George Kingston (hockey)
Encyclopedia
George Kingston is a Canadian ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 coach. He is best known as the long-time coach of the University of Calgary
Calgary Dinos
The Calgary Dinos football team has won the Vanier Cup national championship four times, the most out of any of the Canada West teams and most recently in 1995. The Dinos also won in 1983, 1985 and 1988. The team most recently appeared in the 2010 Vanier Cup, but lost to the Laval Rouge et Or...

 hockey team, as well as coaching the Canadian national team at the 1994 Ice Hockey World Championships
Ice Hockey World Championships
The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation . First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annual international tournament. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the European...

 and being the first head coach of the San Jose Sharks
San Jose Sharks
The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California, United States. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...

.

Kingston started his coaching career at the University of Calgary in 1968. He coached at the school for 16 years over thee stints (the first lasting from 1968 to 1976, the second from 1978 to 1983 and the third from 1984 to 1988), posting a 245–128 record and leading Calgary to two Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference championships. His success at the University of Calgary led Kingston to offers as an assistant coach in the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

, where he served as an assistant for the Calgary Flames
Calgary Flames
The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is the third major-professional ice hockey team to represent the city of Calgary, following the...

 from 1980 to 1982 and the Minnesota North Stars
Minnesota North Stars
The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, and the team's colors for most of its history were green, yellow, gold and white...

 during the 1988–89 NHL season. In 1989, Kingston was appointed to become the head coach of the Norwegian national team.

After two unsuccessful years in Norway, Kingston was named as the coach for the expansion San Jose Sharks. The Sharks under Kingston, however, performed poorly; the Sharks posted a 28–129–7 in two seasons under Kingston's watch, and he was released following the 1992–93 NHL season. Following his dismissal, Kingston was hired to coach the Canadian national team at the 1994 Ice Hockey World Championship, where he led Team Canada to the gold medal in the tournament. The success at the World Champions did not go unnoticed; following the tournament, Kingston became coach of the German national team
Germany men's national ice hockey team
The German men's national ice hockey team first participated in serious international competition at the 1911 European Hockey Championship. When Germany was split after World War II, a separate East German national ice hockey team existed until 1990...

, where he served until 1998. In 1999, Kingston was hired by another NHL expansion team, this time becoming an assistant coach for the Atlanta Thrashers
Atlanta Thrashers
The Atlanta Thrashers were a professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Atlanta was granted a franchise in the National Hockey League on June 25, 1997, and became the league's 28th franchise when it began play in the 1999–2000 NHL season...

. After two years in Atlanta, he joined the Florida Panthers as an assistant in 2001.

He currently lives in Norway where he is assistant coach to the men's national team, and head coach of the women's national team as well as being a special consultant to the Norwegian Ice Hockey Federation and Olympiatoppen
Olympiatoppen
Olympiatoppen is an organisation that is part of Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports with responsibility for training Norwegian elite sport. Olympiatoppen is based at the Toppidrettssenteret between Norwegian School of Sport Sciences and Sognsvann. The leader of...

, the Norwegian Olympic Programme.

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