Pat Quinn will find himself behind a bench again in the next few weeks, Quinn has been tapped as the Team Canada coach at the 2006 Spengler Cup. That European tournament that shows up on our television sets over the Christmas and New Year's break.
Traditionally the proving ground of Canadians playing their hockey in Europe and assorted AHLers who cross over the pond to tes the international game, the Spengler has slowly become yet another competition that Canadians pay attention to. It's got history behind it, being the longest running tournament in hockey, held every year since 1923.
It wasn't always so of course, in the early days, the tournament was barely mentioned let alone covered, in fact Canada didn't even begin to compete in the tournament until 1984. Since then Canada has won ten of the tournaments and the games are beamed back to a hockey crazy Canada in the early hours of the day, a kick start to the holidays for the hockey fan.
Quinn who is on the sidelines after the Leafs dismissed him, is no stranger to International hockey having most recently coached Canada at the Torino Olympics in a disappointing elimination. Prior to that he coached Canada to gold at the 2004 World Championships and a Gold at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.
It marks his first time coaching at the Spengler and a chance to add to the Quinn family trophy chest.
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