Pat Quinn was 'a player's coach,' says Tom Larscheid

"This guy was born to coach," said Tom Larscheid about former Canucks coach Pat Quinn, who died Sunday at the age of 71. "He inspired. He motivated his team."

Larscheid was a colour commentator for the Canucks for more than 25 years, and said the most enjoyable years in his career as a broadcaster were during the era when Quinn was "the superboss of the Vancouver Canucks."

In an interview with Gloria Macarenko for the CBC Vancouver radio program On The Coast Monday afternoon, Larscheid said Quinn was sometimes larger than life, and that he truly loved his family, his friends, hockey and coaching—and that he excelled at it.

"Pat Quinn was a player's coach," Larscheid said.

"It means that he believed in his players," he explained. "He gave them a chance to not only succeed, [if] they failed he'd put them right back there until they did succeed. The players knew that he trusted them, that he believed in them, that they were the hand-picked guys on his team to win hockey games and hopefully win a championship."

Larscheid joked Quinn was great coach and a great friend but not such a great hockey player.

"As a player he wasn't gifted, he was a big strong guy who couldn't turn left or right very well."

In an interview for CBC News Vancouver with Andrew Chang, Larscheid said that failing to win the Stanley Cup still haunted Quinn.

"He still thought to this day that if someone gave him a chance to coach he could still win the Stanley Cup."

According to Larscheid, there is only one important thing missing from Quinn's hockey resume.

"I just wish he would have been alive to be enshrined into the Hockey Hall of Fame, because he deserves to be there," he said.