Hitchcock, MacLean & Tortorella Named Jack Adams Finalists

[chilly666]

NEW YORK - Ken Hitchcock of the St. Louis Blues, Paul MacLean of the Ottawa Senators and John Tortorella of the New York Rangers are the three finalists for the 2011-12 Jack Adams Award, presented to the head coach who has "contributed the most to his team's success," the National Hockey League announced today.

Members of the NHL Broadcasters' Association submitted ballots for the Jack Adams Award at the conclusion of the regular season, with the top three vote-getters designated as finalists. The winner will be announced Wednesday, June 20, during the 2012 NHL Awards from Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas. The 2012 NHL Awards will be broadcast by NBC Sports Network in the United States and CBC in Canada.

Following are the finalists for the Jack Adams Award, in alphabetical
order:

Ken Hitchcock, St. Louis Blues

Hitchcock made his debut behind the St. Louis bench Nov. 8 with the club at 6-7-0 and posted a 43-15-11 record the rest of the way; the 109-point season was the Blues' best since capturing the Presidents' Trophy in 1999-2000. The club broke or tied 13 franchise records, including a 21-game home points streak and 30 home wins overall. The Blues allowed the NHL's fewest goals against by a wide margin (165), the fewest shots per game (26.7) and posted the most shutouts (15). Hitchcock earned his fourth career nomination as a Jack Adams finalist and the first in 13 years; he finished second in 1997 and third in 1998 and 1999, all with Dallas.

Paul MacLean, Ottawa Senators

MacLean made his NHL debut as head coach after spending six seasons as an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings and led the Senators (41-31-10, 92 points) to a Stanley Cup Playoff berth and an 18-point improvement over last season's 13th-place East finish. The biggest change was on offense, where Ottawa jumped from 26th to fourth in the League in goals per game.

MacLean is the third rookie head coach in the past four years to earn a Jack Adams finalist berth: Washington's Bruce Boudreau captured the award in 2008, followed by third-place finishes by San Jose's Todd McLellan in 2009 and Colorado's Joe Sacco in 2010.

John Tortorella, New York Rangers

Tortorella guided the Rangers to first place in the Eastern Conference with a 51-24-7 record, their best regular-season performance since the Stanley Cup season of 1993-94. The club's goals-against figure (187) was tops in the East, third in the NHL overall and was the fewest by a Rangers club over a full season since 1970-71. The Rangers led all clubs in hits (2,419) and ranked fourth in blocked shots (1,338). Tortorella is a Jack Adams finalist for the third time; he finished second in the voting in 2003 and captured the award in 2004, the season in which he guided the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup.

History

The award was presented by the NHL Broadcasters' Association in 1974 in honor of the late Jack Adams, longtime coach and general manager of the Detroit Red Wings.

[thepolishkid88]

Just so many good nominees. I'd like to vote for Dineen or Tippett...yet they somehow miss the list...

Of these 3 I would vote for MacLean. No one thought they would be anywhere near the playoffs. Let alone forcing the Rangers to a Game 7.

[NJDevils17]

Has to be Hitchcock.

He took an okay team that's been on the outside looking for the playoffs for a few years, and turned them into an elite team that was vying for the President's Trophy this year.

You also can't overlook what he did to the Blues' defense. And lastly, he made Brian frickin' Elliot into a world class goalie this year.

[Isles4life]

Oh man, how did Kevin Dineen get snubbed from this? He would have had my vote by a huge margin. Look at the Panthers roster on paper and tell me how they managed to stay out of last place let alone managed to make the playoffs and even won their division?!? Unbelievable job by Dineen to take that cast and turn it into a sum that is far greater than its individual parts. This seems like a huge oversight for him to not be a finalist, even though there are other good candidates out there.

Tortorella finally managed to turn the Rangers into an Eastern powerhouse, but he had some serious talent to work with, most notably Henrik Lundqvist who was the real anchor of that team. MacLean also did an unbelievable job of making the Senators a very competitive team this year when most people thought they'd be nowhere near the playoffs. But of the available choices, my vote is for Hitchcock for the way he managed to turn around the Blues so dramatically and unexpectedly after taking over.

Still can't believe Dineen got overlooked, but I guess that's the sort of thing that can happen to an often overlooked franchise in a non-traditional market.

[NJDevils17]

Originally Posted by Isles4life

Oh man, how did Kevin Dineen get snubbed from this? He would have had my vote by a huge margin. Look at the Panthers roster on paper and tell me how they managed to stay out of last place let alone managed to make the playoffs and even won their division?!? Unbelievable job by Dineen to take that cast and turn it into a sum that is far greater than its individual parts. This seems like a huge oversight for him to not be a finalist, even though there are other good candidates out there.

Tortorella finally managed to turn the Rangers into an Eastern powerhouse, but he had some serious talent to work with, most notably Henrik Lundqvist who was the real anchor of that team. MacLean also did an unbelievable job of making the Senators a very competitive team this year when most people thought they'd be nowhere near the playoffs. But of the available choices, my vote is for Hitchcock for the way he managed to turn around the Blues so dramatically and unexpectedly after taking over.

Still can't believe Dineen got overlooked, but I guess that's the sort of thing that can happen to an often overlooked franchise in a non-traditional market.

I think Dineen was worthy of a nomination, but I don't think it's a huge snub since the other 3 guys on here did a great job too.

