Quote:
Originally Posted by foofighter15
Not going to lie, being born in 87 I clearly have zero first hand knowledge of Badger's coaching but after all the great things I read about him in yesterdays thread he's easily the next choice in my mind.
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It was the summer of 85 and I was back in town for a couple months. I was riding my bike down along the elbow river and up into the Mission area. I had stopped along 25th ave and was sitting on a bench just taking a break. Beautiful day too. So Im people watching and I see Badger out for a walk on the pathway. As he nears me I said something along the lines of how i liked the way the team was going and thought he was doing a great job. Well he didnt just stop to say hello and thanks, the man sat down beside me and we talked for almost 30 minutes im guessing. He was walking back from his office in the Dome as it turns out and he lived across the street at Roxborough House (i think thats what its called).
Anyhow it was truly an amazing conversation as we knew some mutual people through his time in Wisconsin and he was an obvious fan of the game as much as he was a student of it.
The Oilers were a big part of that convo, and Gretzky in particular, and how anyone could match up with them. Nilsson had just been traded which i questioned but that was when he said that out scoring the Oilers was not an option but that limiting them was the key to ever beating them. I remember thinking that it didnt seem possible to do that with the squad they had.
10 months later he had done exactly what he said would happen in his mind and proved me dead wrong.
An amazing guy and brilliant hockey man.
Calgary Flames Coach Ranking #2
