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Coach of the Year - It's Not Barry Trotz

March 19, 2019, 10:22 AM ET [110 Comments]
James Tanner
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The Jack Adams award for best NHL coach doesn't go to the best NHL coach - it almost always goes to the coach whose team did the best in comparison to their pre-season expectations.

This year, the coach award will go to Barry Trotz.

Trotz is a good coach, he's probably one of the best, (as far as anyone can even tell), he won the Cup last year and his team is doing well this year. So no problems if he actually wins it.

But the reasoning is dumb.

Trotz will win because the Islanders lost Tavares and are now competing for a division title.

The other candidate is Rich Tocchet whose team has had the worst injuries in hockey and continues to compete for a playoff spot.

Let's just conveniently ignore that he refused to play Dylan Strome who is now a 6'4 #1 centre playing for a different team.



Or we can ignore the fact that the Coyotes improbable record comes off the back of a 14-4 run where the advanced stats say they were badly outplayed but got amazing goaltending.

Just like the Islanders.

The Islanders allow more shot-attempts than almost any other team, and their goalies combine for a .9361 save percentage.

Only ten goalies in NHL history have posted a number that high. Not teams, mind you, GOALIES. So the fact that their back-up is also playing out of his mind should tell you all you need to know about the luck they're getting.

If it was their defensive scheme leading to this then it wouldn't be true that a) save and shooting percentages fluctuate wildly for the same players year to year b) long term corsi is more predictive than any other stats, and the islanders are 4th worst.

To believe that the Islanders are a great defensive team, you have to believe that not only did Trotz - who is a 20 year veteran and has never pulled this off before - suddenly design the perfect NHL defense, he did it while losing his best player, and while allowing close to the most shot-attempts in the league.

The very idea is preposterous.

The coach of the year should go to the coach of the best team, the Tampa Bay Lightning. In a normal year, the Lightning, even as the best team, would be two or three points up on Toronto, San Jose, or Calgary.

But they are 20 points up.

So give the man his trophy and stop crediting Barry Trotz for everything that goes right in your life.

I mean, sure, he's the sex symbol of the NHL, but he's not just a piece of meat. He's a man dammit, and a fine one at that.

He's just not the coach of the year.
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