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Vegas’ Robin Lehner Expected To Start In Game Four

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The Vegas Golden Knights appear to be making a change in net for Game Four of their semifinal series against the Montreal Canadiens. After dropping Games Two and Three, with starter Marc-Andre Fleury not looking sharp, all signs point toward Robin Lehner taking over tonight. Lehner was in the starter’s net at morning skate and was also the first to leave the ice, typical indications that he will be getting the nod. While head coach Peter DeBoer would not confirm his starter, several sources including The Athletic’s Jesse Granger, have done so for him.

There is some reason to believe that this is perhaps gamesmanship by the Knights and that Lehner may not start tonight. He has only played once in the playoffs – a disastrous Game One start to the West Division Final against the Colorado Avalanche – and has only played four times total in the past 50 days. In those four appearances, Lehner has allowed 18 goals and posted an .843 save percentage. Lehner only played in 19 games total in the regular season and while his numbers are strong, they tailed off toward the end of the year.

With that said, Lehner is just one year removed from a stellar season postseason that earned him a long-term extension with Vegas. After being acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks, he won all three of his regular season starts with a .940 save percentage and 1.67 GAA. He followed that up with 16 playoff starts in which he posted a .917 save percentage and 1.99 GAA. The Golden Knight’s exit from the playoffs was wholly unrelated to the play they received from Lehner. If there is any chance that he can provide that caliber of play again, especially with Fleury looking flustered at times of late and facing a pivotal Game Four, this move makes plenty of sense for Vegas. They have two No. 1 goalies, may as well use both.

Coaching Notes: Ducharme, Tocchet, Seattle, Toronto

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Following up on the positive COVID-19 test of Montreal Canadiens interim head coach Dominique Ducharme, Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston was the first to report that Ducharme will indeed miss the next two weeks as a result. Although the NHL has relaxed many rules pertaining to its COVID Protocol, a positive test still warrants a 14-day isolation period. Especially when the Canadiens were fortunate enough to not have any other positive tests among its players and staff, the league wants to maintain the health and safety of the team as well as the integrity of its semifinals. With that said, losing Ducharme is a blow for Montreal. The interim coach has led the team on an unexpectedly triumphant playoff run as the mid-season interim replacement for Claude Julien. The Habs will now lean on an interim interim head coach in assistant Luke Richardson, who coached the team to a Game Three win. Assuming Ducharme’s 14-day isolation began on Friday when the positive test was discovered, the earliest he can return to the bench would be Friday, July 2nd. Montreal’s semifinal series with the Vegas Golden Knights, if it even goes seven games, will end on Saturday, June 26th, nearly a week before Ducharme ends his isolation. Richardson and the Canadiens will need to string together a couple more semifinal wins and potentially even a Stanley Cup Final win or two if Ducharme is to coach again this season. It’s terrible luck for Ducharme, who had received both doses of his vaccination and told the media this morning that contact tracing has been unable to determine how he might have contracted the virus as he did not break any protocol.

  • Seattle Kraken GM Ron Francis keeps things notoriously close to the vest and his ongoing coaching search is no different. Other than Rick Tocchet, who has interviewed for a number of vacancies so far making his bid for Seattle’s inaugural head coach role more public, there is not much known about who else may be a finalist for the job. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Francis brought a few candidates to Seattle this week for in-person interviews, but could only confirm Tocchet as one – his third interview for the position. Friedman speculates that recently fired New York Rangers head coach David Quinn, Boston Bruins assistant Joe Sacco, and University of Wisconsin Tony Granato could be the other names in the mix. Tocchet certainly seems like the favorite at this point, but don’t be shocked if Francis ends up making a surprise hire.
  • Friedman also notes that other NHL teams are interested in Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coaches and have requested permission to speak with them. Friedman does not name any coaches in particular, but of their group of assistants former head coaches Dave Hakstol and Paul MacLean could certainly be drawing interest, as could up-and-comer Manny Malhotra. At this time, the Maple Leafs have not made any decisions on if they will allow their assistants to explore these opportunities, especially since they are likely to be lateral moves.

