Ducks Seem to Be Sold on Their New Leader

New Mighty Duck Coach Guy Charron came walking up with that hi-how-are-ya grin, striding with carefree purpose to the postgame press conference.

That his team, in a pitiful display, had just lost, 4-2, to the Atlanta Thrashers made Charron’s bounce seem a bit laissez faire. The honeymoon was over. The Ducks, who won the first two games after Charron replaced Craig Hartsburg, had spent 60 minutes displaying reasons why Hartsburg was fired.

And here was Charron, beaming.

To understand why, know that after Charron finished his tour as a player in the NHL, the first job he was offered was as a car salesman. A friend who owned a dealership in the Washington D.C. area thought Charron would be perfect.

Spend a few minutes with Charron and his pitch can be imagined.

The great thing about these Ford Pintos is you’ll get lots of room on the highway. No one will ever tailgate you.

So, who better to try to keep the languishing Ducks from a complete crash and burn?

Charron was brought in as an assistant this season and now, despite only 16 games of experience as an NHL head coach, he has been handed the Titanic and asked to paddle. That means tapping all the resources from his 19 years as head coach-in-training.

Yet Charron already has captivated Duck players with his Go-See-Cal personality.

“He’s like sunshine,” Duck right wing Teemu Selanne said. “The first day he was head coach, he gave this speech. You could see how happy and excited he was. When he talked, he was so emotional he got everybody excited.

“He has a good speech. I would end up buying a car from him.”

Of course, the Ducks hardly have that new-car smell these days. They wallow in last place in the Pacific Division after going 5-12-3-1 in Hartsburg’s final 21 games. Charron was handed the keys Dec. 14.

The Ducks won two games. Then, Selanne was hampered by a strained groin. Team captain and leading scorer Paul Kariya broke his foot, which will sideline him for at least a month. And the Ducks hit a wall against Atlanta.

Charron smiled through it all.

“I would have liked to think we could have won the next 50-some games,” Charron said after the Thrasher thrashing. “But I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Just because we won the first couple games didn’t mean that we solved every problem.”

Charron has witnessed the good, the bad, and the ugly since training camp. He and Terry Simpson were brought in as assistant coaches. Whether intentional or not, he made a perfect coach-in-waiting.

After all, he had NHL experience as an assistant, not to mention 16 games as Calgary’s interim coach at the end of the 1991-92 season. He had also shown his mettle as a head coach with the International Hockey League’s Grand Rapids team.

The Griffins meandered through the 1998-99 season, losing players and even more games in what became an endurance test. They reached the Eastern Conference final last season. People noticed. The Ducks came calling.

“That first year had been really difficult,” Grand Rapids General Manager Bob McNamara said. “Guy was able to recognize areas that the team needed to improve in. He also saw things he needed to do and had the wisdom to change.”

And . . .

“He’s a very easy guy to like,” McNamara said.

That was apparent to Duck players immediately.

“He has been the guy who tried to keep everyone loose and in a nice mood,” Selanne said.

The players react to this spin like Pavlov’s dog. During the first meeting with the team as head coach, Charron asked for players’ input. Just try to find an anti-Charron faction after that.

“Guy always brings a lot of energy to the dressing room and to practice,” left wing Marty McInnis said.

McInnis got a taste of the Charron touch when both were with the New York Islanders. Charron, an assistant coach, made McInnis a deal.

“We used to have a bet,” McInnis said. “If I got less than three shots, I had to give him a dollar. If I got three shots, he gave me the money. I’m pretty sure I ended up owing him money.

“That’s Guy, finding a positive way to get you working and get you thinking about hockey.”

A style that Charron did not learn. It’s inbred. The DNA is that smile.

Those that have known him through the years have a clear picture of the man. The snapshot hasn’t faded with time.

“We played against each other in junior hockey,” Colorado Avalanche General Manager Pierre Lacroix said. “He was a good overall player.”

But . . .

“The remarkable thing about him is his personality,” Lacroix said. “Guy doesn’t have an enemy on earth. He is the guy who is always smiling. I get up every morning with a big smile. That’s a souvenir from Guy. He enjoys life.”

That attitude could get tested. Charron inherits a Duck team that was supposedly improved during the summer. The Ducks had the best October in franchise history, which deteriorated into a mess.

Charron was handed the broom.

“The players were pressing so much at the time and it was so tense, I thought it was important that they get a breath of fresh air and have a positive influence,” Duck General Manager Pierre Gauthier said. “Guy can do that.”

There is no “he better” attached. Nor is there the word “interim.” Charron is the coach--at least this season. Beyond that, Gauthier refuses to speculate.

Not that it matters to Charron, who says, “I’m just enjoying the moment.”

Besides, there is more than enough to worry about right now. Who needs to fret about the future?

“I knew I had to bring enthusiasm,” Charron said. “Everyone was saying, ‘We’ve got to turn this around.’ We were probably using the wrong ways to get out of it. All I told them was to be positive, work hard and live with the consequences.”

But there is a firm hand underneath that velvet glove.

“Don’t mistake Guy for a man who just has a grin and a happy attitude,” said Atlanta Thrasher assistant coach George Kingston, a long-time friend. “There’s that side of him that’s very positive, very friendly and very confident. The other side is very serious. He has steadily sought out experiences to upgrade his abilities. He’s a career coach.”

And Charron was skating down that path before he even knew where it led.

Charron scored 221 goals in an NHL career that began in 1969-70 with the Montreal Canadiens and ended three teams later when the Washington Capitals bought out his contract halfway through the 1980-81 season. His friend who owned the car dealership called the next day.

Charron already had chosen a second career--he just didn’t realize it yet.

“I was coaching a youth baseball team in the summer of 1971 and called Guy to see if he would help me,” Lacroix said. “We had both played baseball as well as hockey when we were kids. I knew how well he communicated ideas. I was sure he would be a great teacher. I always kept that in my mind.”

Charron toyed at extending his career, as a player/coach with Aosa in the Swiss Hockey League. But when a friend of Lacroix, who owned the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, said he was looking for a coach in 1983, one name jumped to mind. On Lacroix’s recommendation, Charron was hired.

“Here I was an ex-pro, with 12 years in the NHL, and I thought all I had to do was give these kids guidelines and everything would fit together,” Charron said. “It didn’t quite work that way. If you don’t watch over kids, they will go wild.”

Lesson One in an understudy coaching program that took Charron to Canada’s national hockey program to Germany to Calgary to the New York Islanders during the next 15 years. Grading has been on a pass-fail system.

So far, Charron has passed all the tests.

“A good coach is kind of like a musician who has skyrocketed to the top,” Kingston said. “Everybody always goes, ‘Where did he come from?’ They don’t realize there have been years of playing bars. Then, all of a sudden, the right situation comes along.”

Charron will now learn if this is indeed the right situation, or another time when all he can do is grin and bear it.

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Guy Charron

Age: 51

As a player:

12 NHL seasons as a center.

As an NHL coach: Assistant with the Calgary Flames from 1990-95, assuming head coaching duties at end of 1991-92 season, finishing with a record of 6-7-3. Assistant coach with the Islanders from 1995-97. Joined Ducks in June as an assistant, promoted to head coach Dec. 14.