There is the coaching when your roster is strong and full, realizing the potential of the lineup that your general manager has furnished you with.
Then there’s coaching the way Paul MacLean did in Ottawa this season, with your three most important players on the shelf at any given time.
MacLean was adept at both situations, and as such, he took home the Jack Adams Trophy as the league’s top coach on Friday, as selected by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association.
“It was important that I continue to set the expectations of the team at a high level, but also be realistic,” MacLean said on a conference call after accepting the award Friday. “Not try and do things we can’t do, or play ways we can’t play. We had Jason Spezza and Erik Karlsson injured. We didn’t have those two players in Binghamton, and for us to expect players to play like them wasn’t realistic.”
Due to the lockout, the National Hockey League went without the Academy Awards-style, Las Vegas show this season. Instead, they’ll announce the winners on the NHL Network over two days, ending on Saturday.
On Friday the league announced MacLean as coach of the year, finishing ahead of second place Joel Quenneville (Chicago) and third place Bruce Boudreau (Anaheim). Montreal head coach Michel Therrien finished fourth in voting, while Toronto’s Randy Carlyle finished seventh.
Chicago’s Jonathan Toews won his first Frank J. Selke Award as the top defensive forward, edging last year’s winner Patrice Bergeron of Boston and three-time winner Pavel Datsyuk of Detroit. The Selke was voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association (PHWA).
Tampa’s Martin St. Louis won the Lady Byng Award, for sportsmanship and gentlemanly play, for the third time in the past four seasons. He finished marginally ahead of Blackhawk Patrick Kane and Islander Matt Moulson in voting by the PHWA.
Ray Shero was named General Manager of the Year, an award voted on by the 30 NHL GMs, nosing out Anaheim’s Bob Murray and Montreal’s Marc Bergevin.
The PHWA also voted Minnesota Wild goalie Josh Harding, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, as the recipient of the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. It is awarded annually to the NHL player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.”
Patrice Bergeron was awarded the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, while Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson took home the Mark Messier Leadership Award as well on Friday.
The rest of the NHL’s annual awards will be announced on Saturday afternoon, leading into Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final.
“We had over 40 games to play when we (started losing) everybody,” MacLean said on the second anniversary of his hiring by Ottawa. “We couldn’t have any excuses. We didn’t have time for it.
“I always felt that I had the abilities to coach, and to be a head coach in the NHL. I also understood there were only 30 of these opportunities and it was difficult to get one of them,” he continued. “This (award lends) credibility to all those times I thought, ‘I can do this.’ I can coach in the league. Now I’m scared to death. I’ve got to do it again.”
As for Shero, he made some courageous moves at the deadline, bringing in Jarome Iginla, Douglas Murray and Brenden Morrow, which did not pan out in the end.
“It’s experience, instinct that comes to you, as to what you should do. Or confidence,” the seven-year Penguins GM said. “It doesn’t mean you’re going to be right but you have to be decisive.
“You need to be right more than you’re wrong. ‘Cause you’re going to be wrong.”
Harding played only five regular season games after being diagnosed with MS last fall. He took a minor league conditioning assignment in April, and ended up making five playoff starts for the Wild after No. 1 goalie Niklas Backstrom was injured.
“I don’t know if I ever really wanted to quit,” Harding said. “The diagnosis, obviously it hit me hard. But right away I knew had to do something go get back at it.
“During the year I had that tough stretch, but it never crossed my mind to give up.”