Dominique Ducharme Tests Positive For COVID-19

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The league has made the official announcement concerning Montreal Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme, who has tested positive for COVID-19 and is now in isolation. The press release indicates that all tests done on players have returned negative, meaning there will not be any other unforeseen absences in tonight’s game.

The full statement:

This morning, we became aware that a test administered yesterday in Las Vegas on Montreal Canadiens Head Coach Dominique Ducharme indicated a presumptive positive result for the COVID-19 virus that was confirmed on further testing today. Coach Ducharme has been partially vaccinated with his second shot administered less than two weeks ago, on June 9. Per NHL COVID Protocols, Coach Ducharme was immediately isolated from the team. All tests administered to the Players, other coaches and hockey staff from both yesterday and today have returned uniformly negative results. The Canadiens organization has, and will continue to follow, all guidelines aimed at protecting the health and safety of its Players, staff and community at large as set by the NHL, the Canadian Federal Government, the Quebec Provincial Government, and national and provincial health agencies.

While it is obviously a good thing that the Canadiens will have their full complement of players, losing their coach at this important juncture is not ideal. Ducharme will now miss the rest of the series, which is scheduled to go through June 26 if taken to seven games.

This is Ducharme’s first time as an NHL head coach in the playoffs, after taking over from Claude Julien earlier in the year. The team will turn to Luke Richardson to run the bench tonight, assisted by Alexandre Burrows and Sean Burke, according to GM Marc Bergevin. He also indicated that Ducharme is feeling well and will still be involved in preparing the game plan.

Rod Brind’Amour Wins 2020-21 Jack Adams Award

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It’s a good day for Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour.  Just hours after finalizing a new three-year contract to stay with Carolina, the NHL announced that he has won the 2021 Jack Adams Award, given to the coach of the year as voted by members of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association.  He is the first coach in Hurricanes/Whalers history to win the award and the third to be a finalist for the position.

After seven years as an assistant, Brind’Amour was promoted to head coach back in May of 2018 and he has done quite well in the three years since then.  Over that stretch, Carolina has a 120-66-20 record, good for a .631 points percentage which is the best in franchise history.  Meanwhile, their special teams this season were dominant with top-three finishes on both the power play (25.6%) and penalty kill (85.2%), another franchise first.  That helped lead them to 80 points this season, good enough for first in the Central Division and third in the league to Colorado and Vegas.

Minnesota’s Dean Evason finished second in voting while Florida’s Joel Quenneville came in just behind Evason for third.  However, Brind’Amour had nearly half of the first place votes (61/127) so the race was not particularly close.  Adam Vingan of The Athletic (Twitter link) provides the full voting results.

Carolina Hurricanes Extend Rod Brind’Amour

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The Carolina Hurricanes have locked up their head coach just a few hours before he potentially wins the Jack Adams. Rod Brind’Amour is a finalist for the award, which is given to the coach of the year in the NHL and will be announced later today. The contract will be a three-year term for Brind’Amour, keeping him off the free agent coaching market for the time being. Hurricanes GM Don Waddell released a statement:

Rod has been the driving force behind the culture change we’ve undergone here. He keeps our players motivated, demands accountability, and has our team ready to compete every night. He has truly raised the bar for our organization, and we’re thrilled to have him continue as our coach for years to come.

At the accompanying press conference, Brind’Amour confirmed that the delay in announcing the contract came down to working out deals with the rest of the coaching and training staff. A franchise icon, he explained that he would have a “hard time” being a head coach somewhere else in the league. Brind’Amour of course isn’t just a coach for the Hurricanes, he was the team’s captain during their only Stanley Cup championship in 2006 and is about as tied into the identity of the organization as one person can be.

In fact, Waddell explained that if a time comes when Brind’Amour no longer wants to be behind the bench, the organization would find a role for him somewhere else. The coach even hinted that he would want to join the front office at some point. Even as a first-time head coach, Brind’Amour’s time in Carolina is going well. Through three seasons he has a 120-66-20 record, taking the team to the playoffs each year. Should he win the Jack Adams, it would be the first time a Hurricanes coach takes home the award.

