WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.500 Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today we are we're 00:00:03.500 --> 00:00:06.660 looking at the absolute highest individual honor 00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:09.300 a head coach can receive in the National Hockey 00:00:09.300 --> 00:00:11.400 League. Right. The Jack Adams Award. Exactly. 00:00:11.539 --> 00:00:14.439 The Jack Adams. And we're going to unpack the 00:00:14.439 --> 00:00:18.140 entire voting history today. The anomalies. The. 00:00:19.179 --> 00:00:21.600 the undeniable patterns that have really emerged 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:24.679 since the award was first handed out. Yeah, and 00:00:24.679 --> 00:00:26.800 it's a fascinating paper trail. It really is. 00:00:27.059 --> 00:00:29.039 Because ultimately, we want to figure out what 00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:31.399 the hockey world actually values when it measures 00:00:31.399 --> 00:00:34.200 leadership. We want to see if the data aligns 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:36.359 with what you, the listener, or really anyone 00:00:36.359 --> 00:00:39.579 considers to be true coaching greatness. Well, 00:00:39.619 --> 00:00:41.399 it's a complex topic, right? Because evaluating 00:00:41.399 --> 00:00:43.939 a head coach is just, it's an inherently subjective 00:00:43.939 --> 00:00:46.119 exercise. It's entirely. I mean, you can easily 00:00:46.119 --> 00:00:48.079 quantify a player's impact. You just look at 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:50.890 the goals. the assists or save percentages for 00:00:50.890 --> 00:00:54.689 goalies. But trying to isolate a coach's direct 00:00:54.689 --> 00:00:58.070 impact from the raw talent of their roster, that 00:00:58.070 --> 00:01:01.380 is incredibly difficult. But the historical data 00:01:01.380 --> 00:01:04.060 for the Jack Adams Award provides this really 00:01:04.060 --> 00:01:07.219 distinct, decades -long record of how the league 00:01:07.219 --> 00:01:09.620 attempts to solve that exact problem. Right. 00:01:09.700 --> 00:01:11.739 And let's start with the namesake himself, because 00:01:11.739 --> 00:01:13.799 you have to know where this comes from. Jack 00:01:13.799 --> 00:01:15.840 Adams is a foundational figure in the sport. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:17.739 Absolutely. He was a Hall of Fame player, spent 00:01:17.739 --> 00:01:20.459 time with the Toronto Arenas, the St. Patrick's, 00:01:20.459 --> 00:01:23.599 the Vancouver Millionaires, and the original 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:26.859 Ottawa Senators. But his legacy was really cemented 00:01:26.859 --> 00:01:29.040 off the ice. Yeah, as the longtime coach and... 00:01:29.069 --> 00:01:31.670 general manager of the Detroit Red Wings. So 00:01:31.670 --> 00:01:33.890 when the league introduced this award at the 00:01:33.890 --> 00:01:37.609 end of the 1973 -1974 season, handing the very 00:01:37.609 --> 00:01:40.829 first one to Fred Shiro of the Flyers, by the 00:01:40.829 --> 00:01:43.629 way, they established a very specific criteria. 00:01:43.730 --> 00:01:46.549 And the wording is so important here. It is. 00:01:46.629 --> 00:01:49.849 The winner is the coach, and I quote, a judge 00:01:49.849 --> 00:01:51.989 to have contributed the most to his team's success. 00:01:52.569 --> 00:01:54.689 That phrasing is critical to understand. It does 00:01:54.689 --> 00:01:57.150 not say the coach of the team with the most points. 00:01:57.230 --> 00:01:59.209 Right. It says the coach who contributed the 00:01:59.209 --> 00:02:01.890 most to whatever success the team achieved, which, 00:02:01.930 --> 00:02:04.030 you know, leaves massive room for interpretation. 00:02:04.390 --> 00:02:06.530 And I'd argue the most fascinating part of this 00:02:06.530 --> 00:02:10.210 award isn't just that criteria, but who actually 00:02:10.210 --> 00:02:13.009 makes that judgment. Because it's not the general 00:02:13.009 --> 00:02:15.509 managers. Nope. And it's not the writers either. 00:02:16.060 --> 00:02:19.479 The Jack Adams is voted on by the NHL Broadcasters 00:02:19.479 --> 00:02:21.780 Association at the end of the regular season. 00:02:21.939 --> 00:02:24.340 Which completely shifts the lens of the award. 