Even As A Coach, Paul McFarland Has Learned To Keep Eye On Puck
Paul McFarland will be back behind a hockey bench in Seattle next season.
Well, technically, he'll be behind the visitors' bench at Western Hockey League games in Kent and Everett.
McFarland, former Seattle Kraken assistant let go along with head coach Dave Hakstol in April, has been hired to coach the WHL Calgary Hitmen.
Taking the Hitmen job marks a return to junior hockey for McFarland. He played a combined four seasons (2002-06) for Kitchener and Windsor of the Ontario Hockey League. After his playing days, he'd coach the OHL Kingston Frontenacs.
McFarland's Bad Puck Luck With Kraken
Following NHL assistant coaching stints in Florida and Toronto, McFarland spent three seasons on Hakstol's staff in Seattle. One of his most vivid memories came two months into the Kraken's expansion season.
"We’re playing the Edmonton Oilers," McFarland recalled during a clinic run by The Coaches Site. "I’m on the bench, looking at an iPad.
"Now, technology does great things as coaches, all this different technology we have allows us to watch the game and see things back, but this is an example where I should have been watching the game.
"There’s the flip-backhand, there’s myself and I took a puck straight to the head. Not my best day!"
NHL, Junior Hockey Have Different Perks
To be sure, there were lots of better days.
“Being an NHL assistant," McFarland said to the Calgary Sun, "it’s the best league in the world and you get a chance to work with the best players in the world and a lot of smart people, so there’s obviously great experience in that. But for me personally, to get the opportunity to be a head coach again, that was a huge motivation."
Interestingly, in firing the previous Hitmen coach, general manager Garry Davidson was quoted as saying the team needed, "A new voice." That's the same phrase Kraken GM Ron Francis used in showing McFarland and Hakstol the door.
In fairness, "new voice" is the current go-to expression for GMs in all sports when making coaching changes.
McFarland acknowledged WHL accommodations don't always rival the NHL. “I’m OK with the bus. Hey, don’t get me wrong, the charter plane rides and staying at the Four Seasons, that’s pretty nice. But I’m OK with the bus.”