A three-year contract will keep him in Carolina for a while, a good sign for a team that has a strong core. The team hasn’t quite gotten to the point of Stanley Cup favorite, but was certainly a contender this season after finishing first in the Central Division with a 36-12-8 record. Brind’Amour’s next challenge may be replacing Dougie Hamilton, should the top-pairing blueliner not return in free agency.

New York Rangers Hire Gerard Gallant

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June 16: The Rangers have officially announced the hiring of Gallant as their next head coach. The four-year deal is worth around $3.5MM a year, according to LeBrun. That puts Gallant on the higher end of the coaching spectrum, but actually comes in quite a bit lower than the league’s highest-paid bench bosses. Quinn, Gallant’s predecessor, earns $2.4MM per season on his five-year deal.

June 14: The New York Rangers have found their new head coach. Larry Brooks of the New York Post is reporting that the Rangers have reached an agreement to hire Gerard Gallant, who had been considered the favorite to land the job for some time.

It seemed like a perfect fit from the moment the Rangers fired David Quinn, but Gallant and the team both did their due diligence. The veteran head coach interviewed elsewhere, including multiple meetings with the Columbus Blue Jackets before they decided to go with Brad Larsen, while New York spoke with several other candidates while Gallant coached Team Canada in Latvia at the World Championship. The two sides obviously decided that it was the best fit in the end, with Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweeting that it will be a four-year deal.

If he gets through that term, it will be the first time he lasts four years with a team. In each of Gallant’s head coaching stops, he has been fired in the middle of his third season with the team, most recently by the Vegas Golden Knights in 2020. Despite taking them to the Stanley Cup Final in year one and back to the playoffs in year two, the Golden Knights replaced Gallant with Pete DeBoer last season after a so-so beginning to the regular season. Since then, the 57-year-old has been waiting for the right opportunity, while also helping Canada to a gold medal in the recent international tournament.

That opportunity is in New York, where a young, talented Rangers team is ready to take the next step. The front office was gutted earlier this year when chairman James Dolan fired both president John Davidson and GM Jeff Gorton, installing Chris Drury in their place. At the time, it was clear that ownership wasn’t happy with the speed at which the rebuild was moving, meaning you can expect a few more kick-start moves this summer. One of those is Gallant, who knows how to both develop young players and get the best out of veterans at the same time.

He is responsible for the only 100+ point season in Florida Panthers history, which he achieved thanks to the performances by 20-year-old Aleksander Barkov and 43-year-old Jaromir Jagr. He managed a .601 winning percentage with the Golden Knights, despite many believing the team would be near the bottom of the standings like most expansion teams at the beginning of their existence.

He’ll now be tasked with reaching the playoffs in a tough Metropolitan Division, while also turning the likes of Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko, and Vitali Kravtsov into the difference-makers they were drafted to be.

Snapshots: Capuano, Tardif, Asselin

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With the divisional playoffs now over, the days of the North, East, West, and Central (sort of) are over. Teams are already shifting their mindsets back to the Atlantic, Metropolitan, Pacific, and the true Central, working out how best to beat out their division rivals and make the postseason next year. After taking a step forward this season, albeit against lesser competition, the Ottawa Senators are no exception. The long-time bottom-dwellers are just as cutthroat in their pursuit of success, even if that means handicapping one of their own. Joe MacDonald of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports that the Senators have blocked associate head coach Jack Capuano from interviewing for the Buffalo Sabres’ head coach vacancy. Buffalo will be Ottawa’s divisional rival once again next season and beyond and the team will not lose a valued member of their staff with inside knowledge of the organization to one of their most frequent competitors. After leading Team USA to a bronze medal and the best record in group play at the recent IIHF World Championships, Capuano’s name is back in the mix as a head coach candidate. The long-time New York Islander bench boss is still held in high regard around the league and the Sabres may not be the only team kicking his tires. Perhaps the Senators will let him go elsewhere, just not within the Atlantic Division.

