Butch Goring back in coaching
Four-time Stanley-Cup-winner Butch Goring was announced as the new head coach of the DEG Metro Stars Tuesday. Goring, who led the Krefeld Pinguine to the 2003 DEL Championship, was signed through April 2005.
"Goring has proven that he can coach in this league," said Elmar Schmellencamp,
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GM of the DEG Metro Stars. "Back in Krefeld in 2003, he also took over a team
several weeks into the season and turned them into a contender. That's why we
chose him over other candidates."
Walter Köberle, who worked as assistant under previous coach Michael Komma, will
keep that role. Goring will make his debut behind the bench in Friday's road game
against expansion team Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg.
Düsseldorf will be Goring's third head coaching stint in the German Elite League DEL (Deutsche Eishockey Liga). The 53-year-old Manitoba-native made his DEL debut as
an interim head coach with the Frankfurt Lions in 2001-02. He was then hired as
director of player personnel by the Krefeld Pinguine in the summer of 2002. He also
assumed head coaching duties when coach Chris Valentine was fired in November
2002 and injected new life into a team that had talent but no spirit. Krefeld did not
only earn a surprising post-season birth. In a Cinderella playoff run, Goring led the
Krefeld Pinguine to their first ever DEL title in April 2003.
"Some of the championships I was involved in, we had the best team and were
expected to win," Goring told prohockey.de after winning the DEL title in April 2003.
"But the Krefeld Pinguine weren't expected to win. We almost didn't get into the
playoffs and each and every round, everybody kept saying: As long as you make a
good showing, everybody would be happy. We kept making a better showing. To win
as an underdog certainly has a special meaning for me."
Krefeld's championship team was completely revamped during the 2003 off-season: 15 players, including top scorers Christoph Brandner (who joined the NHL's Minnesota Wild) and Brad Purdie (Hamburg Freezers) left, only eight players from the championship squad remained on the roster. Goring took a lot of heat from the
fans and media after a poor start into the 2003-04 campaign. His team never figured
out a way out of the slump. With the Pinguine ranking near the bottom of the DEL
table with a 13-15 record halfway through the season, the front office forced Goring to step down from his head coaching job. He remained with the organisation for a
couple more weeks as director of player personnel and then returned to North
America.