Not dwelling on his firing, Lightning assistant Craig Ramsay remembers his stint as Flyers coach fondly.
By TOM JONES
Published May 6, 2004
TAMPA - You might think Lightning associate coach Craig Ramsay would be in a lather by now, foaming at the mouth, snapping hockey sticks with his bare hands, running through walls.
With the Flyers coming to town for the Eastern Conference final, this is Ramsay's chance to get revenge for what some believe was a raw deal when he was fired as their head coach.
Ramsay has every right to hold a grudge. He nearly guided the Flyers to the Stanley Cup final. He had a winning record. But instead of giving him a hand, the Flyers handed him a pink slip.
He should be peeved to this day.
"I don't hold any ill will toward anyone," said Ramsay with a smile. "I had a great time there. That's what I choose to remember."
Ramsay took over the Flyers midway through the 1999-2000 season. They went 16-8-1 under him and advanced to the Eastern Conference final, losing to eventual-Cup champion New Jersey in seven games. The next season, the Flyers were crippled by injuries and still were 12-12-4 in December, but that wasn't enough to save Ramsay's job.
"It's part of the business," Ramsay said. "It's very difficult on coaches. It's something not fun to go through, but it happens. You know it's going to happen. You hope to have a little more time. There's always a sense that you left something unfinished, especially coming off a year when you are so darn close."
That's as close as Ramsay will come to sounding bitter, as close as he will come to saying he got the short end of the stick. He could rip into general manager Bob Clarke, who has fired five coaches since taking over in 1994, but that is not Ramsay's style.
He thinks about coaching players such as Mark Recchi, John LeClair and Keith Primeau. He remembers the heart they showed winning a five-overtime game in the playoffs. He remembers the good times.
"I don't worry about what happened at the end of it," Ramsay said.
He quotes former coach Scotty Bowman, who says 90 percent of hockey is great and 10 percent is awful.
"If you want to dwell on the 10 percent, you're going to be very unhappy," Ramsay said. "It's easy to get into that, "Oh man, this is awful.' There are so many more good things that come out it."
After he was fired, Ramsay didn't know what do next. He went through the gamut of emotions: anger, depression, bitterness. And boredom.
"You work a long time. And suddenly, you're out of a job, and you think, "What am I going to do?"' Ramsay said. "You get up in the morning, and you don't have anywhere to go."
That didn't last long. Within a month, old teammate and friend and then-Lightning GM Rick Dudley hired him as an associate coach. Now Ramsay is happy and, he figures, he might not be here if he wasn't fired, rightly or unfairly, by the Flyers.
"It's not something I spend a lot of time thinking about now, here," Ramsay said. "I had an opportunity to come (to the Lightning) and work with great people, great players and go forward. So that's what's on my mind.
"I've put the Flyers behind me. The end was unfortunate for me. But it's long gone now."
