COLUMBUS, Ohio – Each morning as Dave King heads downtown to his job, he glances around at other drivers on their way to a day of 9-to-5 drudgery.

Then he smiles to himself.

Even though his hours are longer, there's seldom a night, weekend or holiday off and there's plenty of pressure, the coach of the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets couldn't be happier.

"We're pretty lucky in coaching. We get paid to do a job that so many other people would love to do," he said. "I feel real happy that I'm coaching. Real happy."

The 52-year-old King was once a successful coach at the top of his sport. But he was fired by the Calgary Flames – after winning back-to-back division titles, no less – and thought he might never get another chance.

"You never know. Some guys get so many opportunities," he said. "They have nine lives, you know. Sometimes you don't get that."

King took over the Flames in 1992 after a successful run as head coach of Canada's national team in the Olympics (three times), world championships and the World Juniors.

Along the way, he became known as a patient teacher of young players and coaches. His teams often won despite not being as talented.

He inherited a Calgary team that had missed the playoffs the year before, but he guided them to the postseason all three years – including Pacific Division titles the last two years.

But in the NHL, the regular season is just a prelude to the race for the Stanley Cup, of course. And in that area, King and the Flames were a colossal failure: three trips to the postseason, three first-round knockouts.

"We found a way to self-destruct a little bit," King said.

King has the highest winning percentage (.576) of any Calgary coach with more than 150 games. He had turned down a new three-year contract early in his third season, thinking there would always be time to sign a new one after an ugly labor dispute between players and management was settled. But even when the strike-shortened season got under way, he never got around to signing.

"That was a brilliant move," he says with a rueful smile.

Five times the Flames went to overtime in those three first-round series. All five times they lost.

Disappointed for a third consecutive year, Flames management and fans needed a target and King was wearing a bull's eye.

"It's the nature of this business that sometimes you deserve to get it and sometimes you don't," he said with a laugh.

King spent three years with the Montreal Canadiens, the first two as an assistant coach and the third as the team's director of European scouting. The phone calls from other NHL teams stopped coming.

Some said it was because he was better working with young players than dealing with superstars and big-money free agents. Others said he was too valuable as a "support" person who could use his experience and perspective to develop bright young coaching prospects. There were some who thought his heart wasn't in coaching anymore.

Still, King wanted redemption and felt he had something to give the game he embraced since growing up in North Battleford, Saskatchewan.

When the NHL awarded an expansion franchise to Columbus, King saw it as an opportunity.

"I thought to myself, 'Now that would be fun,"' he said.

Doug MacLean, the Blue Jackets' general manager and president, was well aware of King's credentials. The ability to educate younger players was high on MacLean's checklist of things he needed in a coach.

It was a perfect fit. After a lengthy process in which MacLean narrowed the list to 30 applicants and then interviewed 16 finalists, King was hired as the Blue Jackets' first head coach on July 5.

"He's spent a long time waiting for a second chance," MacLean said.

MacLean said one of the qualities he admired in King was the ability to make talent-challenged teams competitive.

"I especially admired him when he led the Canadian national team," MacLean said. "That team was put together from players not good enough to play in the NHL and they won a couple of silver medals."

Blue Jackets center Tyler Wright said: "He's a teacher of the game, which is key for an expansion team. He's a guy who knows the game, who has thought the game out."

Now King and his wife, Linda, are settling into a new town and new opportunity. Their two sons and a daughter are grown.

While fans are trying to adapt to a new team, King is trying to adjust to a new start.

"I can't tell you since training camp started how many firsts there have been," King said. "Everything's a first. It seems like every day you're doing something for the first time."

Or, in the case of this head coach, for the first time in a long time.