00:02:24.620 --> 00:02:26.759 I mean, broadcasters have a totally unique vantage 00:02:26.759 --> 00:02:28.900 point. They're right in the mix. Exactly. They 00:02:28.900 --> 00:02:30.960 travel on the team planes. They're at the morning 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:33.240 skates. They call every single shift from the 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:36.400 booth. So they see the micro adjustments and 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:39.219 the locker room body language in a way that, 00:02:39.300 --> 00:02:41.979 say, national writers might just completely miss. 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:44.080 But hold on. Doesn't that also mean they're highly 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:46.750 susceptible to narrative? Oh, for sure. I mean, 00:02:46.770 --> 00:02:49.009 broadcasters are literally in the business of 00:02:49.009 --> 00:02:51.469 telling stories. If I'm looking at the voting 00:02:51.469 --> 00:02:54.849 history, it feels like they often pass over a 00:02:54.849 --> 00:02:58.129 tactically brilliant coach who just quietly manages 00:02:58.129 --> 00:03:01.150 a juggernaut in favor of a guy who drags a scrappy 00:03:01.150 --> 00:03:03.689 underdog to the playoffs. Yeah, becomes a story. 00:03:03.870 --> 00:03:05.870 Right. It feels like the most improved team award 00:03:05.870 --> 00:03:07.909 just as often as it is the best coach award. 00:03:08.270 --> 00:03:11.090 There's definitely truth to that. But I'd counter 00:03:11.090 --> 00:03:14.030 by saying that dragging a mediocre roster to 00:03:14.030 --> 00:03:17.409 the postseason often requires more active, tangible 00:03:17.409 --> 00:03:20.310 coaching than just, you know, rolling four lines 00:03:20.310 --> 00:03:22.490 of superstars. That's fair. You have to manufacture 00:03:22.490 --> 00:03:24.909 offense, you have to strictly implement a defensive 00:03:24.909 --> 00:03:27.050 structure, and you really have to keep morale 00:03:27.050 --> 00:03:29.550 high when the talent deficit is obvious to everyone 00:03:29.550 --> 00:03:31.990 in the room. The broadcasters are rewarding that 00:03:31.990 --> 00:03:34.710 heavy lifting. Okay, let's test that theory by 00:03:34.710 --> 00:03:36.770 looking at the absolute gold standard of this 00:03:36.770 --> 00:03:39.430 award. When you break down the historical winners, 00:03:40.039 --> 00:03:43.000 One name sits alone at the very top. Pat Burns. 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:46.319 Pat Burns. He is the only coach to win the Jack 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:49.800 Adams three times. But the truly staggering part 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:51.960 is that he did it with three completely different 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:54.259 franchises. Which is wild. He won it with Montreal 00:03:54.259 --> 00:03:58.719 in 1988 -89, with Toronto in 1992 -93, and with 00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:02.120 Boston in 1997 -98. It's the ultimate stress 00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:04.520 test of a coaching philosophy. Think about it. 00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:07.580 Taking your system, walking into three distinctly 00:04:07.580 --> 00:04:09.680 different locker rooms in three absolutely massive 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:12.240 high pressure markets and getting immediate award 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:15.599 winning buy in. And look at the specific markets. 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:17.939 You're talking about the Canadians, the Leafs 00:04:17.939 --> 00:04:21.220 and the Bruins. He essentially coached the three 00:04:21.220 --> 00:04:24.279 points of the most bitter historic hate triangle 00:04:24.279 --> 00:04:26.660 in the sport. Yeah. The rivalries there are. 00:04:27.310 --> 00:04:30.209 Intense. To be able to cross those lines, inherit 00:04:30.209 --> 00:04:32.790 totally different rosters, and instantly command 00:04:32.790 --> 00:04:35.910 that level of respect is wild. Is it the system 00:04:35.910 --> 00:04:38.589 he brought or just an allied ability to read 00:04:38.589 --> 00:04:41.389 a room? It has to be a master class in adaptability. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:44.180 Because you can't run the exact same breakout 00:04:44.180 --> 00:04:46.420 or neutral zone trap if you don't have the personnel 00:04:46.420 --> 00:04:48.620 for it. Right. You just get crushed. Exactly. 