Mike Keenan accomplished something no other North American hockey coach before him has been able to.
The Ontario-born Keenan became the first non-Russian coach to lift the Gagarin Cup, the prize awarded to the champions of the Kontinental Hockey League, when he guided Metallurg Magnitogorsk to a 7-4 victory over visiting Lev Prague on Wednesday.
The win closed out a 4-3 final series victory, making Keenan the first hockey coach to win both the Stanley Cup and the Gagarin Cup. The 64-year-old “Iron Mike” won the prize in just his first season coaching in the KHL.
Canadians Tim Brent, Chris Lee and Francis Pare are also on the championship roster.
Keenan gets flung into air by players (1:00 mark):
Keenan sings karaoke in dressing room:
Keenan, who had been four years removed from coaching professionally, signed a two-year commitment with Magnitogorsk last May when Paul Maurice vacated the position after coaching the Metallurg for one season.
“The club was persistent and continued to pursue their interest in me for approximately a month,” Keenan told Sportsnet upon his hiring. “The more I investigated the situation, the more interested I became. I visited the club in Russia and decided to accept the job.”
Keenan led the New York Rangers to a Stanley Cup victory (in 1994) and claimed 672 NHL victories. As general manager of the Florida Panthers in 2006, he traded away Roberto Luongo and shortly resigned thereafter. He was behind the bench during the infamous St. Patrick’s Day Massacre in 1991 and captured the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s coach of the year in 1984-85. He last coached in the NHL for the Calgary Flames from 2007 to 2009, but he was fired with a year left on his contract after the Flames lost in the first round of playoffs for a second straight year.
MUST READ: Sportsnet Magazine‘s Mike Keenan Q&A
He then found work analyzing the game for various television outlets, including Sportsnet’s Hockey Central. But even after 20 NHL seasons and runs with seven teams, Keenan’s desire to coach remained.
“The only individual that gave me serious consideration to coach in the NHL since Calgary was George McPhee of the Washington Capitals,” Keenan said last year.
During the 2012-13 NHL lockout, Magnitogorsk served as the lockout home for NHLers Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar, Ryan O’Reilly and Nikolai Kulemin. Mats Zuccarello rejoined the New York Rangers in September after playing for Metallurg last season.
“The love of the game,” Keenan said, “very much exists in the Russian people.”
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