Joel Quenneville Named Jack Adams Award Finalist
On Friday morning, the NHL announced that Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville is one of three finalists for the Jack Adams Award, which is presented “to the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.”
The other two finalists are Bruce Boudreau of the Anaheim Ducks and Paul MacLean of the Ottawa Senators.
Quenneville has won the Jack Adams once before, in 1999-2000 after leading the St. Louis Blues to the Presidents’ Trophy. The Blackhawks captured the Presidents’ Trophy this year.
No question Q belongs in the running for this award. Q deals with 8 count em, 8 regulars aged 25 and under. It doesn’t matter that those include Toews and Kane. He has kept these young players focused, motivated and on top.
As much as I love Q and think he did a great job, what MacLean has done in Ottawa is nothing short of astounding. Most of their stars go down to injury (including arguably one of the best goaltenders around), and he managed to get the kids from Binghamton to play way above their level. I think the award goes to him this year.
Congrats to Q. No matter how much I (and others) complain about some of his lineup decisions, he has done a fantastic job managing this team. To be able to keep them fresh and both physically and mentally sharp all season, avoiding any long periods of poor play, is simply outstanding.
It’s between Q and McLean IMO. Q has done a fantastic job this season, because mark my words, his job was on the line…Bowman in the offseason did very little and put the onus right on Q to fix the problems on this team with essentially the same talent…Q did, and as Mike so astutely pointed out, Q achieved all of this success this season with an incredibly young roster top to bottom…missing Hossa and Sharp for a good chunk of time…he also handled the Crawford situation brilliantly…allowing Emery to come in and settle things down without every allowing CC to lose the sense that he was the go to guy. Just a fantastic job by Q this season, especially in fighting his own desire to constantly juggle lines.