00:04:48.759 --> 00:04:51.120 Burns clearly knew how to look at a roster and 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:53.519 optimize exactly what he had. And while he's 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:56.120 the only one with three, there is an elite group 00:04:56.120 --> 00:04:58.540 of five coaches who have pulled off the two franchise 00:04:58.540 --> 00:05:01.939 feet. See you. Jacques Lemaire, Pat Quinn, Scotty 00:05:01.939 --> 00:05:04.519 Bowman, Barry Trotz, and John Tortorella. Okay, 00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:06.519 I'll play devil's advocate here, though. If you 00:05:06.519 --> 00:05:08.920 are a generational coaching talent, why are you 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:10.560 bouncing around enough to win it with multiple 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:13.500 teams? Doesn't the ultimate coach build the dynasty 00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:16.379 in one spot and stay there for two decades? That's 00:05:16.379 --> 00:05:18.889 a fair point. But you have to factor in the reality 00:05:18.889 --> 00:05:21.670 of modern hockey. The shelf life of a coach's 00:05:21.670 --> 00:05:24.149 voice in a single locker room is notoriously 00:05:24.149 --> 00:05:26.490 short. Yeah, they tune them out. Players notoriously 00:05:26.490 --> 00:05:29.470 tune out even the sharpest tacticians after four 00:05:29.470 --> 00:05:31.970 or five years of hearing the exact same speeches 00:05:31.970 --> 00:05:35.230 and running the exact same drills. So the fact 00:05:35.230 --> 00:05:37.589 that these guys could get fired or, you know, 00:05:37.589 --> 00:05:40.110 mutually part ways and then immediately turn 00:05:40.110 --> 00:05:43.649 another franchise into a powerhouse is arguably 00:05:43.649 --> 00:05:46.089 a bigger testament to their skill than just staying 00:05:46.089 --> 00:05:48.709 put. with a great GM feeding you top draft picks. 00:05:48.889 --> 00:05:50.850 Okay, that brings up a massive anomaly in the 00:05:50.850 --> 00:05:53.930 data then. If a coach's voice has a shelf life, 00:05:54.230 --> 00:05:57.550 how do we explain Jacques Demers? Back to back. 00:05:57.850 --> 00:06:01.069 Yeah. Out of 51 awards handed out, Demers is 00:06:01.069 --> 00:06:03.290 the only coach in NHL history to win the Jack 00:06:03.290 --> 00:06:05.670 Adams in consecutive seasons. He did it with 00:06:05.670 --> 00:06:09.329 Detroit in 1986 -87 and again in 87 -88. Why 00:06:09.329 --> 00:06:12.410 is going back to back so incredibly rare? Because 00:06:12.410 --> 00:06:14.449 the Jack Adams, as we touched on earlier, is 00:06:14.449 --> 00:06:17.019 fundamentally an expectations game. In year one, 00:06:17.139 --> 00:06:19.500 you take over a struggling team, you implement 00:06:19.500 --> 00:06:23.279 your system, and you overachieve. The broadcasters 00:06:23.279 --> 00:06:26.180 love the turnaround story, and boom, you win 00:06:26.180 --> 00:06:30.040 the award. But year two? In year two, that overachievement 00:06:30.040 --> 00:06:33.360 becomes your new baseline. You are no longer 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:35.879 the underdog story, you are the favorite. Right. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:38.740 If you jump from 70 points to 100 points, you're 00:06:38.740 --> 00:06:41.019 a genius. If you get 100 points again the next 00:06:41.019 --> 00:06:43.480 year, you just met expectations. The narrative 00:06:43.480 --> 00:06:46.560 is totally gone. Exactly. To win it back to back, 00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:48.920 you essentially have to pull off a miracle and 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:50.899 then follow it up with an even bigger miracle 00:06:50.899 --> 00:06:53.240 the very next year. Which is almost impossible. 00:06:53.439 --> 00:06:55.899 It's mathematically and narratively exhausting, 00:06:56.079 --> 00:06:59.180 which is why Demers stands entirely alone in 00:06:59.180 --> 00:07:01.860 that category. Let's shift gears to another weird 00:07:01.860 --> 00:07:04.800 corner of this data. I was looking through the 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:07.160 list of winners and noticed three specific names. 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:10.720 Bill Barber, Bruce Boudreaux, and Ken Hitchcock. 