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Edmonton Oilers find their Coach
The site of Pat Quinn on the bench behind a squad of azure-clad hockey players is a familiar one for hockey fans, especially those in Toronto. However, with Quinn taking over head coaching duties for the Edmonton Oilers next season, he will be in charge of a very different team than he was in his Maple Leaf days.
In seven seasons with the veteran Maple Leafs, Quinn’s regular season record was an impressive 300-196-52-26. His teams qualified for the playoffs six times, advancing to the Conference Finals twice. The average Maple Leafs season with Quinn behind the bench saw the team rack up 247 goals while allowing 221.
Considering his previous successes in Vancouver, Quinn has amassed an impressive track record in the NHL. However, he developed a bit of a bum rap toward the end of his Toronto tenure. Quinn was criticized for his misguided loyalty to past-their-prime veterans like Robert Reichel and Mikael Renberg and his inability to develop the team’s young talent, if you could call it that. Thanks to the vociferous Toronto media, Quinn was branded with the Scarlett Letter of being “unable to coach young players.” Given teams’ reliance on young talent in today’s salary cap structure, such a reputation can effectively blackball a coach.
Quinn’s Leafs were decidedly veteran teams, led by graybeards such as Owen Nolan, Mats Sundin, Gary Roberts and Alexander Mogilny. The Oilers, on the other hand, rely on several youngsters to provide quality minutes. Tom Gilbert (26 years old), Ales Hemsky (25), Patrick O’Sullivan (24), Robert Nilsson (24), Andrew Cogliano (21) and Sam Gagner (19) represent the very bright future of the franchise. So is tabbing Quinn to guide these precocious youngsters a good idea?
GM Steve Tambellini seems convinced it is.
Following his dismissal from the Leafs, Quinn’s career was given some much-needed resuscitation thanks to his gold medal turns as coach of Hockey Canada’s Under 18 team in 2008 and World Junior Championship team in 2009.
Clearly, the man has some ability to connect with youngsters. "If I think of leadership, I think of Pat," said Tambellini at Tuesday’s press conference before Quinn was introduced to the media. "If I think of the way you want to be treated as a player, I think of someone like Pat Quinn. If I think of someone who sets an example morally for an organization of how to go forward, I think of a man like Pat Quinn."
Tambellini might think the world of the 66-year-old Quinn, but not so much so that he hasn’t already hired his replacement: Tom Renney. Renney will serve as an assistant coach to Quinn, but it is believed he has a handshake agreement with Tambellini that will see him claim head duties if Quinn retires at the end of his three-year contract.
The hirings are a coup for the rookie GM, who may just have combined the two men’s strengths into a very favorable coaching situation. Quinn is considered a motivator and emotional leader while Renney is a noted x’s and o’s guy. That’s good news for Oiler fans, because their team needs a much better defensive strategy if they are going to maximize the offensive contributions of their core of talented young skaters.
According to Tom Awad’s year-end GVT rankings, the Oilers were an abysmal -10.8 in even strength defense last season. Their special teams were also a disaster: they notched a -7.1 ranking in power play offense and a -11.9 mark in shorthanded defense. Edmonton’s power play finished the season with a 17% success rate, good for 22nd in the league. Their penalty kill percentage of 77.5 placed them 27th, ahead of only Phoenix, Atlanta and the Leafs.
It’s a bit ironic that the Oilers are the team to break the streak of rookie coach hirings. From Dan Bylsma in Pittsburgh to Todd McLennan in San Jose to Peter DeBoer in Florida, the recent trend has been to ignore the league’s retreads in order to give younger coaches a shot. Historically, that has been the Oilers’ approach, given that Ron Lowe, Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish all debuted as head coaches with the Oilers. Quinn and Renney are also the first Oiler coaches in some time to have no previous connection to the franchise. However, both men, as well as Tambellini, have strong ties to the Vancouver Canucks.
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Flames and Wild on the Hunt
With the Oiler job now filled, there are two head coaching vacancies in the NHL (three, if you consider Tony Granato’s tenuous hold on the Colorado job to be all but finished). The Flames and Wild are still on the hunt for bench bosses.
