Q&A: Don Nachbaur on Howe, Gretzky and coaching the Flames’ farmhands

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Don Nachbaur’s nickname dates again to the late-Nineteen Seventies, when he was each scoring and scrapping for the Western Hockey League’s Billings Bighorns.

For the previous 40-some years, together with in his present put up as an assistant coach for the Calgary Wranglers, he has answered to ‘Snack.’

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“Yeah, that began with Dave King, my coach in junior,” Nachbaur defined. “When he was mad at me, he’d name me ‘Snackbar.’ He’d say, ‘C’mon, Snackbar!’ Identical to my mom used to name me Donald. So the gamers in Billings, they shortened it to ‘Snack.’ In all places I went, the title adopted me.”

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‘Snack,’ who hails initially from Kitimat, B.C., is a hockey lifer. He performed components of eight seasons as an NHL ahead, totalling 223 appearances for the Hartford Whalers, Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers. He received a Calder Cup ring with the Hershey Bears. He’s now been a bench staffer for 3 a long time, together with stints within the NHL, AHL, major-junior and abroad in Switzerland and Slovakia. He’s a three-time winner of the WHL’s coach-of-the-year nod.

Now in his third marketing campaign as a tutor to the Flames’ farm-clubbers, Nachbaur celebrated his 65 birthday on Tuesday. To mark the event, Postmedia’s Wes Gilbertson requested the Wranglers’ assistant to share just a few favorite recollections from his profession to date …  

Q: Let’s begin with the here-and-now. As an assistant coach with the Wranglers, you’re employed primarily with the forwards. Over the previous few months, you’ve watched Connor Zary, Martin Pospisil and Adam Klapka all be referred to as up by the Flames for his or her NHL debuts. What’s it been like as a coach to see these guys notice their goals?

Nachbaur: “It’s a fruits of the every day work that we’ve put in, speaking hockey, watching video, spending a lot time with these guys. They had been younger guys once we acquired ’em and to see them take steps of their careers and at last get to the Nationwide Hockey League, it’s like a father. I’m simply actually pleased with them. That goes again to my junior days, too. You recognize, I knew the blokes in junior that had an opportunity to be execs due to the best way they practised and the best way they valued issues. If I may point out just a few names — Patty Marleau is one and extra just lately, Carey Worth or Kailer Yamamoto or Jaret Anderson-Dolan, guys which can be taking part in within the NHL at the moment … They by no means settled on simply being mediocre. They wished to excel. They loved video. They put within the time on the ice. And it the identical as the blokes right here in Calgary. These guys which can be up there now with the Flames, they had been actually good college students, they had been actually good listeners, and a few of them modified their recreation. They needed to. And look the place they’re at the moment.”

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Q: Let’s return to your days as a ahead prospect. In April of 1978, you scored 5 objectives in a WHL playoff recreation. That is still a league report. What do you keep in mind about that night time?   

Nachbaur: “I keep in mind it prefer it was yesterday. Our guys wouldn’t know that I scored these objectives, as a result of I don’t brag about stuff like that. But it surely was at Pacific Coliseum, I used to be taking part in for the Billings Bighorns and it was the league finals and we had been taking part in towards the New Westminster Bruins. They ended up successful the collection however that night time that I acquired 5 objectives, we received 7-4. I keep in mind lining up for the third interval, I used to be taking the draw and I heard an announcement — the P.A. announcer says, ‘Women and gents, together with his 5 objectives tonight, Don Nachbaur has tied the Western Hockey League report.’ As they had been saying it, I assumed, ‘I’m going to get the sixth.’ And as I used to be taking the draw as a centre, I had three New West Bruins, all nice large guys standing over prime of me. These had been the Large Dangerous Bruins, again within the late-Nineteen Seventies. They checked out me and stated, ‘When you contact the puck, we’re imagined to kill you.’ I made a decision 5 was sufficient. That’s a real story.”

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Q: You had been chosen within the third spherical of the 1979 NHL Draft by the Hartford Whalers and some months later, you’re attending coaching camp with Gordie Howe and Dave Keon. What was that like? 

Nachbaur: “It was superior. I used to be so excited. Simply to fulfill Gordie and to be within the locker-room with him … After which in my first exhibition recreation I performed with the Whalers, he assisted on a objective of mine. I keep in mind wanting on the scoreboard, we had been in Houston, and it stated ‘D. Nachbaur from G. Howe and M. Howe’ and it had their numbers, 9 and 5. If I had an image of my smile with these names beneath, it could have made my life, ? After which going again, once I was child, my favorite participant was Dave Keon. From the time I used to be somewhat man, from the time I put skates on all the best way as much as major-junior, I wore No. 14. So I get drafted by Hartford and I wasn’t getting No. 14. In order that they gave me No. 16, after which they took that away and gave me No. 26, as a result of partway by means of the yr, they grabbed a man named Bobby Hull. That’s how I ended up with No. 26. However my first camp was memorable as a result of they paired all their draft picks with their veteran gamers, so I roomed with Dave Keon. When (Whalers common supervisor) Jack Kelley introduced the rooming record after rookie camp, we needed to get our luggage and we needed to transfer rooms. So he talked about, ‘That is the brand new rooming record. Concentrate.’ He stated, ‘Ray Allison, you’re going with Gordie Howe,’ and I begin sweating as a result of I began placing two and two collectively — ‘Ray is a right-winger, and he’s going with a right-winger.’ Then they stated, ‘Stu Smith, you’re going with Rick Ley,’ each defencemen. After which they referred to as my title and I used to be with Dave Keon. So to choose up my luggage and stroll into the room with my idol, it was unreal. And he’s nonetheless a buddy at the moment.”