00:07:10.939 --> 00:07:14.000 Oh, midseason guys? Yeah. What ties them together 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:16.240 is that they didn't even start the season as 00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:18.579 head coaches. They were midseason replacements 00:07:18.579 --> 00:07:20.779 who came in and still managed to win Coach of 00:07:20.779 --> 00:07:23.980 the Year. It's crazy. Barber replaced Craig Ramsey 00:07:23.980 --> 00:07:27.339 in Philly during the 0 -0 -0 -1 season. Boudreaux 00:07:27.339 --> 00:07:30.120 stepped in for Glenn Hanlon a month into Washington's 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:33.500 0 -7 -0 -8 season. And Hitchcock took over for 00:07:33.500 --> 00:07:36.660 Davis Payne in St. Louis during the 11 -12 season. 00:07:37.079 --> 00:07:39.319 How is that even possible? You don't get a training 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:42.279 camp. You don't get preseason games to test your 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:44.959 line combinations. Nothing. You are handed a 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:47.720 roster that is actively underperforming, usually 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:50.000 dealing with really low morale, and you have 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:52.050 to fix the airplane while it's in the air. It 00:07:52.050 --> 00:07:55.209 proves how much of NHL coaching is purely psychological. 00:07:55.709 --> 00:07:58.269 Because when a team fires a coach a month into 00:07:58.269 --> 00:08:00.529 the season, it's rarely because the defensive 00:08:00.529 --> 00:08:02.470 structure is completely broken. It's usually 00:08:02.470 --> 00:08:04.689 a vibe thing. Exactly. It's usually because the 00:08:04.689 --> 00:08:07.189 locker room has gone completely flat. A midseason 00:08:07.189 --> 00:08:09.069 replacement comes in and provides an immediate 00:08:09.069 --> 00:08:12.009 emotional jolt. They reset the internal hierarchy. 00:08:12.209 --> 00:08:14.910 They change the ice time distribution. And suddenly 00:08:14.910 --> 00:08:16.629 guys who were coasting are playing for their 00:08:16.629 --> 00:08:19.579 jobs again. Famous new coach bump. Right. And 00:08:19.579 --> 00:08:21.879 the broadcasters voting on the award are sitting 00:08:21.879 --> 00:08:24.740 right there watching this visceral night and 00:08:24.740 --> 00:08:27.519 day transformation of the team's energy. It's 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:30.420 a very easy narrative to get behind, which explains 00:08:30.420 --> 00:08:32.960 how a guy like Boudreaux can walk in midstream 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:35.919 and walk out with the hardware. But the voting 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:38.980 isn't always that clear cut. The data highlights 00:08:38.980 --> 00:08:42.379 the 2006 race as the closest in the history of 00:08:42.379 --> 00:08:45.299 the award. Oh, that was a nail biter. Lindy Ruff 00:08:45.299 --> 00:08:47.879 of the Buffalo Sabres ended up winning it. But 00:08:47.879 --> 00:08:51.820 he beat out Peter LaViolette by one single point. 00:08:52.100 --> 00:08:55.019 Think about the mechanics of that. You have dozens 00:08:55.019 --> 00:08:57.620 of broadcasters across the league casting their 00:08:57.620 --> 00:08:59.679 ballots, ranking their choices. And after all 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:02.039 the points are tallied, the margin between being 00:09:02.039 --> 00:09:04.320 immortalized as the coach of the year and just 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:06.659 being a runner up is a single vote. It's razor 00:09:06.659 --> 00:09:09.200 thin. It perfectly illustrates how thin the line 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:11.860 is between two highly successful regular seasons. 