Candidates for election as Honoured Members in the builder category shall be chosen on the basis of (i) their coaching, managerial or executive ability, where applicable, or otherwise any significant off-ice skill or role, (ii) their sportsmanship and character and (iii) their contribution to their organization or organizations and to the game of hockey in general.
This week’s candidate is the one that initiates most of the debate surrounding the Hockey Hall of Fame over the last few years. There has been a strong push for the late Cup winning and three time NHL Coach of the Year Pat Burns to get into the Hockey Hall of Fame, however once news came out of his deteriorating health the spotlight fell on the Hall of Fame Selection Committee with fans demanding that he be elected before he passed away. That didn’t happen but every June when the Committee meets Burns’ name comes up in the media as to whether this is the year for him.
So let’s talk about it.
Patrick John Joseph “Pat” Burns started his path to being a star NHL coach while he was still a member of the Gatineau Police force in Quebec. Hired originally as a scout by Marcel Pronovost for the Hull Olympiques, he was quickly promoted to being an assistant coach and in the 1984-85 season was named head coach and GM of the Olympiques, all while also maintaining his job at the police force.
When Wayne Gretzky bought the Olympiques in 1985, however, he convinced both Burns and the Gatineau Police force to give him a sabbatical from his job on the force in order to put his full focus on the team. In that season the club would finish first in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) and made it all the way to the Memorial Cup Final before losing to the Guelph Platers of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). The next season the Gatineau Police Department told Burns he had to decide whether he wanted to be a cop or a hockey coach in the end he chose hockey thus ending his 15 year career as a police officer. That season did not turn out as well as his first, however, as the Olympiques were knocked out in the first round after making the playoffs with a losing record (26-39-5).
That offseason, however, Burns’ work got him an offer from the Montreal Canadiens to be the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Sherbrooke Canadiens. After consulting Gretzky, who always seemed to think Burns would eventually be an NHL coach, he accepted the job. When the Montreal Canadiens fell to the Boston Bruins in the 2nd round of the 1988 Stanley Cup Playoffs which was deemed unacceptable by the brass in Montreal, head coach Jean Perron was fired and Burns was promoted to his first NHL head coaching job.
Though slightly star struck, Burns had an immediate impact with the Canadiens.
“Six years before, I had bought scalper’s tickets to watch the Canadiens play at the Forum,” Burns said at the time. “I sat in the blues and watched Bob Gainey, Larry Robinson, Bobby Smith and Mats Naslund. Six years later, I’m behind the bench!”
Pat Burns at the Montreal Forum
With Burns’ systems in play, the Canadiens would go on to finish first in their division with 115 points while also giving up the fewest goals with 218 all season. The Habs would also go all the way to the 1989 Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Calgary Flames who won their only Stanley Cup in what in the last quarter century is still the last all Canadian final. For his efforts Burns received his first of three Jack Adams Trophies as the NHL’s top coach.
The Habs made the playoffs in each of his four years with the Habs the club made the playoffs but after losing to Calgary in the 1989 Finals they were eliminated by the Boston Bruins in each of the next three seasons. The pressure of not getting over the hump resulting in Burns having a combatant relationship with the media and fans in Montreal and after the and after the 1991-92 season he quit without giving the Montreal media a chance to interview him for a “good bye” press conference on his way out.
Jumping from the frying pan and into the fire, Pat Burns moved on to coach the Canadiens’ oldest and bitterest rival, the Toronto Maple Leafs, in the 1992-93 season. The Leafs had acquired Doug Gilmour a couple of years earlier from the Calgary Flames and the “Silver Fox” (Cliff Fletcher) could do no wrong as GM in Toronto. The team was on the way up when Burns took over and it showed right from the start where the Leafs would set an NHL record with 10 wins to start the season (later equalled by the Buffalo Sabres in 2006-07). The Leafs would also get the closest they have been to the Stanley Cup Final since 1967 that year before losing to Burns’ former boss, Wayne Gretzky, and the Los Angeles Kings in 7 games of the Conference Final. (Ironically had the Leafs gotten past the Kings they would have met the eventual Cup winning Canadiens in the Final.) Although the Leafs missed making the Final, Burns’ efforts that season leading the Leafs to what was the best season in their history at the time, brought him his second Jack Adams Trophy.
Under Burns the Leafs would again reach the Conference Finals in 1994 only to lose to the Vancouver Canucks in 5 games. After that the Leafs window for winning began to close. During the shortened 1995 season the Leafs finished 4th in their division losing in the first round to the Chicago Black Hawks in 7 games. When it became apparent during the 1995-96 season that the Maple Leafs were going to miss the playoffs, Burns was summarily relieved of his duties after 65 games with Nick Beverley taking over on an interim basis.
