George Kingston (ice hockey)
George Kingston ( born August 20, 1939 in Biggar, Saskatchewan, Canada ) is a Canadian ice hockey coach. He is currently the head coach of the Norwegian women's national team. Kingston coached previously held three different men national teams and from 1991 to 1993, the first head coach of the San Jose Sharks.
Career
Kingston began his coaching career in 1968 at the University of Calgary. Overall, the Canadians, the university team in charge for 16 years, but with two-time interruption. Kingston's first engagement lasted from 1968 to 1976, the second from 1978 to 1983 and the third and last of 1984 until 1988. During his tenure, Kingston managed the team to five championships in the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference lead. After finishing his last season in Calgary was Kingston's balance sheet at 245 victories with the team, in contrast, were 128 defeats.
Kingston's performance at the University of Calgary made him interesting for the NHL. Having to 1982 he has worked as an assistant coach with the Calgary Flames in 1980, the Minnesota North Stars committed him to the beginning of the 1988/89 season also as assistant coach. There, however, Kingston remained only one season in 1989 and went to the office of the Norwegian national team. The time of Canadian in Norway was anything but successful and he also finished there after two years its activities to become the first coach of the new franchise of the San Jose Sharks at the start of the 1991/92 season.
In his first season with the team he reached just 17 wins and closed the season as one point worst team in the league. To counteract another poor performance in the following season, the management decided Kingston, along with Chuck Grillo and Dean Lombardi to transfer the Office of the General Manager. But the 1992/93 season ended in disaster, because with only eleven victories the team was even worse than the year before. Due to an overall record of 28 wins in 164 games Kingston was after the season, released both as a coach and as a general manager.
Then Kingston accepted an offer as national coach of the Canadian national hockey team, which he led Italy to the 1994 World Cup to win the title and reached the final at the Olympic Winter Games 1994. His achievements with Team Canada aroused the interest of the German Ice Hockey Federation, national team had landed at the World Championships in ninth place, and so Kingston 1994 ice hockey coach of Germany. With more moderate success he remained until 1998, in office.
After a short break Kingston was commissioned in 1999 by another new franchise in the NHL, the Atlanta Thrashers, under contract. However, this time back in the office of the assistant coach. For two years, Kingston remained in Atlanta, before it drove him further south to the Florida Panthers. There he was until he was replaced in 2003 from the 2001/02 season assistant coach during the season by Mike Keenan. However, in the 2006/07 season he returned for a year as an assistant coach to Florida.
In 2007, he took over the management of the Norwegian women's national teams and stood in 2008 at the World Championship of Division I head coach behind the gang.
NHL coach statistics
Legend: S = Wins, L = Loss, D = Draw
Awards and achievements
Others
Kingston has the title " Dr. phil. " and also has a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in education and physical education, which he acquired at the University of Alberta.