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:14.240 And speaking of different types of seasons, we 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:15.799 have to look at how the award is handled when 00:09:15.799 --> 00:09:18.039 the league goes off script. The records track 00:09:18.039 --> 00:09:20.360 several shortened seasons. Yeah, the lockouts 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:23.220 and the pandemic. Exactly. You had lockouts in 00:09:23.220 --> 00:09:27.240 1994 -95 where Mark Crawford won and 2012 -13 00:09:27.240 --> 00:09:30.679 where Paul McLean won. The 2004 -05 season was 00:09:30.679 --> 00:09:33.639 canceled entirely, so no award there. And then 00:09:33.639 --> 00:09:35.980 the pandemic shortened seasons where Bruce Cassidy 00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:40.009 won in 1920 and Rod Brindamore won in 2021. Coaching 00:09:40.009 --> 00:09:43.629 a 48 game or 56 game season requires a completely 00:09:43.629 --> 00:09:46.629 different tactical approach than a full 82 game 00:09:46.629 --> 00:09:50.009 marathon. How so? You simply cannot afford a 00:09:50.009 --> 00:09:52.629 slow start. A five game losing streak in November 00:09:52.629 --> 00:09:55.389 during a normal year usually just means you shuffle 00:09:55.389 --> 00:09:57.830 your lines. But a five game losing streak in 00:09:57.830 --> 00:09:59.789 a shortened season can mathematically eliminate 00:09:59.789 --> 00:10:02.169 you from playoff contention. You're in a hole 00:10:02.169 --> 00:10:04.450 you can't climb out of. The intensity is dialed 00:10:04.450 --> 00:10:06.090 up from opening night. Which means the margin 00:10:06.090 --> 00:10:08.230 for error in player deployment and load management 00:10:08.230 --> 00:10:10.970 is practically zero. You're coaching Game 7 hockey 00:10:10.970 --> 00:10:13.190 in Week 2, so winning the Jack Adams in those 00:10:13.190 --> 00:10:16.070 specific sprint -like conditions is a very distinct 00:10:16.070 --> 00:10:17.950 achievement. Absolutely. But that actually leads 00:10:17.950 --> 00:10:20.070 me to the most controversial aspect of this data. 00:10:20.149 --> 00:10:22.049 We need to talk about the playoffs. Oh, man. 00:10:22.129 --> 00:10:24.250 The footnotes on this list are incredibly telling. 00:10:24.570 --> 00:10:27.090 They really are. The voting happens at the end 00:10:27.090 --> 00:10:29.049 of the regular season before the playoffs start. 00:10:29.309 --> 00:10:31.789 And if you look at how often the Jack Adams winner 00:10:31.789 --> 00:10:33.950 goes on to actually win the Stanley Cup that 00:10:33.950 --> 00:10:37.539 same year, the list is shockingly short. It's 00:10:37.539 --> 00:10:40.220 what, five guys? Five guys in over 50 years. 00:10:40.519 --> 00:10:43.000 Fred Shiro did it in the awards inaugural year. 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:47.519 Scotty Bowman in 77. John Tortorella in 2004. 00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:51.679 Bruce Cassidy in 2020. And Jim Montgomery in 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:54.759 2023. It creates a fascinating dissonance. I 00:10:54.759 --> 00:10:57.480 mean, the league officially crowns you the coach 00:10:57.480 --> 00:11:00.000 who contributed the most to your team's success. 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:03.039 And then a few weeks later, you are shaking hands 00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:04.559 on the handshake line after getting eliminated. 00:11:05.179 --> 00:11:07.059 Doesn't that suggest the voters are fundamentally 00:11:07.059 --> 00:11:09.779 getting it wrong? I mean, if your coach of the 00:11:09.779 --> 00:11:11.700 year is routinely getting bounced in the second 00:11:11.700 --> 00:11:14.220 round, maybe their regular season success was 00:11:14.220 --> 00:11:16.419 a mirage built on an unsustainable power play 00:11:16.419 --> 00:11:19.799 or a hot goalie rather than true tactical superiority. 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:22.559 I'd push back heavily on that. You can't conflate 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:24.580 regular season coaching with playoff coaching. 00:11:24.700 --> 00:11:26.220 You don't think they're the same? They're two 00:11:26.220 --> 00:11:29.559 entirely different skill sets. The regular season 00:11:29.559 --> 00:11:33.120 is about managing an 82 -game grind. It's dealing 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:36.100 with travel fatigue, integrating call -ups, maintaining 00:11:36.100 --> 00:11:39.419 consistency against 31 different opponents. And 00:11:39.419 --> 00:11:41.820 the playoffs. The playoffs are about making hyper 00:11:41.820 --> 00:11:44.659 -specific, game -to -game micro -adjustments 00:11:44.659 --> 00:11:47.320 against the exact same opponent seven times in 00:11:47.320 --> 00:11:49.419 a row. So you're saying a great regular season 00:11:49.419 --> 00:11:52.100 coach isn't necessarily a great playoff coach. 