it."
After a loss against the Washington Capitals: "It ruins my night tonight, not that I have a life. So it ruins that. I'll get up in the morning, I'll be bitter and mad and everything else. I'll figure out how to manage the day and then we'll move forward."
Paul Waldie