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Q: From Gordie to Gretzky, what stands out about your transient stint with the Edmonton Oilers in 1982-83?

Nachbaur: “I used to be solely there for a cup of tea. I began the primary couple months there sitting within the press-box, acquired into just a few video games when (Ken) Linesman was suspended, after which I ended up getting shipped out to Moncton and got here again for the playoffs, performed just a few playoff video games. Even to play on a line with Gretz in follow was proper up there. I used to be sensible sufficient to know, ‘Get him the puck and let him carry the puck.’ Simply the issues that these guys may do in follow, I used to be a scholar of the sport and I watched how they moved the puck, how they’d use the again of the web. For Gordie, he was unbelievable. In my first coaching camp, he’d take us younger guys apart and present us little issues. And so they weren’t at all times the cleanest issues. It was additionally about with the ability to defend ourselves. In these days, you needed to.”

Q: Your final cease as an NHL participant was a five-season stint with the Philadelphia Flyers group. That included a run to Recreation 7 of the Stanley Cup remaining in 1987, however the Oilers hoisted the trophy that night time. Does that form of heartbreak ever heal?

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Nachbaur: “Properly, we noticed the Stanley Cup. I acquired actual near it. I acquired scratched in Recreation 7. I took the warm-ups in Edmonton, however I didn’t play. We’d had an actual robust collection towards Montreal. That complete playoffs, we had been beat up. We had Davey Poulin with damaged ribs. We had Ronny Sutter with an ankle damage. Murray Craven was harm. And so they’re all centres, in order that they ended up calling up myself and Tim Tookey to fill in. So we went by means of the second and third spherical towards the Islanders and Montreal with out star gamers, and we acquired by means of these. I performed the primary couple of video games towards Edmonton and subsequent factor , the blokes had been filtering again in so the common lineup was again in. But it surely was a battle to get to there and on the finish, among the guys weren’t wholesome. In the event that they’d been wholesome, you by no means know. However for me, I used to be lucky to be there. Not many guys get to the Stanley Cup finals.”

Q: By my math, you will have coached near 2,000 video games — and counting, in fact — at varied ranges. What do you like concerning the job, about being behind the bench?

Nachbaur, as he begins to reply, spots Jakob Pelletier strolling previous and factors towards the 22-year-old left-winger: “Guys like this. It’s the relationships you make with the employees, the relationships you construct with gamers. It’s particular. I by no means realized how impactful teaching is till you get calls 20 years later from gamers, like the blokes that I sat with in Seattle for Patrick Marleau’s jersey retirement. These gamers instructed me how I influenced them of their jobs that they do at the moment, they usually quoted a few of my sayings within the locker-room. And I checked out them and I stated, ‘I by no means thought you guys heard a phrase.’ However they had been paraphrasing issues that I stated within the locker-room. The issues they had been saying, it hit me how vital teaching is. However for me, the perfect half is the relationships that you just construct with these guys, after which it’s cool once they attain out to you after it’s all completed.”

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Q: Whether or not it’s a Patrick Marleau or a Carey Worth or a man like Connor Zary who’s simply getting began on the highest stage, what does it imply to know you made an impression on their respective roads to the NHL?

Nachbaur: “It means I’ve completed my job. I take a look at it that approach, it’s my job to make them higher. And in the event that they’re open to new solutions, which all these guys had been, then we’re heading in the right direction to getting higher. I discuss this with our younger guys on a regular basis — in the event that they need to get higher, they’ve to point out up for follow with an angle to get higher, not simply an angle to place in time. The fellows that you just see up with the Flames proper now, they introduced that angle, whether or not it was to the video room or to the ice. That’s all a part of it … If I exploit Zary for example, he had some junior traits that we needed to change. One was overhandling pucks, having it on his tape an excessive amount of. After which it was about doing somewhat extra work with out the puck, getting open, pulling pucks in and taking pictures round folks. We tried to place these particulars, after follow, into his recreation. And take a look at him. He’s acquired it going. And I’d say the identical about Pospy. He was uncooked. He had lots to study. However one factor I by no means taught him was to be greasy. We love that from him and we inspired him to play that approach, however that was already his model. We don’t attempt to change guys’ kinds. We let ’em be who they’re however refine their kinds.”

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Q: I’m positive you will have one million nice hockey tales but when any individual buys you a beer and asks to listen to your absolute favorite, what’s it?

Nachbaur: “I don’t know. Scoring your first NHL objective, that’s at all times large and I believe each man remembers that. I scored mine towards Greg Millen, and Millsy and I later performed collectively in Hartford. He was with Pittsburgh at the moment. I keep in mind getting in a pair fights in Vancouver — I had Tiger Williams and Bobby Schmautz — and getting kicked out and so I used to be sitting with my mother and pop and my mother says, ‘We got here all the best way to observe you play and also you’re sitting right here?’ That was a mistake. I ought to have been taking part in, however I used to be simply doing my job. And I’ll always remember hoisting the Calder Cup in 1988 as a result of I used to be one of many captains of the Hershey Bears and we went 12-0 and by no means misplaced a recreation within the playoffs. Once you get a hoop, you don’t neglect these guys. They’re lifelong associates they usually nonetheless are at the moment.”

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