00:11:52.379 --> 00:11:55.639 Not inherently. And the data shows us the heartbreak 00:11:55.639 --> 00:11:58.340 of that reality. Look at the coaches who won 00:11:58.340 --> 00:12:00.539 the Jack Adams, navigated the playoffs all the 00:12:00.539 --> 00:12:02.200 way to the Stanley Cup finals, and then lost. 00:12:02.379 --> 00:12:05.500 Yeah. Pat Quinn in 1980, Mike Keenan in 1985, 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:09.419 Pat Burns in 1989, and Gerard Gallant in 2018. 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:12.340 Gallant in 2018 with the Vegas Golden Knights 00:12:12.340 --> 00:12:14.460 is the ultimate example of this. I've got a doubt. 00:12:14.860 --> 00:12:17.200 Taking an expansion team to the Stanley Cup final 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:20.539 in their very first year of existence is undeniably 00:12:20.539 --> 00:12:22.299 one of the greatest coaching feats in sports 00:12:22.299 --> 00:12:24.360 history. The fact that they lost to Washington 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:26.600 in the final doesn't invalidate his regular season 00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:29.529 masterpiece. Exactly. That Jack Adams captures 00:12:29.529 --> 00:12:32.450 the magic of the regular season journey. And 00:12:32.450 --> 00:12:34.370 we see that reflected in the correlation with 00:12:34.370 --> 00:12:37.470 the president's trophy. Right. Since 1985, 86, 00:12:37.750 --> 00:12:40.409 that trophy goes to the team with the best regular 00:12:40.409 --> 00:12:43.769 season record. And quite a few Jack Adams winners 00:12:43.769 --> 00:12:46.090 pulled off that double. Yeah. Scotty Bowman did 00:12:46.090 --> 00:12:49.090 it twice with Montreal and Detroit. Al Arbor 00:12:49.090 --> 00:12:51.889 with the Islanders. Glenn Sather with Edmonton. 00:12:52.460 --> 00:12:55.519 Quenville with St. Louis, Vigneault with Vancouver, 00:12:55.940 --> 00:12:59.320 Trotz with Washington, and both Cassidy and Montgomery 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:02.649 with Boston. So there is clearly a baseline of 00:13:02.649 --> 00:13:05.370 respect for absolute dominance. If you engineer 00:13:05.370 --> 00:13:08.110 a 115 -point season, you are going to be on the 00:13:08.110 --> 00:13:10.730 ballot. But it's not a guarantee. No. Which brings 00:13:10.730 --> 00:13:12.990 us right back to our earlier point about expectations. 00:13:13.389 --> 00:13:15.909 If you are handed a roster with three future 00:13:15.909 --> 00:13:18.710 Hall of Famers in their prime, the broadcasters 00:13:18.710 --> 00:13:20.809 expect you to win the president's trophy. You're 00:13:20.809 --> 00:13:22.509 just doing your job at that point. If you do, 00:13:22.570 --> 00:13:24.529 you did your job. If you don't, you failed. It's 00:13:24.529 --> 00:13:26.590 a brutal standard. Let's zoom out and look at 00:13:26.590 --> 00:13:29.179 the franchise level before we wrap up. Certain 00:13:29.179 --> 00:13:32.000 organizations just seem to have a knack for hiring 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:34.700 the right guy at the right time. When you tally 00:13:34.700 --> 00:13:37.820 up the winners by team, there is a clear upper 00:13:37.820 --> 00:13:40.100 tier. The heavyweights. Yeah. The Washington 00:13:40.100 --> 00:13:42.759 Capitals, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Detroit 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:45.919 Red Wings, and the Boston Bruins all have four 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:49.340 Jack Adams winners in their history. It's a list 00:13:49.340 --> 00:13:51.559 of heavyweights for sure, but there's a fifth 00:13:51.559 --> 00:13:53.879 franchise tied at the top of that list with four 00:13:53.879 --> 00:13:56.539 winners, and it's a bit of a geographical nomad. 00:13:56.840 --> 00:13:59.480 The Coyotes. Yes. The Coyotes franchise claims 00:13:59.480 --> 00:14:01.720 four, but you have to trace their lineage back 00:14:01.720 --> 00:14:04.559 to the original Winnipeg Jets. Tom Watt and Bob 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:07.779 Murdoch won it in Winnipeg in 81 -82 and 89 -90. 00:14:07.899 --> 00:14:10.519 Then Bobby Francis and Dave Tippett won it after 00:14:10.519 --> 00:14:13.639 the relocation to Phoenix in 01 -02 and 09 -10. 