  • After wrapping a strong junior career in the QMJHL, capped off by a stellar run with the Victoriaville Tigres that ended with a league title, Ben Tardif was expected to have some NHL interest. The 21-year-old forward had scored at better than a point-per-game clip in each of the past two seasons, culminating in 11 goals and 22 points in 19 games for Victoriaville en route to the President’s Cup. However, Tardif seemingly did not receive the attention he might have expected and has settled for an AHL contract. The Colorado Eagles announced that they have signed Tardif to a two-year contract. The Colorado Avalanche obviously have some stock in the move as well, hoping that Tardif can use the time to round out his game and show that his offense can translate to the pro level. If he succeeds, Tardif will find himself in a great spot as part of an Avs club that looks like it will contend for many years to come.
  • One player whose career Tardif will likely be following is Samuel Asselin. A QMJHL star himself –  a Memorial Cup champion and league-leading goal-scorer – Asselin too was surprisingly unable to land an NHL contract after his junior career ended. Like Tardif, he signed a two-year deal with the AHL’s Providence Bruins instead. Following a point-per-game, All-Star season in the ECHL last year, Asselin was a full-time member of the P-Bruins this season and showed that there is more to his game than scoring ability with a gritty, high-energy style. And other teams took notice. Mark Divver of The New England Hockey Journal writes that NHL competitors are sniffing around Asselin and time is running out for the Bruins to lock him in to an entry-level contract. The club holds the right of first refusal to match any competing offer, but only while Asselin remains under contract. Once the off-season arrives, Asselin could depart with Boston having nothing to show for two years of development.

Poll: Who Should Win The 2021 Jack Adams Award?

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All of the finalists for the major regular season awards have been announced, meaning it’s time for the NHL to start naming winners. That will begin on Monday with the King Clancy Memorial Trophy awarded to one of Kurtis Gabriel, Pekka Rinne, and P.K. Subban.

It’s hard for fans to really know the nuances of each finalist for the first three awards that will be announced next week. The King Clancy and Masterton are given to players just as much because of their off-ice interactions and leadership as their performance during the season. The Willie O’Ree, which will be awarded on Wednesday, is given to a community hero.

So let’s look ahead a few days to Thursday and the Jack Adams Award to see what the PHR community thinks should happen. Does the honor belong to Rod Brind’Amour of the Carolina Hurricanes, Dean Evason of the Minnesota Wild, or Joel Quenneville of the Florida Panthers?

The year before Brind’Amour took over behind the bench in Carolina, the Hurricanes weren’t very good. Even though they had strong performances from young players like Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen, and Jaccob Slavin, the team didn’t have the goaltending to compete in the tough Metropolitan Divison, which had five teams finish with at least 97 points. Carolina finished the year with a 36-35-11 record, missing the playoffs. Assistant Rod took over (along with several major trades to shake up the roster) and the team took off. Three years later and Brind’Amour is a Jack Adams finalist following a 36-12-8 regular season, good for third in the NHL.

Evason perhaps performed an even more impressive turnaround in Minnesota. Sure, the Wild made the playoffs six seasons in a row from 2012-2018, but the core that took them to many of those postseason appearances was either long gone or in a dramatic decline by the time he took over in 2020. He had just a taste during the 2019-20 season before COVID shut things down, but it was obviously a good move for the Wild to bring him back. A year after losing in four games to the Vancouver Canucks in the bubble qualification round, Minnesota was reborn under Evason into an exciting, must-watch hockey club. Kirill Kaprizov has a lot to do with that transformation, but so does the rookie head coach, who posted the best winning percentage in Wild history at .670 this season. Minnesota’s record of 35-16-5 tied them with Tampa Bay for eighth-best in the league, but they just were unlucky enough to run into the powerhouse Vegas Golden Knights in the first round (and pushed them to the limit to boot).

