Dave Cameron's new head coaching gig in Vienna 'just felt right'
'I just thought for where I'm at right now I wanted a kick at the can at being a head coach again'
A new hockey season is about to begin for P.E.I.'s Dave Cameron, but this time it's on the other side of the world.
The former NHL coach has taken on the role as the head coach of the Vienna Capitals in Austria, and he says it couldn't have been a better fit.
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"I wanted to get back into a situation where I was a head coach," he told CBC's Island Morning.
"I certainly enjoyed and learned a lot as an assistant coach … but I just thought for where I'm at right now I wanted a kick at the can at being a head coach again."
Cameron was a bench boss for most of his coaching career in junior hockey. In 2011, he joined the NHL's Ottawa Senators where he served an assistant coach and later head coach.
For the last two NHL seasons he was with the Calgary Flames as an assistant coach before taking the helm in Vienna for the 2018-2019 season.
'A hard gig to get and a hard gig to keep'
Coaching in Europe is something he's always had his eye on, he said.
"It's something I always had [in] the back of my mind," he said.
"It's all about the experience, different leagues, different cultures.... For me it was time to go back as a head coach and the odds of that happening in the NHL weren't great and so when this opportunity came up I did my research and that and it just felt right."
Head-Coach Dave Cameron: "Typisches Testspiel. Phasenweise gutes Eishockey, phasenweise noch ausbaubar. Unser Passspiel war gut. Unsere Goalies zeigten ebenfalls eine gute Leistung. Eine ordentliche Vorstellung meiner Mannschaft." <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VIC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VIC</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeAreTheCaps?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeAreTheCaps</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CapitalsCity?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CapitalsCity</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EBELPreseason?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EBELPreseason</a> <a href="https://t.co/RltbF2tHdW">pic.twitter.com/RltbF2tHdW</a>
—@viennacapitalsCameron said the first reaction from those around him was shock that he wasn't going to be in the NHL anymore.
Although that's always a goal that coaches strive for, he said, being a head coach in the National Hockey League is "a hard gig to get and a hard gig to keep."
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With files from Island Morning