PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Trainer for over 20 years.
But Bengt-Åke Gustafssonpp plan was never to become a hockey coach.
– Before I became a coach, I always said “those damn idiots who sit there in the dressing room and draw and stuff, I will never do that”, “Bengan” tells Sportbibeln.
Bengt-Åke Gustafsson, 65, is probably best known for his time as national team captain for Tre Kronor between 2005 and 2010. “Bengan” wrote himself into the history books in 2006 when he became the first coach to win both the WC and the Olympics in the same year. But he also won SM gold with Färjestad, and coached several Swiss clubs.
Bengt-Åke’s best
The now-retired coach thus has a few moments to choose from when it comes to choosing the biggest moment of his career.
– Oh, how difficult it is to choose. It is very difficult to choose. WC gold and Olympic gold are huge, you can’t get away from that. And as a club coach, what we did in Färjestad when I came home here, it’s senseless too. We went undefeated through the entire playoffs and won everything, it’s hard to beat, it was a very strong performance, says Bengt-Åke Gustafsson to Sportbibeln.
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The 65-year-old experienced big differences between being the national team captain and club coach.
– As the national team captain, you have everything in a larger perspective. As a club coach, you live in your own little world, so to speak. These are the players you have, and who you train with every day, work with, talk to and try to train them and develop them. In the national team, you come in, practice three sessions, then there is a tournament to play, so you more or less get to see how the players react. So it’s a bit different, that’s for sure, says “Bengan”.
Gustafsson hesitated
It thus became a coaching career of over 20 years, in which Bengt-Åke achieved great success. But during his playing career, the plan was never to become a coach when he stopped playing.
– Before I became a coach, I always said “I will never be a coach, those fucking idiots who sit there in the dressing room and draw and stuff, and talk and meetings and that’s all. No damn it, I will never do that”.
But after Ralph Kreuger, who was Gustafsson’s coach in the Austrian VEU Feldkirch, became the Swiss national team captain, Kreuger enticed the Swede to accompany him to the WC as an assistant coach. Then Feldkirch was without a coach.
– Then they said “Bengan, you have to take over the team and train Feldkirch”. “Amen what the hell” I thought. But then I talked to the family, and we had a great time down there. So we said “yes, we’ll try for a year and then we’ll see”.
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The 1998/1999 season was a tough start to the coaching career for Bengt-Åke. The year before, Feldkirch won the CHL and was the best club team in Europe. Then the president of the club invited the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Buffalo Sabers to Austria to play games. The NHL clubs each chartered a jumbo jet for the players and their families.
– We played a match against Tampa and it was really nice in every way, but this was at the beginning of… We got the August salary, but when we were supposed to get the September salary, there was suddenly no money left. Then the club coffers were completely empty, then there was no money for us. So it was a tough start there.
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Suddenly it became Bengt-Åke’s job to motivate the players to want to train and play, even though they were not getting paid. He tried to impress upon the players that it was better to promote yourself on the ice than to just sit and wait for something new. At the same time, the Swede was supportive of the players, urging those who received other offers to jump on them immediately.
– It was a damn tough year then, the first year. But at the same time, it was a wonderful challenge, and you had to really get involved and try to persuade and push everyone. The following year, I got the offer from Switzerland, and then it felt like “wow, this is really interesting”. So then I hung up on it then.
“Lovely challenge”
What made you want to pursue a coaching career when you had been so against it before?
– That was exactly the feeling when you tried to motivate people and get them on the train, and you then got them on board and that they really fought and bit the ones who were left. Then when I got an offer from Switzerland to become a coach over there, it felt like a small challenge.
– I had just gotten into all of this, but it was a bit of fun trying to get a bit of that community and team feeling which I know was not that common in Swiss ice hockey, but it was more of an individual sport. The imports were in their own world and the others were in their own, and it was my job to try to bring it together in a good way. So it was a wonderful challenge, says Bengt Åke Gustafsson.
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