Among the NHL's many individual postseason awards, the Jack Adams is certainly prestigious but hardly the sexiest. It ranks well below the Hart, Norris and Vezina and, if we're being honest, probably somewhere above the William M. Jennings and the Lady Byng.
So while many diehard hockey fans can tell you who was MVP or who won the scoring title every season since the '67 expansion, not many can tell you who was the coach of the year last season. Quick, who won the Jack Adams Award in 2017-18? It was Winnipeg's Paul Maurice, of course. Ha, gotcha! It was Vegas' Gerard Gallant. Just checking, but you get the point.
That's not to suggest that coaching isn't important, it's vital. Perhaps more than ever.
Did you see the Penguins' game Sunday night against the Bruins? Or how about the Penguins playoff runs in 2016 and '17. Without Mike Sullivan ("Just play!"), does anyone think Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin would have won two more Cups? Didn't think so.
Also, look no further than this season where the race for the Adams is far tighter then, say, the Art Ross. Thanks, Nikita Kucherov.
A pretty compelling argument could be made this season for the Islanders' Barry Trotz, the Canadiens' Claude Julien, the Flames' Bill Peters or the Blues' Craig Berube. What do the aforementioned all have in common?
True, Trotz and Julien both have Stanley Cup championships to their resumes. However, the single common thread is that all are leading teams that currently hold playoff spots that most aficionados -- yeah, myself included -- didn't view as playoff teams, either going into this season or even during it.
Without John Tavares and a true No. 1 goalie, the Islanders were supposed to be wretched. Instead, they have ridden the tandem of Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss and have the fifth-most points in the Eastern Conference.
• The Canadiens weren't supposed to have enough scoring and yet they are fifth in 5v5 goals.
• The Flames were supposed to be improved after a strong summer, but not many had them vying for the Pacific Division crown in Peters' first season.
• The Blues were proejcted to be a contender but got off to a 7-9-3 start that cost Mike Yeo his job.
Traditionally, the Adams has gone to a coach whose team has either overachieved or had to overcome adversity. That was the case in 2011 when Dan Byslma won the Adams -- the only Penguins coach ever to do so -- after his team put up 106 points to tie atop the Atlantic Division despite missing Crosby and Malkin to injury for large portions of the season.
Obviously, there's more to coaching than merely drawing on a whiteboard or yelling behind a bench. While baseball sabermetricians long ago pioneered WAR (what is it good for? Absolutely something), hockey's advanced metrics are still relatively in their infancy. In either sport, managers and coaches are not players. Other than wins and losses, their effectiveness is difficult -- if not impossible -- to quantify. But some are simply better than others.
That's why I asked Scotty Bowman, Bob Errey, Matt Cullen and Jack Johnson, four hockey lifers, about the difference a coach can make not only on a game, but on a season. Here, in their own words, are their answers:
SCOTTY BOWMAN
The 85-year-old is widely recognized as the greatest coach in NHL history, though he won the Adams just twice. He holds the record for regular-season (1,244) and playoff victories (223) and he's won the Stanley Cup 14 times, nine of them as a coach, including with the Penguins in 1992. And he's still sharp as a tack.
Q: What attributes do you feel make a good coach in today's game?
A: "Now your staff is so important for you because it's such a complex game, and there's so much available as a coach compared to when I started. You've got to process a lot of information on your opponent and you need help. There's just not enough hours in the day. I think it's having the right people with you that might know the league. And it depends on what type of coach you have; if you've come from another NHL team or if you've come up from the ranks. You have to know 30 other teams, there's a lot. You don't play them the same amount of time. You play your own division more, but it's a pretty time-consuming job. I personally liked to know as much as I could about the opposition and I watched a lot of different teams. So I don't know if a coach can do that right now, you know?"
Q: How has the use of video and other technology changed everything?
A: "Oh, especially the specialty teams. How are you going to stop them? How are you going to get your own power play going? Especially teams that meet a lot. I think it's just a well-rounded staff that you need. You need people that can communicate with your players, which is important. Some coaches are better motivators, some are better practice coaches, some are better on the bench. You've got to cover a lot now. It's not an easy job, so you've got to cover all the bases."
Q: Who were some of the coaches that you looked up to coming into the league in the '60s?
A: "I studied a lot of the different coaches, but Montreal and Toronto were the two teams that I kind of gravitated to because they'd won. When I was coming up, when I was starting in St. Louis, there was only six teams and that went to 12. And I had been in Montreal in amateur hockey for 10 years before that and got to know all the top juniors. The coach at the time in Montreal was Toe Blake. And the coach in Toronto was Punch Imlach. Toronto was a team that, during the '60s -- Toronto won in '62, '63, '64, '67 -- they'd won four Cups with different kinds of players, a lot of veteran players. Montreal had won in '65, '66 and then when I started in St. Louis, of course, in '67. Toe Blake and Punch Imlach, those were the guys, I'd say."
Q: What do you feel was your best coaching job either with a team or with an individual?
"I don't know. We had a young team in Montreal; it was built to last. Probably, the team that we had -- we had good teams in the last four years -- but I thought the '76-77 team that lost just eight out of the 80 and lost two more in the playoffs. That was a culmination of a team that was in the run of three great seasons. We lost 10, 11 and then 8. But that team was built because it didn't lose as much as any team up to that time."
Q: How many points do you think a coach can win for his team?
