CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – Forbie Kennedy said he was nervous before Wednesday’s book launch.
You couldn’t tell once the show began.
During a question and answer session with Ron MacLean of Hockey Night in Canada and Rogers Hometown Hockey, Kennedy controlled the room. The sold-out crowd listened intently as Kennedy relived stories of his professional hockey playing career and many years behind the bench coaching the next generations the games of hockey and baseball.
For Kennedy, Wednesday night was much like preparing for the game he loved.
“Once I put my foot on the ice for warmup I forgot everything,” he said. “I couldn't eat the day of the game, even when I coached. . . Once you got behind the bench it was a different game.”
The book was written by Gary MacDougall, the retired managing editor of The Guardian, and published by Retromedia Publishing.
Publisher Larry Resnitzky said Ron Hynes was known as a man of a thousand songs and “Forbie Kennedy is a man of a thousand stories” and many are in the book.
A series of videos was played during the evening from people who couldn’t be at the launch in person. The list included the likes of Brad Richards, Rick Bowness, Mike Kelly, Gerard (Turk) Gallant and Doug MacLean, who called Kennedy a role model.
“He was the trailblazer that helped a lot of P.E.I. players, coaches get to the NHL,” said MacLean, a former NHL general manager and head coach, who is now a Hockey Central analyst with Sportsnet.
MacLean said he has been asked about the pressure of coaching in the NHL.
His response: “There’s no more pressure coaching in the NHL than coaching against Forbes Kennedy.”
The 234-page soft cover book is available to pre-order now online at retromedia.ca. Beginning Saturday, the book will be for sale at the Bookmark, Indigo and Beaconsfield Historic House in Charlottetown, Coles in Summerside and Tim Hortons restaurants across P.E.I. The book retails for $34.95.
