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By Kevin Watson

Ray Bennett

From Innisfail to Stanley Cup Champ!

Jun 30, 2022 | 11:01 AM

Every player that laces up a pair of skate’s dreams of winning the Stanley Cup, but very few actually have that dream come true.

Coaches have that same dream and for Innisfail product Ray Bennett, his childhood dream finally came true just over a month after his 60^th birthday.

The Colorado Avalanche assistant coach capped off his 23rd season in the NHL by raising the Stanley Cup above his head on the road in Tampa Bay and it was fitting that his wife Karla was right by his side. Fitting and very emotional because the Bennett’s main residence is still in St. Louis, so he doesn’t get to see his wife and kids everyday after work.

“I’ve been in Denver for these five years by myself, other than family coming to visit in small bits, so you recognize right away what I thought of is how much my family had sacrificed in allowing me to keep pursuing my dream and that became a little overwhelming. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry, and I probably cried 50 times that night and the first time was when I saw Karla come onto the ice. She had tears in her eyes, and it was, it was pretty darn cool.”

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“Both my parents passed away when I was fairly young, so you do think of them and hope that wherever they’re at, they’re watching and proud and it continues on after that with a whole bunch of people that have been terrific to me throughout my whole career.”

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Bennett got his start in coaching while still playing midget hockey in Innisfail when he was asked to coach the Innisfail Pee Wee team. After university, he landed a job with Hockey Alberta on the development side of things.

“It was really cool, because I got to hang around and listen to guys like Clare Drake, George Kingston, Dave King, Dale Henwood, all these really good, high-quality coaches and people. I sort of thought this would be fun and working at Hockey Alberta, I got a chance to do a number of different things and one of the cool things along the way was the 1991 Canada Winter Games and I got to be on the coaching staff for that. “

From there he was hooked and coached youth hockey in Red Deer, where he was an assistant to Mike Babcock at Red Deer College, spent time as an assistant in the WHL, and a head coach of the RDC Kings. He also worked for Hockey Canada and won a silver medal at the World Jr.’s, won a silver medal with the Canada’s Women’s Team at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, then on to the NHL with the L-A Kings for seven seasons, the St. Louis Blues for 11 seasons and the last five with the Colorado Avalanche.

The Av’s have been one of the top teams in the league for the last three or so seasons, but they couldn’t get passed the second round, and it wasn’t until after the Edmonton series that Bennett knew that this year’s squad was different.

“I was having a chat with Gabe Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon and they said a couple years ago in the bubble, we lost to Dallas, everybody was so disappointed you know, we had injuries and playing our third goalie and then the next year with Vegas. Both at the same time said, “you know everybody talked about us being ready and we thought at that time we were ready, but going through this now, we weren’t ready.” And that was a pretty cool thing for them to recognize and that just points to how special this group is. They’re really, really special people.”

It’s been a blur since the Avalanche won the cup late Monday night on the road and Bennett wasn’t sure what day it was when I talked to him yesterday, but he does know he has a parade to be in today (Thursday) with his new best friend Stanley, and he also has to plan his day with the Cup!

Stay tuned!