A: "I don't know how many points. I don't. There are a lot of different factors that go into winning and losing. But I think an important part of a team's performance is the practice schedule. It's not the same as it was when I started. Because of the different time off, you get stretches where you're going to have to make up for time off. You just hope that with the travel and everything else, you get enough (practice). A lot of times, the teams are playing the night before and you're playing against a team that didn't play. I don't understand why teams don't have as much (of) an input into studying the schedule. It's important now more than ever."
MATT CULLEN
The Penguins' 42-year-old center, who recently played in his 1,500th game, has played 21 seasons in the NHL and he's had nearly as many coaches (17). That list includes a who's who of hockey bench bosses: Bryan Murray, Mike Babcock, Mike Keenan, Peter Laviolette (three times), Bruce Boudreau, Maurice, Trotz and Sullivan.
Q: How many points or wins does a good coach earn a team during a season?
A: "Oh, man. That's a tough question. In an extreme case, what do you think a seven or eight-win difference? Maybe 10? Coaching is so important in our game. It's so many things. X's and O's are important and being extremely detailed, so that guys understand where guys are on the ice and where they need to be. The other side of it is managing the personalities, the egos. Keeping everyone on the same program, keeping your team from too many highs and lows during the season and keep things level over the course of the season."
Q: Mike Sullivan and Mike Babcock usually rank 1-2 in coaches today. What stands out about Sullivan?
A: "The biggest thing is the clarity of roles for guys and understanding exactly where you belong, No. 1. But everything is communicated extremely clearly and guys understand exactly what their job is, and I think he allows you to play too. It's a matter of 'here's your structure to work within from, now go be creative and play.' And it's a fun way to play."
Q: You've played for some great coaches in your career, any favorites?
A: "I've had a few, obviously, but Sully has been one of my favorites. Just the way we play. I love how we play and, obviously, we've had success. When you've finished the way we've finished, that helps a lot."
BOB ERREY
The Penguins' 54-year-old TV color analyst played 895 games in his 15-year NHL career. He holds the distinction of winning the Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh under "Badger" Bob Johnson and Bowman in 1991 and '92 and then losing in the Cup Final with Bowman while with the Red Wings in '95.
Q: How have coaches like Barry Trotz and Claude Julien been able to get the best out of what most people thought were lesser teams?
A: "It's a long season, there's ups and downs. Some of the coaches that have been through the fire before can draw back on experience. I think some of the coaching this year that you're seeing around the National Hockey League, not all the time, but it does help to be able to look back at past experience and have some perspective on it, and draw from that and not panic. Not just that part of the game, where you have to put things in perspective, but X's and O's is really big, I think. You were talking about Trotz and Julien and the job they've done, even a Mike Sullivan here now, I think at the end of the day, they realize that defense wins championships. Those guys all have a plan and that plan is to be hard to play against and frustrate. If you're not frustrating, then you're not going to be very successful."
Q: You played for Scotty Bowman in Pittsburgh and later in Detroit. Did he coach those teams differently?
A: "I think good coaches also realize, and I look at Mike Sullivan too, you hear him a lot, 'We don't want to minimize your talents.' You hear Mike talk about it on the power play. A lot of players, you have to allow them to get the most out of their game. You're not trying to stunt their talents but you're also trying to give them the perspective and the knowledge to know that there are ways to win a 3-2 hockey game, too. Scotty Bowman was great that way. He'd let his talented players do his thing but at the end of the day, he got Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov to be the best defensive players in the history of the game, too. When you talk about those two guys, that's what you think of. Not just immense talents that amassed an incredible amount of points, but guys that could shut it down and win a Selke."
Q: So, how many points is a good coach worth?
"His decisions, he has to be able to realize who his best goalie is, who's going and who's not, when is it time to change a lineup and to make adjustments in-game. Tom Barrasso always said that Scotty Bowman was one of the best bench coaches he ever saw. That ability to realize that some line needs to be tweaked. Scotty did that in-game and was able to make tweaks to recognize who was going at the right time, and so is a guy like Sully. I think it can make a difference easily of a 10-point swing during a season. Ten points one way or the other. So maybe the difference between 20 points top to bottom."
JACK JOHNSON
Before he ever put a skate on NHL ice, the Penguins defenseman lived out a childhood dream by playing at the University of Michigan under legendary coach Red Berenson, the fourth-winningest coach in NCAA D-I history. As a pro, he's played for some of the game's most demanding coaches in Marc Crawford, Darryl Sutter and John Tortorella.
Q: If a coach is only as good as his players, how have some coaches, like Trotz and Julien, gotten the most out of the Islanders and Canadiens. How much impact have they had on their teams?
A: "They definitely have an impact. They're proven winners. Just having a lot of confidence in what your coach is saying and believing in it is... I think it's crucial. I think it's the only way you can get a bunch of guys to buy in. Yeah, nobody picked (the Islanders) to do as well as they are, but when we've played against them, they do have talented players on the team. They play so well as a team. That's a tough team to play against. Both of them. They don't give you much. They've had great goaltending. That's always a common denominator behind playoff teams."
Q: So if you had to guess, if a team gets 100 points in a season, how many of those are directly because of the coach?
A: "Good question. I mean, that can count for the difference in a season really. Just getting all the guys to buy in and do it for each other. If every guy is tugging in the right direction, that's a powerful thing."