Dineen and MacLean were in pretty identical situations. Rookie coaches with teams that were destined to be basement dwellers. I think one reason why MacLean was picked over Dineen was because Washington and Tampa were bad which certainly favored the Panthers.

I know Tortorella had some good players, but I think it's noteworthy if you take a good/decent team and make them into an elite/top tier team. Sometimes that's harder to do than taking a bunch of castoffs/scrubs and turning them into a low seed playoff team, like what Dineen and MacLean did.

[fcm]

I can't believe they didn't put Dineen there. It has to be Hitchcock.

The two ones who voted for Tortorella as from now:

John Tortorella
bigjack, KiddYidd

Surprising.

[Isles4life]

Originally Posted by NJDevils17

I think Dineen was worthy of a nomination, but I don't think it's a huge snub since the other 3 guys on here did a great job too.

Dineen and MacLean were in pretty identical situations. Rookie coaches with teams that were destined to be basement dwellers. I think one reason why MacLean was picked over Dineen was because Washington and Tampa were bad which certainly favored the Panthers.

I know Tortorella had some good players, but I think it's noteworthy if you take a good/decent team and make them into an elite/top tier team. Sometimes that's harder to do than taking a bunch of castoffs/scrubs and turning them into a low seed playoff team, like what Dineen and MacLean did.

I realize that both Ottawa and Florida were predicted to be in the cellar, but I still think there was more talent to work with in Ottawa, even if the team had a lot of apparent holes, than Dineen had to work with on the Panthers roster. Yes, the Northeast was theoretically a tougher division (although aside from the Bruins it turned out to be pretty weak), but I still think what Dineen did was somewhat more impressive.

Tortorealla did a very good job this year, but I just think there were 3 more deserving candidates for the award.

[KiddYidd]

Originally Posted by fcm

I can't believe they didn't put Dineen there. It has to be Hitchcock.

The two ones who voted for Tortorella as from now:



Surprising.

What the fuk is so surprising you dumb mutt jerkoff!

From an 8th seed to a surprising 1st seed with a very young and talented team who had to battle Pittsburgh, Boston, Philadelphia amongst other solid eastern teams for the honor. Tortorella is absolutely worthy of the top coaches trophy. Stupid French Canadian sissy!

[KiddYidd]

Originally Posted by Isles4life

Still can't believe Dineen got overlooked, but I guess that's the sort of thing that can happen to an often overlooked franchise in a non-traditional market.

Don't think Dineen was overlooked I don't think the Panthers were that good. They had 18 shootout losses if I am not mistaken which still allowed them a point for each loss, won a very weak division and blew it against a hasbin Jersey franchise in the playoffs.

Decent job by Dineen but cannot be compared to what Torts did this season.

[Isles4life]

Originally Posted by KiddYidd

Don't think Dineen was overlooked I don't think the Panthers were that good. They had 18 shootout losses if I am not mistaken which still allowed them a point for each loss, won a very weak division and blew it against a hasbin Jersey franchise in the playoffs.

Decent job by Dineen but cannot be compared to what Torts did this season.

Playoff performances aren't factored into the voting.

Decent job? Honestly, even with all of their roster shakeup this offseason, how many players could you name on the Panthers roster? Were they an elite team? No, of course not, but based on the apparent talent level in their lineup, they should have been in the draft lottery, not sitting atop their division (weak division though it may be). It's as clear an example of a team being greater than the sum of its parts, which is credit that belongs to the coach in my opinion.

Tortorella did a great job and did accomplish more. But he had a LOT more to work with. I'm not sure how much credit you can give Tortorella for the superb play of Lundqvist this year, and it seems pretty clear to me that Henrik was the anchor of the Rangers this season, even earning him a Hart trophy finalist nomination. Don't get me wrong, he had some great play in front of him by his teammates which Tortorella deserves a lot of credit for. But I think the Jack Adams should go to the coach who has the greatest impact on his team's success, as the official wording of the award suggests it should. I just don't think Tortorella had nearly as great a contribution to the Rangers as guys like MacLean, Dineen, and Hitchcock had on their respective teams.

[mikebflorida]

Torts takes a decent team to another level, he gets that extra push from his players that very few other coaches get. Yes, there is talent there but no more than say, Ottawa and less than some other teams like Boston, Vancouver, and Philly. It helps to have an elite goalie, he'll make any coach look good but Torts does it old school, he gets the most out of his players, he's great at taking the focus off of them and putting it somewhere else, deflecting the media and the fans focus, and winning, the guy just wins.

Hitchcock is also very worthy, he took an ok club and made them a lot better.

Screw Mclean, I hate Ottawa. They've had great talent for years and are always underachieving, a really good coach would motivate them to do better and they didn't even make it out of the first round and they barely made the playoffs anyway, how this guy gets nominated is beyond me.

It's a coin flip between Torts and Hitch and Dineen should have been the 3rd nominee.

[bustoff]

Slam dunk on this one. Hitch completely turned the Blues around just thirteen games into the season.

[fcm]

The 3 guys that voted for Tortorella are Rangers' fans. No jokes.

[sheady]

Sorry, MacLean takes it for me. Took a team predicted to finish last in the east to a playoff spot. Had it not been for mini collapse late on could have finished above Boston.

[I_am_Belak_2]

Originally Posted by fcm

The 3 guys that voted for Tortorella are Rangers' fans. No jokes.

Maybe because they see their team more than the Blues and Sens? Plus, Torts is a very worthy choice.

But my vote goes to Hitchcock.