Life in Two Worlds: A Coach's Journey from the Reserve to the NHL and Back

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In 1997 Ted Nolan won the Jack Adams Award for best coach in the NHL. But he wouldn’t work in pro hockey again for almost a decade. What happened?

Growing up on a First Nation reserve, young Ted Nolan built his own backyard hockey rink and wore skates many sizes too big. But poverty wasn’t his biggest challenge. Playing the game meant spending his life in two worlds: one in which he was loved and accepted and one where he was often told he didn’t belong.

Ted proved he had what it took, joining the Detroit Red Wings in 1978. But when his on-ice career ended, he discovered his true passion wasn’t playing; it was coaching. First with the Soo Greyhounds and then with the Buffalo Sabres, Ted produced astonishing results. After his initial year as head coach with the Sabres, the club was being called the “hardest working team in professional sports.” By his second, they had won their first Northeast Division title in sixteen years.

Yet, the Sabres failed to re-sign their much-loved, award-winning coach.

Life in Two Worlds chronicles those controversial years in Buffalo—and recounts how being shut out from the NHL left Ted frustrated, angry, and so vulnerable he almost destroyed his own life. It also tells of Ted’s inspiring recovery and his eventual return to a job he loved. But Life in Two Worlds is more than a story of succeeding against the odds. It’s an exploration of how a beloved sport can harbour subtle but devastating racism, of how a person can find purpose when opportunity and choice are stripped away, and of how focusing on what really matters can bring two worlds together.

TED NOLAN grew up on the Garden River First Nation Reserve and played three seasons in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins. He served as an assistant coach with the Hartford Whal­ers and as head coach for the Buffalo Sabres from 1995 to 1997 and from 2013 to 2015; he was also head coach for the New York Islanders from 2006 to 2008. Ted has coached internationally, taking Team Latvia to the Sochi Olympic Winter Games in 2014. MEG MASTERS is a writer and editor and has worked with many bestselling Canadian authors.