Raiders’ Habscheid sits alone in sixth for WHL coaching wins

Prince Albert downs Swift Current 4-2 for victory 549

Marc Habscheid mans the Raiders bench in September of 2019.

During his coaching career, Marc Habscheid is often showered with praise from his players that might be greater than any championships he’s won or the victories he’s piled up.

After being guided by Habscheid, it is common for players to refer to him as the best coach they’ve ever had. Players will also say they couldn’t imagine playing for another coach after being coached by Habscheid or it was hard at first to play for another coach after playing under Habscheid.

When players start playing for another coach, they will at times have a habit of comparing what that coach was doing to what Habscheid would do in various circumstances often concluding Habscheid would handle things better.

On Saturday in a bubble environment without fans in attendance at the Brandt Centre in Regina, Habscheid hit another milestone in his coaching career. When his Prince Albert Raiders doubled the Swift Current Broncos 4-2, Habscheid picked up his 549th head coaching win of his WHL regular season career.

The victory allowed Habscheid to move one win ahead of Ernie “Punch” McLean to sit alone in sixth spot on the WHL’s all-time career regular season wins list. McLean is best remembered for being the head coach of the rough and tumble New Westminster Bruins teams that won the Memorial Cup as CHL champions in 1977 and 1978.

Habscheid took up coaching in the 1996-97 season when he became the head coach and general manager of the Melfort Mustangs in the junior A Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. The Swift Current, Sask., product’s coaching career came right after a lengthy playing career.

Marc Habscheid sits sixth on the WHL’s career wins list.

From 1979 to 1982, Habscheid played one partial season and two full seasons as a star centre for the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades piling up 107 goals and 169 assists for 276 points in 148 career regular season games. He was a member of the Canada’s first ever gold medal winning team at world juniors in the 1981-82 season.

In the 1981 NHL Entry Draft, he was selected in the sixth round and 113^th overall by the Edmonton Oilers, who had stars like Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.

Habscheid played seven games with the Oilers in 1981-82 and would earn a full-time spot in the professional ranks the next season. His NHL stops included spending time with the Oilers, Minnesota North Stars, Detroit Red Wings and Calgary Flames.

Habschied played his final professional season with the Augsberger Panther in 1995-96 before joining the Mustangs as head coach and general manager.

After one season with the Mustangs, Habscheid moved up to the WHL ranks as head coach and general manager of the Kamloops Blazers in 1997-98. During his career in the WHL, Habscheid would also serve stints as the head coach and general manager of the Kelowna Rockets and the Chilliwack Bruins/Victoria Royals franchise.

In Kelowna, Habscheid led the Rockets to a WHL title in the 2002-03 campaign and a Memorial Cup title as the tournament hosts in 2003-04. 

Marc Habscheid has coached with four different WHL franchises.

In the 2004 WHL playoffs, the Rockets advanced to the Western Conference Championship series before falling in a series deciding Game 7 to the Everett Silvertips, who were skating through a Cinderella expansion season.

Habscheid was hired as the Raiders head coach on November 1, 2014 as a midseason replacement for Cory Clouston.

When Curtis Hunt became the Raiders general manager before the start of the 2015-16 campaign, Hunt and Habscheid became a hockey power couple. They restored the luster of the Raiders franchise to a level that hadn’t been seen in some time.

Under their watch, the Raiders would finish first overall in 2018-19 WHL regular season standings with a 54-10-2-2 record. The Raiders advanced on to win their second WHL title in team history on Dante Hannoun’s epic Game 7 overtime winner in the WHL Championship series at the Art Hauser Centre.

Hannoun’s winner in May of 2019 gave the Raiders a 3-2 victory in Game 7 over the Vancouver Giants that will live forever in the hearts of the Raiders faithful.

In all of Habscheid’s coaching stops, the players he coach always turned out to be first class citizens. His teams won with class and lost with class, and it should be noted that winning was often the norm.

Curtis Hunt, left, and Marc Habscheid have made the Raiders go.

On the ice, the biggest thing he did was allow his players the play the roles they were suited for. Skilled players who scored were skilled players who scored and were encouraged to execute creative plays.

Defensive players played defence. In goal, Habscheid’s netminders usually had the confidence to shine in big moments.

Overall, Habscheid instilled confidence in his player that they could accomplish big things as long as they focused on getting better every day. He also makes coming to the rink enjoyable.

In Saturday’s win over the Broncos, the Raiders received an inspired performance from overage power forward Justin Nachbaur, who had a goal, two assists and engaged in a first period fight with Broncos overager defenceman Kaleb Bulych.

The goal, assist and the fight allowed Nachbaur to pick up the “Gordie Howe hat trick” for the night.

Dallyn Peekeekoot, who is a 16-year-old rookie centre from the Ahtahkakoop First Nation in Saskatchewan, scored his first career WHL goal tallying 67 seconds into the first period to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead.

After Broncos defenceman Sam McGinley evened things up at 1-1 at the 15:46 mark of the opening frame, Nachbaur scored with 2:50 remaining in the first to put the Raiders up 2-1.

Justin Nachbbaur had a “Gordie Howe hat trick” on Saturday.

Overage centre Spencer Moe scored early in the second to increase the Raiders advantage to 3-1.

Broncos rookie right-winger Josh Filmon, who turned 17-years-old in March, scored on a breakaway early in the third to cut the Raiders lead to 3-2.

Raiders veteran centre Eric Pearce sealed the 4-2 win scoring into an empty net with 47.5 seconds remaining in the third.

Overage netminder Max Paddock made 19 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders (4-6-2). Veteran 19-year-old netminder Isaac Poulter turned away 22-of-25 shots to take the setback in goal for the Broncos (3-8-1).

Star centre Ozzy Wiesblatt picked up three assists for the Raiders, while 19-year-old veteran centre Reece Vitelli had a pair of helpers.

The Raiders return to action on Monday in the Regina bubble against the Brandon Wheat Kings (8 p.m., 900 CKBI).

The bubble environment is being utilized due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world.

So far during the shortened 24-game developmental 2020-21 campaign, the Raiders have dealt with a rash of injuries. They also weren’t able to bring in bring veteran Belarusian forward Aliaksei Protas and Belarusian forward newcomer Vladislav Shyla to Canada due to how the COVID-19 pandemic has played out.

Marc Habscheid raises the Ed Chynoweth Cup in May 2019.

With all that noted, Habscheid has the patience to allow newcomers to learn and grow playing in the WHL. While he will be challenging and providing road maps for ways that players can improve and be better, Habscheid knows there will bumps in the road and won’t panic.

When the developmental season comes to an end, you can bet the Raiders players will depart for their respective homes believing they had never played for a better coach.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.