George Kingston

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George Kingston (born August 20, 1939 in Biggar , Saskatchewan , Canada ) is a Canadian ice hockey coach . He is currently the head coach of the Norwegian women's national team . Kingston previously coached three different men's national teams and was the first head coach of the San Jose Sharks from 1991 to 1993 .

Career

Kingston began his coaching career in 1968 at the University of Calgary . Overall, the Canadian looked after the university team for 16 years, but with two interruptions. Kingston's first engagement lasted from 1968 to 1976, the second from 1978 to 1983 and the third and last from 1984 to 1988. During his tenure, Kingston managed to lead the team to five championships in the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference . After finishing his last season in Calgary, Kingston's record stood at 245 wins with the team, compared to 128 defeats.

Kingston's achievements at the University of Calgary also made him interesting for the NHL. After working as an assistant coach at the Calgary Flames from 1980 to 1982 , the Minnesota North Stars also hired him as an assistant coach at the beginning of the 1988/89 season . However, Kingstons only stayed there for a single season and took up the post of Norwegian national coach in 1989 . The time of the Canadian in Norway was far from successful, so he ended there after only two years his activities to the start of the 1991/92 season , the first coach of the new franchise of the San Jose Sharks to become.

In his first season he achieved just 17 wins with the team and the season ended as the worst team in the entire league. In order to counteract another bad performance in the following season, the management decided Kingston, together with Chuck Grillo and Dean Lombardi , to transfer the office of general manager. But the 1992/93 season ended in disaster, because with only eleven wins, the team was even worse than the year before. With an aggregate record of 28 wins in 164 games, Kingston was fired after the season, both as coach and general manager.

Then Kingston accepted an offer as national coach of the Canadian national ice hockey team, which he led to the title at the 1994 World Cup in Italy and reached the final at the 1994 Winter Olympics . His achievements with Team Canada aroused the interest of the German Ice Hockey Federation , whose national team had only finished ninth at the World Cup, and so Kingston became Germany's national ice hockey coach in 1994. He remained in office until 1998 with rather moderate success.

After a brief hiatus, Kingston was signed to yet another new franchise in the NHL in 1999 , the Atlanta Thrashers . This time, however, again in the office of assistant coach. Kingston stayed in Atlanta for two years before heading south to the Florida Panthers . There he was assistant coach from the 2001/02 season until he was replaced by Mike Keenan during the season in 2003 . In the 2006/07 season , however, he returned to Florida for a year as an assistant coach.

In 2007 he took over the leadership of the Norwegian women's national team and was the head coach behind the gang at the Division I World Cup in 2008.

NHL coaching statistics

Seasons Games S. N U
Regular season 2 164 28 129 7th

Legend: S = wins, N = defeats, U = draws

Achievements and Awards

Others

Kingston is entitled "Dr. phil. ” and also holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in Education and Physical Education from the University of Alberta .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kingston, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian ice hockey coach
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Biggar , Saskatchewan