Mike Keenan: The NHL’s Last Great Asshole Coach

[FistofFury]

In Roenick's book he says that Manson lifted Keenan off the floor and pinned him against a door!

[hockey doc]

Keenan was a great coach, his stats will back him up. Overall I liked him with the Flyers but I think he pushed some players too far, you can do that with good results but you have to know who those guys are, everybody has a different breaking point, Keenan didn't seem to care about that. The "new" NHL needs more guys like him.

[darius]

Originally Posted by hockey doc

Keenan was a great coach, his stats will back him up. Overall I liked him with the Flyers but I think he pushed some players too far, you can do that with good results but you have to know who those guys are, everybody has a different breaking point, Keenan didn't seem to care about that. The "new" NHL needs more guys like him.

Todd Bergen

[Schultz]

Punch Imlach was the first asshole coach.

[flamesblackace]

The rumours in Calgary talk of him going soft when he coached the Flames... Sitting with the players on the bus and planes... Buying dinners... Telling stories and even smiling and laughing...

Wished he would have kicked a little ass here!

[kam]

Originally Posted by flamesblackace

The rumours in Calgary talk of him going soft when he coached the Flames... Sitting with the players on the bus and planes... Buying dinners... Telling stories and even smiling and laughing...

Wished he would have kicked a little ass here!

He did seem to get soft during that time but I believe it had to do with him just getting older and realizing he was running out of teams that he pissed off. I read in a book I have about the Rangers during their Stanley Cup win (cant remember the title right now) that I think it was Neil Smith said something along the lines that you could count on 2 things when you hire Mike Keenan, your teams chances of winning the cup went up dramatically and he would tear the organization apart.

[BROKEN*ORBITAL]

Originally Posted by GOON 21

Is that REALLY true?



Do we have any REAL proof of this? (memo or a link, etc) - I ask because that would be pathetic for a league telling a franchise how to play or compete in a league


Yet it wouldnt surpise me either

I was watching a Panthers game that year (I damn near watched them all that year) and the announcers were talking about the league contacting Keenan about the rough stuff, and then they laughed as they announced Keenan's most recent call up, Rocky Thompson I nearly fell off the couch laughing my ass off.

There's a quick mention IN THIS ARTICLE HERE about 3/4 of the way down.

The NHL sent a memo to Mike Keenan's Panthers to cut down on their fighting. Next thing you know, the Panthers called up Rocky Thompson, who averages more than five penalty minutes a game

[kam]

Originally Posted by FistofFury

In Roenick's book he says that Manson lifted Keenan off the floor and pinned him against a door!

I was thinking of getting that book, is it worth a damn?

[canuck2]

Mike Keenan couldnt coach in hockey today. The first time he yelled a new age player that player would be on his iphone to complain to his agent.

Mike coached in the greatest era of hockey I saw. It's pretty sad today's modern fan who likes the tough part of hockey couldnt see what hockey was really like.

[BROKEN*ORBITAL]

Originally Posted by Humpzilla

The season which made me a hardcore fight fan. Crazyness on a scale we may never see again.

I'd been taping fights for years. 2001 - 2002 was a particularily awesome year because NHL Center Ice package came out. I bought it and had a great year of fight taping. Keenan's Panthers that season were a gold mine.

Their games against the Bruins (P.J. Stock, Dennis Bonvie, Andrei Nazarov, and Sean Brown) were f*cking great that year.

[kam]

Originally Posted by canuck2

Mike Keenan couldnt coach in hockey today. The first time he yelled a new age player that player would be on his iphone to complain to his agent.

Mike coached in the greatest era of hockey I saw. It's pretty sad today's modern fan who likes the tough part of hockey couldnt see what hockey was really like.

Well said, could you imagine him coaching Sidney Crosby? Crosby would have all the 15 year old girl NHL fans wanting Keenan dead the first time Sidney got his feelings hurt and posted it on twitter. Keenan might actually be able to turn him into a real man by the end of a season.

[darius]

Originally Posted by canuck2

Mike Keenan couldnt coach in hockey today. The first time he yelled a new age player that player would be on his iphone to complain to his mother and agent.

Mike coached in the greatest era of hockey I saw. It's pretty sad today's modern fan who likes the tough part of hockey couldnt see what hockey was really like.

Fixed.

[FistofFury]

Originally Posted by kam

I was thinking of getting that book, is it worth a damn?

I read it in the bookstore for 20 minutes or so. I enjoyed what I read.

[mikebflorida]

Originally Posted by BROKEN*ORBITAL

I was watching a Panthers game that year (I damn near watched them all that year) and the announcers were talking about the league contacting Keenan about the rough stuff, and then they laughed as they announced Keenan's most recent call up, Rocky Thompson I nearly fell off the couch laughing my ass off.

There's a quick mention IN THIS ARTICLE HERE about 3/4 of the way down.

That's great stuff but totally jives with what I've been saying for years and gotten poo poo'ed by Bettman apologists- that the league has been trying to get rid of fighting for many years, they can't really do it completely but they've just about sucked all of the life out of the game by now.

It wouldn't surprise me if there were some kind of fine for number of fights a team gets into, likke 50 fights= $1,000,000 fine or some crap like that and teams like Boston, NY, and Philly can afford it and they know fighting sells tickets.

Can someone just get rid of Bettman and the entire league office and put some hockey people in there and some marketing people who know what the hell they're doing.

It's funny that some people say that our leader is trying to turn us into Europe in regard to health care and what not but Gary Friggin Bettman has been trying to turn North American hockey into Euro hockey for years!

[ValJamesRules]

Growing up as a fan of the Rochester Amerks, I got to see two of the biggest azzhole coaches: Keenan and Tortorella. Both won Calder Cups with the franchise.