With NHL Awards set for June 24 in Las Vegas, our writers make a case for each nominee — Mike Babcock, Patrick Roy and Jon Cooper — winning the Jack Adams Award, which is given to the coach who “contributed the most to his team’s success,” as voted by members of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association. Which coach is most deserving of the hardware?
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Mike Babcock, Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings had no business making the playoffs in 2013-14.
At the beginning of the season Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Daniel Alfredsson and Stephen Weiss were expected to do the heavy lifting on offence, but those players alone missed a total of 172 man games, and the Red Wings’ roster lost an astounding 421 man games overall.
Babcock often had to make do with a lineup that, on paper, looked more like the Grand Rapids Griffins. For goodness sakes, no player on the team had more than 49 points, yet Babcock and his calm demeanour led the franchise to a 23rd consecutive post-season berth.
Patrick Roy had Semyon Varlamov to help steal games for the Avalanche, and Ben Bishop did the same for Jon Cooper and the Lightning. Babcock didn’t have that luxury, as Jimmy Howard and Jonas Gustavsson were both plagued by injury this season. Instead, he had to rely on team speed and solid fundamentals in the defensive zone to pick up key wins down the stretch.
Also, remember how cool he looked at the Winter Classic? His hat alone makes him award-worthy.
— Mike Johnston
Patrick Roy, Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche drafted No. 1 overall just 11 months ago.
Yet in one year, they went from worst to first in the NHL’s toughest division. That doesn’t happen by accident.
So, who deserves the credit? The culture changer. Patrick Roy is a nominee for the Jack Adams Award, and he should win the award for NHL’s best coach.
Listen to the players talk about Roy — particularly the club’s litany of Canadians — and you know the primary cause of the club’s drastic turnaround.
“The main reason is the coaching staff,” forward Matt Duchene told me in February, when asked about the improvement from 2012-13 to 2013-14. “They’ve implemented some great systems and a great environment, and I think that’s where it starts.”
Roy and Francois Allaire have transformed Semyon Varlamov into a Vezina Trophy nominee. And in Year 1, the Avs finished with 112 points and won Central Division — with stalwarts the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues nipping at their heels.
The rookie NHL coach re-energized the city and is revolutionizing the game with his goalie-pulling methods. The choice is clear.
–Pat Pickens
Jon Cooper, Tampa Bay Lightning
Jon Cooper has won at every level he’s coached at, and he showed why in his first full year behind an NHL bench.
The former lawyer brought immediate change to the floundering Lightning, who finished with the third fewest points in the league last season. With Cooper inserted behind the bench full-time in 2013-14, the Lightning rolled to 46 wins and 101 points.
The turnaround is even more impressive considering he was without super sniper Steven Stamkos for the bulk of the season (the Lightning went 23-17-5 without Stamkos in the lineup).
Under Cooper’s guidance, the Lightning also went from a bottom-10 possession team the last two seasons to a top-10 possession team this year.
And he did so with eight rookies in his lineup, five of whom were part of Cooper’s Calder Cup-winning Norfolk Admirals in 2012.
If his debut season in The Show is a sign of things to come, the Lightning are in good hands.
–Mackenzie Liddell
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