00:14:13.919 --> 00:14:16.080 That's a great piece of trivia. And speaking 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:18.279 of adding to those totals, the most recent winner 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:20.980 in the historical data is Spencer Carberry, who 00:14:20.980 --> 00:14:22.919 took it home for the Washington Capitals in the 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:25.940 2024 -25 season. Right. That keeps Washington 00:14:25.940 --> 00:14:28.480 right there in that multi -way tie for the most 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:30.860 decorated coaching history in the league. When 00:14:30.860 --> 00:14:33.279 you look at the names across this entire list, 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:36.419 from Don Cherry and Red Berenson in the 70s and 00:14:36.419 --> 00:14:40.440 80s to Brian Sutter, Ted Nolan, Patrick Roy and 00:14:40.440 --> 00:14:44.000 Daryl Sutter, it's a literal who's who. of hockey 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:46.659 minds. It really is. Every distinct era of the 00:14:46.659 --> 00:14:49.620 NHL from the high flying 80s to the dead puck 00:14:49.620 --> 00:14:52.460 era of the late 90s to the speed driven modern 00:14:52.460 --> 00:14:55.600 game requires a different type of leader. This 00:14:55.600 --> 00:14:58.059 list serves as a timeline of how the game has 00:14:58.059 --> 00:15:00.820 evolved tactically. It really does. You can track 00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:03.320 the shift from the old school motivators to the 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:05.899 modern tactical system guys just by looking at 00:15:05.899 --> 00:15:08.220 who the broadcasters decided to reward in any 00:15:08.220 --> 00:15:10.700 given decade. Well, we've covered a lot of ground 00:15:10.700 --> 00:15:13.200 today. We have. We've dissected Pat Burns' incredible 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:15.860 three -city run, debated the curse of the back 00:15:15.860 --> 00:15:18.399 -to -back, and really unpacked why regular season 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:21.039 dominance so rarely translates into Stanley Cup 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:23.340 rings for these coaches. It all comes back to 00:15:23.340 --> 00:15:25.360 the subjective nature of the award. You can hand 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:27.559 a coach a playbook, but you can't hand them the 00:15:27.559 --> 00:15:29.700 intuition to know when to bench a star player 00:15:29.700 --> 00:15:32.659 or when to bag skate a team or when to just back 00:15:32.659 --> 00:15:34.899 off and let the room police itself. It's an art. 00:15:35.019 --> 00:15:37.639 The Jack Adams is the league's best attempt to 00:15:37.639 --> 00:15:40.440 put a trophy on that. intangible instinct. And 00:15:40.440 --> 00:15:43.080 it leaves us with an incredibly compelling question 00:15:43.080 --> 00:15:47.039 to walk away with for you, the listener. If the 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:49.200 Jack Adams is strictly a regular season award, 00:15:49.500 --> 00:15:51.659 and we've established that the playoffs require 00:15:51.659 --> 00:15:54.259 a completely different, arguably much more difficult 00:15:54.259 --> 00:15:57.320 style of coaching, does the NHL actually have 00:15:57.320 --> 00:15:59.639 a blind spot? That is the question. I want you 00:15:59.639 --> 00:16:02.759 to think about this. Does the league need a separate 00:16:02.759 --> 00:16:06.279 postseason award specifically for coaching excellence? 00:16:07.080 --> 00:16:10.440 the way players have the consmith? Or is the 00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:13.139 Stanley Cup itself the only recognition a coach 00:16:13.139 --> 00:16:15.779 should ever need once the playoffs begin? It's 00:16:15.779 --> 00:16:18.080 a great debate, because right now, the ultimate 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:20.399 tactical masterclass of a seven -game series 00:16:20.399 --> 00:16:22.799 goes officially unrecorded in the individual 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:24.899 record books. Something to argue about during 00:16:24.899 --> 00:16:26.700 the next intermission. Thank you for joining 00:16:26.700 --> 00:16:29.179 us on this deep dive. Keep questioning the consensus, 00:16:29.460 --> 00:16:31.259 keep looking at the data behind the narratives, 00:16:31.399 --> 00:16:33.179 and we will catch you on the next deep dive.