Nolan Tells Canadian Paper He’s Staying Put
April 15th, 2008 by Tom
Coach Ted Nolan told Neil Hodge of Canada’s Times & Transcript that there is no truth to the rumor that he will return to coach the Moncton Wildcats in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League next season.
Nolan coached the Wildcats before joining the Islanders for the 2006-07 season.
“(Wildcats owner Robert Irving) was in New York about a month ago and we went to lunch,” Nolan told the paper. “Maybe someone heard about that and the assumptions and rumours got started there. There’s been no discussion about me coming back to Moncton or anything like that.”
Nolan also talks about the Isles second half meltdown that saw the team lose 15 of their final 20 games.
On the injuries:
“From early January until the end of the season, we had anywhere from five to 12 players out of the lineup. We lost our No. 1 goaltender, five regular defensemen and three of our top six forwards to injury. That was too much to overcome.”
On the team’s future:
“We were defeated this season and if we don’t learn anything from it then we won’t make ourselves better. Winning a championship is what it’s all about and you’re always trying to figure out what it takes to get to that level. You evaluate what you have. You look at other teams and what they have and why they are where they are.”