In Calgary, Flames GM Darryl Sutter held a press conference on Tuesday to announce, well, nobody’s quite sure. "All the best coaches in the league are under contract,” said Sutter when asked about his coach hunt. “I think there are three guys who I think are excellent, I won’t tell you who they are, and I’m the fourth. If I find out at the end of the search that I’m the best candidate, then I am the coach.”
Setting aside the notion that holding a press conference to announce nothing is like baking a cake in order to throw it away, Sutter’s tone suggested that he will return to the post if he cannot find anyone who knocks his socks off. When asked if he is a candidate for the head coaching job, Sutter grinned and replied, “Right now, I’m the best one.” Regarding the availability of his brother Brent, coach of the New Jersey Devils, Darryl quickly squashed the notion that a Sutter reunion might be in the works by reiterating that Brent is under contract to Jersey. Word out of the Sutter camp on Wednesday, as reported in the Calgary Sun, is that Brent will choose between fulfilling the remaining year on his Devils contract and leaving the club to become more involved with the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League, which he owns.
As for the Flames, their defensive play has slipped precipitously since Darryl last paced the bench. In 2005/2006 Calgary ranked first overall in team defense, allowing a scant 2.35 goals per game. This past season, they were 23rd, allowing an even 3.00. That’s a bitter pill to swallow for a man who takes pride in defensive play the way Sutter does. "That’s against what I believe in and that’s not what successful organizations do,” said the GM of his team’s defensive deficiencies. Sutter did announce that the coaching staff of the club would not be renewed when their contracts expire this summer. He also told reporters he has offered the head coaching position of the Flames’ AHL affiliate (which is moving to Abbotsford, B.C.) to associate coach Jim Playfair. This likely means that Ryan McGill, who had been coaching the baby Flames, will take a job with the big club in one capacity or another. Whoever the Flames’ bench boss is this season, one priority will be finding a way to get the most out of the core group of Jarome Iginla, Robyn Regehr, Miikka Kiprusoff and Dion Phaneuf.
According to Sutter, all four had “average seasons.” The scuttlebutt around the Saddledome is that Phaneuf’s year was decidedly less successful than “average.”
However, Behindthenet.ca’s advanced +/- rating system awards Phaneuf a very average 0 for the season, putting his rather unsightly -11 +/- rating in perspective. Still, for someone once considered a perennial Norris candidate, performing as a neutral player on a team that almost won its division isn’t exactly fulfilling expectations.
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Detroit's Unsung Hero
Darren Helm’s heroic penalty killing in Detroit’s game five victory over the Blackhawks was the kind of display that can turn a grinder into an instant crowd favorite. The Red Wings faithful rewarded Helm with a standing ovation following an especially successful shift in which the Winnipeg native owned the puck, winning several one-on-one battles against the Blackhawks before creating a quality scoring chance.
In overtime, Helm returned the favor by swatting home a loose puck and sending the Wings back to the Cup Final. Helm has been a playoff revelation for the Wings the past two seasons, scoring five goals and seven assists in 34 games of limited ice time. Helm has averaged just more than 11 minutes per game this postseason after averaging 7:30 last year. In 23 career regular season games, the 22-year-old has tallied but one lonely assist.
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Stanley Cup Finals Schedule
For the first time since 1955, the NHL has scheduled Stanley Cup Finals games on back-to-back dates. The reason, of course, is to accommodate NBC’s broadcast schedule. Game one will take place on Saturday night in Detroit, with game two following on Sunday.
The quick turnaround likely poses more of an issue for the Red Wings, who were forced to play games four and five of the Conference Finals without captain Nicklas Lidstrom and top regular season scorer Pavel Datsyuk. The league had floated the idea of starting the Finals on June 5. Mercifully, the Red Wings took care of business Wednesday night and spared hockey fans the world over from an excruciating delay.
Bill Duke is a guest author of Puck Prospectus. You can contact Bill by clicking here or click here to see Bill's other articles.
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