Marc Potvin - Adirondack Icehawks - UHL Hockey - A Big Difference - MLN Sports Zone

Adirondack Icehawks

A Big Difference
Following an 18-month hiatus from hockey, Marc Potvin is back on the bench as the current head coach of the Adirondack IceHawks.

Dan Hickling
MinorLeagueNews.com

04.07.04 - Glens Falls, N.Y. -- Marc Potvin tried to walk away from hockey, he really did.

He left the sport two years ago, when he wasn't rehired to coach the Springfield Falcons.

With no other team waiting to scoop him up, Potvin did what any man with a family would do. He went and looked for work.

Potvin was soon offered a job selling outdoor siding by a friend of the family. Unfortunately that would mean uprooting the Potvin Clan for the umpteenth time and moving them to Canton, Ohio.

Although relocating stinks, unemployment stinks even worse. Potvin, who had been in hockey all his life, found himself on the outside, trying not to look in.

After 18 long months of extolling the virtues of weatherproofing, Potvin didn't think twice when another old friend, Barry Melrose, offered him something much more to his liking.

The task of coaching the Adirondack IceHawks of the UHL, of which Melrose, ESPN personality and ex-NHLer, had just become part owner.

"It's been good," said Potvin, who was hired on Feb. 2, 2004. "I made an honest effort to try and find something else that I would like to do. But even before the call came, I started to get the itch again. I made some well-placed phone calls to feel things out. When Barry bought the team, I wasn't all that surprised to get the call."

Not surprised because as a rock 'em, sock 'em defenseman, Potvin had played for Melrose on the old Adirondack Red Wings. When Melrose took his mullet haircut to Hollywood and moved up to coach the Los Angeles Kings, he traded for Potvin.

"He's been a big part of what I've done in my career," said Potvin, who doesn't have a contract beyond this season. "You always want to hitch up with winners, and Barry's been a winner wherever he's gone. Hopefully this will prosper and grow."

If nothing else, Potvin says he has a renewed appreciation for being able to earn a living doing what he loves the most.

"I've got a young family. I've moved them around a lot,” said Potvin. “My daughter was five at the time, and she'd lived in seven states. That's the hockey life.”

It is the life that Potvin has chosen and one he can’t seem to give up.

“I gave it an honest effort, but hockey's in (my) blood. I just really started to struggle with it, especially over the last month and a half, or so,” Potvin admitted. “I was successful (at sales), but it wasn't for me. If I had to, I could do it for a living. But I don't think I could be satisfied doing it for the rest of my life."

Potvin had never seen the UHL brand of hockey first hand, but it didn't take long for him to draw comparisons between the "U" and higher leagues.

"The biggest difference is the thought process," he said. " They can all shoot and there's a lot of good skaters (in the UHL). Size is sometimes a bit of a factor, but that's never stopped a guy who can think the game through. Those are the guys who move up to the next level. The skills are here. It's just that mental part of the game (that needs work)."

For Potvin, just being back in the game makes all the difference in the world.