The Hockey Hall of Fame is welcoming six new members into it’s prestigious halls on Friday, November 14th, 2014. Join us here at Last Word On Sports as we take an in depth look every day at the new inductees. Today we are looking at the late legendary coach Pat Burns.
2014 HHOF Induction Profile: Pat Burns
Pat Burns was born on April 4th, 1952, in the town St-Henri, Montreal, Quebec. While living in St-Henri, he would walk to the Old Forum and watch the Montreal Canadiens play with his late father. He played organized hockey throughout his childhood until he was sixteen, but after quitting hockey due to his realization that an NHL career just wasn’t viable, he took another career choice: joining the Ottawa Police force, while also lying about his age. He was seventeen at the time, but was hired nonetheless.
Burns was still playing in a Junior B league, even with bad knees, but he had more interest in coaching. He started with peewee hockey in Hull, and worked his way up through the ranks.
Climbing the Ladder
As coach of the midget-level Hull Kiwanis, he met a young man he would coach later on in his NHL career by the name of Stephane Richer. Another midget team he coached all the way to local tournament, but they lost due to a widely-known Montreal native named Mario Lemieux, who was just fourteen at the time.
Burns was coaching organized hockey, attending local coaching clinics to get a better understanding of how to properly coach, and still working as a cop in Gatineau, all at the same time. It was safe to say Burns had no free time, but friends of his say that he loved every minute of it, and wouldn’t change anything.
Leading up to the 1984-85 QMJHL season, Burns was still juggling his time, but hadn’t given much thought to advancing his coaching career. That is, until he got a call from Wayne Gretzky himself.
Gretzky owned a stake in the Hull Olympiques, and had heard about Burns being a good up-and-coming coach, so he contacted Burns to offer him the job. At first, Burns declined, saying he didn’t have the time to really dedicate himself to a coaching job of that magnitude. Gretzky then called the Mayor of Gatineau and got Burns a year of absence to let him try out coaching in Major Junior.
Burns coached the Olympiques for three seasons, making the playoffs each year and winning the Championship in just his second season. During that time Burns coached some notable names that went on to be NHL’ers such as Luc Robitaille, Benoit Brunet, Sylvain Cote, and Stephane Matteau.
He then moved up to the AHL, coaching the Sherbrooke Canadiens, the Baby Habs. He coached numerous future NHL’ers on this team, including four players who went on to play in 700 plus games.
Instant NHL Success
Burns was hired by the Montreal Canadiens in 1988-89, taking the reins from Jean Perron, led them to a record of 53-18-9, and got all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, before losing to the Calgary Flames. For his efforts though, Burns was awarded the Jack Adams Award, as the coach who has contributed the most to the success of his team.
Burns coached the Habs for another three seasons, but after the 1991-92 season ended Burns and then-GM Serge Savard agreed that the two would part ways amicably, thus ending his tenure in the organization that Burns idolized growing up.
His unemployment would not last long however, as the Toronto Maple Leafs and then-GM Cliff Fletcher came calling for Burns. He immediately accepted, not caring about fans who would crucify him for going from Montreal to Toronto.
Burns replaced Tom Watt as head coach, and took over the Leafs, who had missed the playoffs two years in a row and had not been to the Conference Final in the playoffs since 1977-78. Burns changed that in his first year, getting to the Conference Final but losing to Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings.
Despite the disappointing finish to the season, he won the Jack Adams Award for the second time, marking just the second time a coach had won the award with two different teams, after Pat Quinn with the Philadelphia Flyers and the Vancouver Canucks.
Burns lasted two and a half more years with the Leafs, getting to the Conference Finals yet again in 1993-94, but in 1995-96 Burns and the Leafs struggled mightily, going 25-30-10 in 65 games, and Burns was fired in favor of Nick Beverley.
He took the 1996-97 season off to relax, but was looking for a job by the summer. This time Burns went to the Boston Bruins. He had an interview with Harry Sinden, who was the long-time GM of the Bruins at the time, and while Sinden was reluctant to hire a coach who had already previously worked with the Habs and the Leafs, Burns convinced Sinden that he was the man for the job.
Burns took over a team that was struggling to get any success in the playoffs, and had just finished in the league basement (allowing them to draft future All-Star Joe Thornton). Burns’ best season with the Bruins was his first, 1997-98, where he led them to a 39-30-13 record and won the Jack Adams Award, making him the first coach in NHL history to win the award three times on three separate teams.
Hes coached the Bruins for three seasons but when the team started off the 2000-01 season with a 3-4-1 record, Sinden pulled the plug on Burns.
Last Shot at the Cup
Burns took the next two seasons off to settle down and enjoy what he thought would be a nice retirement. Lou Lameriello had other plans. The New Jersey Devils GM met up with Burns sometime before the 2002-03 season began, and managed to convince Burns to return to the bench, this time with the Devils.
This job was different from his previous tenures though. The Devils were already contenders, having won two Cups in the past eight seasons. They weren’t a star-studded team, but had good pieces and of course had an All-Star goalie in Martin Brodeur.
Burns agreed to take the job, knowing that this was going to be his best shot at getting the Stanley Cup before he could no longer coach. He led the Devils to a 46-20-10 record, good enough for fourth overall in the NHL, before advancing to the Stanley Cup Final. Burns hadn’t been behind the bench for the Stanley Cup Final since his very first season in Montreal, and he relished this moment.
They played against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the teams would go back and forth that series, before the Devils won game seven and the Stanley Cup. It was Burns’ first ever Cup win, and the Devil’s third in nine seasons. Burns returned the next season to try and win the Cup for a second straight year, but the hockey gods didn’t feel like giving Burns that pleasure.
Gone Too Soon
At the end of the 2003-04 season, it was revealed that Pat Burns was battling colon cancer. He stepped down from the Devils, and went on to undergo radiation and chemotherapy. He beat cancer the first time, but it was later discovered it had spread to his liver. He again went through the difficult and life-threatening rounds of chemo, and came out the other side victorious, showing that Burns had been a fighter all his life.
In 2009, however, Burns announced that the cancer had spread to his lungs, and he passed away a year later, with his family at his side, at the young age of 58.
Legacy
Burns was a complex man and coach. He would roar at his players, trying to crush them and also motivate them, but he could be compassionate. He got the best out of his players, because he would accept nothing less. His police officer training is what some say made him into the strict coach he was.
He was liked and disliked throughout the league by players he coached, but he wasn’t there to be friends; He was there to lead teams to the Stanley Cup, and he was always respected.
His induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame is a no-brainer. He coached 1,019 games in the NHL, going 501-353-151-14 with a Stanley Cup and another Finals appearance – not to mention winning three Jack Adams Awards, the only man to do so. He had international success as well, including a silver medal at the IIHF World Championships.
We all wish Pat was alive to see his name be etched into the legendary walls at the Hall of Fame as a builder because of how much he has contributed to the game we all love.
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