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Coaching occasionally made his blood boil, but Stanley Cup winner Pat Burns acknowledged yesterday that, despite a four-year hiatus to battle colon cancer, running a team still is in his blood.
Burns, 56, Edmonton Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish and Los Angeles Kings associate coach Mike Johnston were named to Ken Hitchcock's Canadian coaching staff for the 2008 International Ice Hockey Federation world championship in Quebec City and Halifax next month.
Burns, a three-time winner of the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL's coach of the year, would consider a return to the NHL coaching ranks if the opportunity presented itself in the fall.
"Coaching is in your blood," said Burns, who worked this season as an assignment scout for the New Jersey Devils and attended 60 to 70 games. "Like Hitch said the other day, coaching is caffeine to us. You miss it when you're not there, and when you're there, you say 'Geez, this is tough.'
"I've been on both ends, so when the fall comes around, we'll have to see, we'll have to check everything out and make sure that's what I want to do.
"When you say the fall, we're only in the spring and that is still a long ways away. I'm really enjoying what I'm doing for the New Jersey Devils. But the coaching part of it is something I will have to entertain if something came up."
When Canada opens the world championship against Slovenia at the Halifax Metro Centre on May 2, it will be Burns's first stint behind a bench since the Devils were eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs by the Philadelphia Flyers on April 17, 2004.
The next day, he shocked the hockey world by revealing that he had been diagnosed with colon cancer. After announcing he was cancer free in April of 2005, he said a month later that the cancer had returned. But now he's fit and feeling good again.
"There were definitely some tough times," said Burns, who coached the Devils to the Stanley Cup in 2003. "People do get sick. Nobody can say that they are immune to anything. I feel fine now. I've had some great treatments and great doctors looking after me."
This latest coaching opportunity came when Burns ran into Canadian assistant general manager Doug Armstrong this year when they were both scouting a game. Armstrong recommended Burns to Canadian general manager Steve Yzerman.
Burns and Hitchcock have known each other for 20 years, dating back to their days coaching in the junior ranks and Burns was part of the Canadian coaching staff when Yzerman played in the 1991 Canada Cup.
Yzerman hopes to announce his first wave of players for the Canadian roster this week, possibly as soon as today. Expect Chicago Blackhawks outstanding rookie Jonathan Toews, St. Louis Blues sniper Brad Boyes and Florida Panthers defenceman Jay Bouwmeester to be named to the team.
