Celebrate #HockeyDay<\/a><\/p>\nNolan understood that despite the fact he didn\u2019t know Irving \u2014 a titan of Canadian business \u2014 connecting with a man of his stature in person was probably a good idea. Still, before leaving to meet Irving in Toronto, Nolan told his wife there was no way they were relocating to Moncton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFifteen minutes into the conversation, I excused myself from the room,\u201d Nolan recalls. \u201cI went down the hall, I called my wife and said, \u2018We\u2019re going to Moncton.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Irving\u2019s passion for the game and community was infectious, and Nolan wanted in. Still, he hadn\u2019t coached in eight seasons \u2014 hadn\u2019t been a major junior coach for even longer \u2014 and did fear he\u2019d have to shake some rust off. He prepared Irving for the fact it could take a month or so to get up to speed and the team\u2019s record might suffer a bit out of the gate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we came out like 9-1or something like that,\u201d Nolan says, remembering with delight how things wound up clicking right away. \u201cThe fans jumped on board right off the hop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wildcat supporters certainly had a good team to cheer on. The club had earned a major recruiting win by convincing American defenceman Keith Yandle to come north instead of playing NCAA hockey. Moncton also had a young Maritimer on the roster in the form of Brad Marchand, who, in 2005-06, was ready to take a big step as a QMJHL sophomore.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow he is in the NHL, that\u2019s how he was in junior,\u201d Nolan says of Marchand. \u201cHe\u2019d be yapping at players on the other team and saying some crazy stuff and once in a while I\u2019d have to rein him in a little bit. But I didn\u2019t want to take his personality away because he was a dynamic player and a dynamic personality who loved to compete and win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under Nolan, the Wildcats achieved a league-best 107 points, just one more than the powerhouse Quebec Remparts then coached by Patrick Roy. Roy might have been the only person in the QMJHL with a bigger profile than Nolan, so it was serious business when the two clubs met in the league final two years after Moncton had lost the showdown series to the Gatineau Olympiques. The Wildcats downed the Remparts in six games, becoming just the second team from the Maritimes to win the President\u2019s Cup (now the Gilles-Courteau Trophy).<\/p>\n
Of course, by virtue of being the host city, Moncton\u2019s place in the 2006 Memorial Cup was assured even before it won the QMJHL playoffs. \u201cMoncton is a great city to begin with,\u201d Nolan says. \u201cBut having that many people coming into a wonderful city like that (for the tournament), seeing the hospitality of the Maritimers, it was fabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n
The home team did their part to keep the city rocking, making the final by virtue of defeating the WHL-champion Vancouver Giants 3-1 in the semifinal. That set up a rematch in the final with, who else, the Remparts. Unfortunately for Nolan and the Wildcats, Quebec \u2014 which beat Moncton in the round robin \u2014 got the better of them in the final contest, with two goals by tournament MVP Alexander Radulov propelling Roy\u2019s team to a 6-2 victory and the title.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a Memorial Cup veteran \u2014 he went three straight years in the early 1990s as coach of the Greyhounds, plus his trip with Moncton \u2014 Nolan is well aware of the event\u2019s capricious nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cI personally went four times and won it one time,\u201d Nolan says. \u201cThe Memorial Cup is a very tricky cup to win because it\u2019s one-game showdowns. But a league championship is different; (you\u2019re playing) best of seven. So, when I look back and say, \u2018would you rather win a league championship or a Memorial Cup?\u2019 The Memorial Cup has more prestige, but the league championship (in a way) has a little bit more (credibility).\u201d<\/p>\n
Casting back, one other consideration stands out to Nolan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we had a 19-year-old Brad Marchand versus a 17-year-old Brad Marchand, we would have won for sure,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
As it happens, neither Marchand nor Nolan were on the squad the following year. A trade landed Marchand in Val-d\u2019Or and another unexpected call \u2014 this time from one of his closest allies in hockey \u2014 had Nolan headed back to the NHL after nearly a decade away from the world\u2019s best league.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was crying when I told (Irving) the Islanders called and wanted me to go,\u201d he says. \u201cIf it was just the Islanders calling, I\u2019m not too sure I would have gone. But the man behind the call was Pat LaFontaine. The special relationship I had (by then) with Mr. Irving, I had (equally) with Pat LaFontaine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nolan coached the Islanders for two seasons and, in quite a twist, found himself coaching in Buffalo again in 2013-14, when LaFontaine had moved on to work there. He also coached the Latvian men\u2019s national team \u2014 guiding the squad at the 2014 Winter Olympics \u2014 while remaining an inspiration and champion for his First Nation community. It all culminated in Nolan receiving the Order of Sport from Canada\u2019s Sports Hall of Fame this past fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I didn\u2019t go to Moncton, I would never have received the Order of Sport,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause (going to) Moncton reinvigorated my career. It was all based on that 15-minute conversation I had with Mr. Iving to bring me back.\u201d<\/p>\n
He never could have imagined, in the moment, just how far back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At his lowest point, Ted Nolan had basically given up on getting the kind of phone call he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-414851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Celebrate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/NHLONSN_HDIC_NATIONAL_1280x720-640x360.png\")
Celebrate Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada<\/p>\n