Coming to you live from a dark, cavernous Xcel Energy Center, where I am all alone in a big press box. Spooky. I am scared.

About 45 minutes ago, I was coming to you live from Chateau de Russo, but then I decided the laptop I left in the Wild locker room was integral and returned to the arena.

The Jacques Lemaire/Doug Risebrough news conference was pretty emotional. Laughs, and some wet eyes. Mario Tremblay had trouble keeping it together. Lemaire got glassy eyed. Risebrough choked up at the end.

It’s truly the end of an era. Lemaire was the architect for the foundation of this franchise, and his legacy should continue for a long time. He will be missed, that’s for sure by the press. There were ups and downs and clashes, of course. When you ticked him off, he’d give you an answer and just look you in the eyes. And when he was done, he wouldn’t turn away. It was unnerving. But man, he was so easy to work with, a great quote and darn funny.

Remember, a good chunk of the players in the Wild room, from Brent Burns to Marian Gaborik to Mikko Koivu to Nick Schultz to P-M Bouchard, have only known one NHL coach. So in a lot of ways, there’s an excitement, too, because next training camp, for the first time, these players will hear a different voice with fresh ideas. And that’ll make for an interesting camp and season.

Lemaire did admits that a few weeks ago, he did realize certain guys stopped listening to him. You’ll hear more about that in tomorrow’s paper. Also, Risebrough said he learned Jacques was quitting — even though he had a feeling — after the game literally a minute before he told the two beat writers.

Risebrough said the coaching search could take 2-2 1/2 months. Over the next three-four weeks, he will talk internally with his staff. Then he will begin a monthlong process of soliciting potential candidates, or vice versa, and then begin the interview process and due diligence.

He says he has no timetable for hiring a new coach, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be before free agency. More again on all this in tomorrow’s paper.

Andrew Brunette has been playing on a fully torn right ACL since the Ducks’ game Jan. 17. He will have reconstructive knee surgery Thursday and will be out four to six months. He said his goal is to be ready by training camp and nobody should worry about this affecting his game because, “I can’t skate anyways. Maybe I can play in running shoes.”

Then I said, “You might be faster.” Laughs all around. 

Mikko Koivu’s also been playing on a second degree MCL sprain since March 22. He said he doesn’t need surgery, that time will be his healer.

Jacques thanks the fans. I’ll put the quote below, as well as the one he said about the press because it was so funny.

“The other people I want to thank is, well, the press. You guys were easy to work with coming from Montreal and they want to know what kind of shorts I’m wearing before the game. It was easy. I felt that you guys, you were supportive to a certain point. You want to know what’s going on and I try to be available and I hope I did the job good enough for you guys. I know at times you were saying ‘well I got three words how can I make a sentence?’ But that’s all I could give you at that time.

“The most important are the fans. Fans in Minnesota, you guys are unbelievable. You start a new franchise – we travel a bit and go into other cities. And you know guys are playing hockey there and you look at the crowds, a lot of nights its half full. And we come here and you people came in game after game – exhibition games – for eight years it was packed. And you know it’s the best environment that we could get as coaches, as players and we got that here. And the lifestyle that we had here is – I feel that it was really close to Montreal in certain ways. And I felt really at home here and I don’t want to get into this (meaning he was getting a little emotional there). I just want to thank you again because I really felt your support. Thank you.”

Here is some Risebrough comments on Jacques (couple funny stories):

It was nine years ago that Jacques and I were sitting in a similar setting and he was asked when we introduced as head coach: for a coach that has won as much as he has, a player that’s won as much as he has, how’s he going to enjoy losing? And Jacques’ answer was ‘I don’t like losing and if we work together and we work hard, we’re going to win our share of games.’ I knew why I got Jacques Lemaire, but that moment crystallized so much hope for our franchise because even I now became a believer. That day, I knew what he would do for us, but I was a true believer then. Announcing Jacques Lemaire that day was announcing a winner and announcing a teacher. When he said we were going to win our share of games, Jacques, you delivered. It was the comfort with which he said it and it was the credibility with which he said it.

I do have to tell you a bit of a story. Before that, when I was negotiating with Jacques in Rice Park about concluding to get him as head coach, I remember thinking ‘what can I do to offer this guy this job?’ I knew he wanted the job, knew he was interested but I had to come to a financial arrangement with him. So I piled up as much money as I thought I could, for the level of coach he was knowing this was far beyond what any expansion team had ever considered and even some of the press later on doubted it. And I said to him: Here’s what I’m going to offer you. And Jacques looked at me and said ‘You know what? I thought you’d be a lot lower.’ And I thought ‘Boy, I got him.’ And he said, ‘But you’re not high enough’ I realized how direct Jacques was going to communicate.

Jacques coaches for the right reasons, the right way and he gets the right results. The right reasons are: he has a true passion for hockey. Outside of his family, his passion for hockey – I’ve never seen anything succeed it. And his true passion for teaching. I’ve gotten to know Jacques quite well the past nine years, and I can honestly say some of his greatest moments and greatest satisfactions comes in the fact that players get better. He just loves teaching. He loves seeing players get better. How he does it is he accepts the ultimate responsibility as a coach for him to figure out a way. No excuses, for him to figure out a way. And to start from an embryonic stage of giving some confidence to that individual so that he ultimately will get better. And his excitement, the sparkle in his eye when that happens is something to see. He also does it the right way because he wants them to work as a team. He wants them to enjoy successes together. And in a world today, that’s not always easy. He teaches them how to play together, he teaches them how to enjoy winning together and that’s his true, true calling as a coach.

I have to tell you this other story about coach of the year. He recognizes that his satisfaction comes through the players. If it was not for the players, he wouldn’t enjoy it. He doesn’t want to do it any other way. The year he won coach of the year I said to him ‘you’re going to have to go down to the ceremonies and I think you got a good chance at winning coach of the year. And he said ‘I can’t.’ I said ‘why can’t you?’ And he said ‘My daughter’s getting married.’ Then I started to realize, ‘when’s she getting married? Its three weeks later.’ He said ‘I have a lot of family coming down. I cant leave my family. I have a lot of brothers. I want it to be special.’ So I said ‘I’ll fly a jet down to pick you up and fly you to the awards ceremony. Whoever you want to bring, we’ll fly you right back to Florida and you can accept the trophy.’ And then there was this most pain look on his face, cause I had got him. He didn’t know what to say. What he said was ‘Doug, that’s no place for me. This award is not about coaching, it’s about the players. I believe the coach of the year is because he’s with players that want to work for him’ He did not go that ceremony, did not accept that award. I was standing there telling them it was because it was because of his daughter’s wedding he couldn’t make it. I know Jacques was happy because I said ‘Well who’s gonna go?’ and he said ‘Somebody has to go. It might as well be you.’

Jacque’s era has ended. The players are better today because of Jacques Lemaire. I have seen the letters players have written Jacques thanking him for the opportunity that’s he’s given them to be better players. We have won as a franchise, we’ve had winning seasons, we’ve had success in the playoffs. And this franchise is on a solid footing. And I have to say, much like Jacques, the players are the reason, Jacques. But if the players are the first reason, you’re the second best reason.

Writing to do. I’ll be back on later — probably.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.