Pat burns

at was a detective for 17 years. He is the only cop to have gone from walking the beat on street to walking behind the bech in the nhl. Burns utilizes gut hockey and on occasion he out wits the best of his rivals, he is able to change players from roles when they start to fail thus allowing his teams to continue to have much sucess.Burns coached a tough defensive style of game, but he allowed his offensive players the freedom to be creative. He can be at times too tough on his players, but look at the job he's done with the teams he's coached. They've all been top offensive and defensive teams without employing the trap.He can coach a team to win the big game and he has a cup.The knock against him was that he had not won a Stanley Cup Championship, but that changed in his first season as Devils' coach.The former Hull, Quebec police officer was a disciplinarian, but that was really good for his team. He forced them to focus on playing their game. Larry Robinson's second tenure on the Devils' backbench shows that the disciplinarian is the supperior type of coach over the laissez-faire typePats coaching career got started in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with the Hull Olympiques in 1984. Pat guided the 85 team to the Memorial Cup final, against Jacques Martin's Guelph Platters, but lost. Under Burns tutelage, he mentored future nhl players such as: Luc Robitaille, Sylvain Côté, Benoît Brunet, Cam Russel, Stéphane Matteau, Pat Brisson (the agent), and many others went on to pro careers in the minors or Europe. Burns had great success with Hull and brought to this organisation the desire to compete day in and day out. He was a workhorse, and demanded such from his players. This desire and legacy still go on in Hull (now Gatineau), where the Olympiques are the Q's most successful franchise. If not for Burns (mentored by Charlie Henry and Wayne Gretzky),this organisation wouldn't be where it is now. He went to Sherbrooke and coached there for one season before replacing Jean Perron as the new head coach with les canadiens.Burns cared for his players like a drill seargent.It doesnt mean he doesnt care about his players, but rather affection is harder to earn.He at times can be too demanding. He did do wonders for a young Felix Potivn. He realized the Doug Gilmour was having a career year in 92-93 and double shifted Killer all the way to the quarter finals.The leafs started to decline in Pats 3rd yr at the helm as coach and by the 4th season he was let go by Cliff Fletcher because the Leafs were too cup starved to make the right choice. The Leafs fired Pat 65 games into the 1995-96 season.After a year off from coaching while still collecting a pay cheque from the leafs. Pat decided to try and revive the Boston Bruins organization like he did with the Leafs.Unfortunately Pat couldnt mold a rebuilding Bruins squad into contenders so after 3 years in Beantown he was done.He took another year off. Then returned to coach the New Jersey Devils.There he found the ultimate sucess and won a cup in his first season as coach.Sadly in his second year Pat was diagnosed with cancer and stepped down as coach after a early first round playoff exit.
Five yrs later Pat is still going strong14 seasons 1019 Games 501 wins 350 losses 161 Ties 14 OTL1988-89 Montr 80 53 18 9 0 0.719 -Lost in Finals 1989-90 Montr 80 41 28 11 0 0.581 -Lost in round 2 1990-91 Montr 80 39 30 11 0 0.556 -Lost in round 2 1991-92 Montr 80 41 28 11 0 0.581 -Lost in round 2 1992-93 Leafs 84 44 29 11 0 0.589 -Lost in round 3 1993-94 Leafs 84 43 29 12 0 0.583 -Lost in round 3 1994-95 Leafs 48 21 19 8 0 0.521 -Lost in round 1 1995-96 Leafs 65 25 30 10 0 0.462 -Lost in round 1 1997-98 Bruins 82 39 30 13 0 0.555 -Lost in round 1 1998-99 Bruins 82 39 30 13 0 0.555 -Lost in round 2 1999-00 Bruins 82 24 33 19 6 0.445 -Out of Playoffs 2000-01 Bruins 8 3 4 1 0 0.438 -Out of Playoffs 2002-03 Devils 82 46 20 10 6 0.659 -Won Championship 03-04 NJ Devils 82 43 25 12 2 0.610 -Lost in round 1