“You have a chance to make a first impression”: As a coach, Éric Dubois wants to shape the Polar Bears’ style after Serge Aubin

And the boss, as Dubois often calls his wife, was completely enthusiastic about the first days in Berlin during a meeting in the immediate vicinity of the arena. “We saw our home, went to the Gendarmenmarkt, and I went shopping extensively,” she said. “I’m very happy to live in a big city.”

After moving from North America to Germany, the couple lived in Ingolstadt for a year, where Dubois assisted head coach Mark French. Previously, he developed talent for promotion to the NHL with the AHL team Manitoba Moose. Around 850,000 people live in Winnipeg and the surrounding area, where this club is based.

But it’s not just the leap in terms of the size of the city that’s big. Dubois, 56 years old, is coaching a professional team as head coach for the first time. 17 years ago he coached a team as head coach in the Canadian youth league QMJHL, and since then he has always worked as an assistant.

“Anyone who does that is really a poor pig.”

“I can understand why there are doubts here and there about my resume,” he said, “but I’m focusing on what I can control. And I’ll give everything for the Polar Bears.” Dubois is wearing a shirt, shorts and sandals, and his right arm is in a sling because of a shoulder injury.

He appears calm, even when the challenge is enormous. After five titles in recent seasons under Serge Aubin, who moved to SC Bern, the demands are high. “I know that the aim here is to play for the championship every year,” he says. In order to tackle this project, he has to convince the team, which is used to success, of himself. A new assistant coach will be assigned to him, and André Rankel will also take on even more responsibility as assistant coach.

“You have a chance to make a first impression,” says Dubois. During the first phone call with Berlin sports director Stéphane Richer, he thought through in his head what a speech could look like when preparations for the coming season began at the end of July. “I could see how many notes he took during that conversation,” recalled wife Jill.

Of course, Dubois would like to continue the polar bear style that Serge Aubin implemented again from 2019 after a long period of weakness in the game. “I want to play attractive, offensive ice hockey,” he says. “In order to continue to be successful, I obviously need the support of my players.” He got to know some of them on Thursday afternoon.

Jeff Tomlinson, who succeeded Don Jackson in 2013 after three titles in a row and had a hard time convincing fans from the start, said about Aubin’s successor: “When I heard that, I immediately thought: Whoever does that is really a poor sod.” But Dubois intends not to let the large footprints deter him. “I will always be fair, but also firm. Everyone has to work hard to earn their role.”

Sports director Richer is convinced that Dubois is exactly the right man for this demanding situation. “He was one of the first names in my head when we started searching,” he said. Two years ago, Dubois took part in a Polar Bears training camp. “You could immediately tell how much passion he had for ice hockey. We immediately spoke the same ice hockey language.”

During the introductory session, he tried to rebut the argument that Dubois had no experience as a professional head coach: “When Don Jackson came to the Eisbären, he wasn’t a big name as a coach either.”

Dubois will make a stopover in Ingolstadt on Friday before flying to Montreal in Canada. To recharge your batteries for the new task. And to think about the first cabin speech.