After a long road, Burns wins Hockey’s top prize
After taking a year off, Burns would find his way behind the bench of his nemesis in Montreal by taking the reins of the Boston Bruins which had finished the 1996-97 season a league worst 26-47-9 but also winning the NHL Draft Lottery and drafting Joe Thornton 1st overall. While Thornton was not ready to be a dominant presence in the NHL as yet, the Bruins under Burns managed a dramatic improvement in the 1997-98 campaign going from worst to 2nd in their division but would lose to the eventual Stanley Cup Finalist Washington Capitals in the first round in six games. Due to the dramatic turn around that Burns was able to orchestrate, he won his unprecedented third Jack Adams Trophy with a third different team.
In 1999 Boston would lose out in the second round to the Buffalo, another eventual Stanley Cup Finalist and the next year they would miss the playoffs completely. After an average start in the 2001 season, the Bruins removed him 8 games into the season replacing him with Mike Keenan.
After another year without hockey, Pat Burns would eventually take the reins of the New Jersey Devils for the 2003 season leading the team to a 46-20-10 record. In the playoffs, the Devils would took out Boston and Tampa Bay with relative ease, while going to the limit to beat the Ottawa Senators in seven games in the Conference Finals. In the Stanley Cup Final the Devils took on the J.S. Guigere and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks (yes they were still “Mighty” back then) winning a hard fought seven game series in which New Jersey giving Burns his first and only Stanley Cup.
Burns would coach one more year with the Devils prior to the 2005 lockout with the club finishing second in their division before the Philadelphia Flyers knocked them out in the first round in five games. After that season, Pat Burns, who had survived colon cancer during his Stanley Cup run, was diagnosed with liver cancer. This caused him to step down as head coach of the New Jersey Devils. In 2009, he was diagnosed with another cancer which would prove to be incurable and on November 19, 2010 he succumbed to the illness passing away at the age of 58.
Cancer’s devastating effect is shown at one of Burns’ last public appearances
Now we are back to where we started.
During his final illness there was a petition going around trying to get Pat Burns into the Hockey Hall of Fame before he passed away. The petition, while getting many many signatures, ended up failing as the year in question (2010) ended up having a class of Dino Ciccarelli, Cammi Granato, Angela James, Jim Devellano, and Daryl “Doc” Seaman.
I understand the fans’ view point as Burns’ credentials essentially screams Hall of Fame material. He won his Cup with the New Jersey Devils and he’s the only coach to win three Jack Adams Trophies, never mind the fact that it was with three different teams. He also collected 501 wins in 1019 games coached.
The thing is, however, is that inducting builders in the Hall of Fames is a lot more complicated than inducting players. With builders and officials, most of the time there can only be one of each inducted in any given year. The only way two builders are inducted is if there is no official nominated by the Selection Committee. The same goes with officials, the only way there can be two inducted is if there is no builder nominated.
Most of the time there can only be one each and to elect that person must garner 75% of the vote. What we’ve seen in the last four years is in 2010 we had Jimmy Devellano and Doc Seaman, no builder elected in 2011 or 2012, and Fred Shero getting put in the Hall of Fame in 2013. In regards to Jimmy Devellano and Doc Seaman, Devellano had been the architect of the Detroit Red Wings since 1983 and set the foundation of the team that refuses to miss the playoffs. Doc Seaman, the former owner of the Calgary Flames, was in a similar situation as Pat Burns passing away in 2009 at the age of 86. His many contributions to the game in the Alberta area and across Canada had to be recognized as well.
The two years in which no builder was voted in likely means the vote was split. We know that Fred Shero was elected in 2013, which likely means the split was between him and someone else. Fred Shero was another builder who was long overdue having coached hockey for the last time 23 years earlier in 1980 and passing away in 1990. His contributions to the game of hockey were quite different than Burns’ as they were more revolutionary as opposed to the results oriented argument for Burns. Shero had the results as well, winning two Stanley Cups and leading the first expansion team to ever win the Cup in the modern era. As the Selection Committee has the task of doing a very subjective job, they chose to go with Shero’s credentials last year.
This brings us to the present. Everything I’ve read, whether it be bloggers, journalists, or members of the Hockey world, have all said that Pat Burns is a Hall of Famer. Whether it be from Lou Lamoriello who said “It’s the resumé from top to bottom of a Pat Burns that gives him the criteria to be considered”, or Bob McKenzie’s outrage that Burns wasn’t selected in 2010 (which you can view
here) I have not seen a single argument saying that he is not Hall of Fame worthy. So one would think, if the timing is right, we should be celebrating Pat Burns’ career in the near future. So really, it’s just a matter of time.
Let me know who you guys think should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame by either commenting on this blog, following me on Twitter @Kirshenblatt, or emailing me at
[email protected]
Join the Discussion:
»