’Quenneville was lucky enough to have one of the best young cores in the league, anyone could have won those Cups with Chicago’ said many of his detractors when he signed a massive contract with the Panthers in 2019. Maybe that young Blackhawks core was lucky to have him, too. The legendary head coach had another outstanding year behind the bench, capitalizing on some savvy front office moves from Bill Zito to take the Panthers to the fourth-best record in the NHL. Incredibly, the .705 points percentage that Florida managed this season is the second-highest of Quenneville’s Hall of Fame career, only trailing the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season (which happened to end pretty well).

Of course, these weren’t the only strong head coaching performances this season. The New York Islanders’ recent playoff run would likely make Barry Trotz the favorite, but it is of course a regular season award. Mike Sullivan of the Pittsburgh Penguins navigated injuries to nearly his entire roster and had his club in a position to do some damage in the postseason. Even someone like Rick Bowness in Dallas should get some credit for managing a winning record in a year that nearly everything went wrong for the Stars (just imagine if a handful of those 14 overtime/shootout losses had gone their way).

So, PHR faithful, we ask you who you would give the Jack Adams to this season. Is it one of the finalists, or another one of the league’s head coaches? Cast your vote and make sure to explain it in the comments!

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2021 Jack Adams Finalists Announced

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The NHL continues to release the finalists for their major regular season award, this time naming the three men that are in contention for the Jack Adams Award, presented to the coach who has “contributed the most to his team’s success.” Last year’s winner was Bruce Cassidy of the Boston Bruins, but we’ll have a new name to engrave this time around.

The finalists for the 2020-21 season are Joel Quenneville of the Florida Panthers, Dean Evason of the Minnesota Wild and Rod Brind’Amour of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Quenneville, 62, certainly isn’t unfamiliar with the trophy but hasn’t held it in quite some time. The veteran NHL coach took home the award in 2000 with the St. Louis Blues and was the runner-up in 2013 with the Chicago Blackhawks. Just two finalist appearances is surprising for a man who is quickly closing in on 1,000 career wins. Quenneville sits second all-time behind only Scotty Bowman in the coaching ranks with 962 regular season wins and won the Stanley Cup three times in Chicago. He would be the Panthers’ first Jack Adams winner if he takes it home following the 37-14-5 season the team registered in 2020-21.

Evason will try to stand in his way despite having less than 82 games under his belt as an NHL head coach. The 56-year-old replaced Bruce Boudreau last season and now has a .669 winning percentage in his 68 games behind the Minnesota bench. While the addition of Kirill Kaprizov certainly helped, Evason turned the Wild into an exciting, competitive team that took the Vegas Golden Knights to seven games in the first round. Evason is only signed through next season but has quickly proven his worth as the answer in Minnesota.

Speaking of contracts, that’s all the buzz around Brind’Amour these days, even as he receives a nomination for the Jack Adams. The Hurricanes head coach isn’t signed for next season and this award is just another indication of how well he has done in his short tenure behind the Carolina bench. Since taking over in 2018, the Hurricanes have gone 120-66-20 in the regular season reached the playoffs all three years and the Conference Finals once. The 50-year-old is off to an outstanding start with his young group in Carolina and could be considered the favorite for this award.

Jared Bednar Held From Morning Skate With COVID Testing “Irregularity”

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3:30pm: After further testing, Bednar has been cleared to coach tonight according to Baugh. 

12:10pm: The Colorado Avalanche are trying to fight off elimination at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights this evening, but they may have to do it without their head coach. Jared Bednar is absent from the morning skate thanks to “irregularity in his COVID-19 test results” the team tells Peter Baugh of The Athletic.

In terms of players, everyone that took part in the last game is at the morning skate, save for J.T. Compher, who had missed previous practices are he nurses an injury. Hopefully, that means that none of the roster has been affected by the testing and there will be no one held out of tonight’s game. If Bednar’s irregularity is not resolved, the team could potentially reach out to someone like Greg Cronin, head coach of the Colorado Eagles to help assistants Ray Bennett and Nolan Pratt.

This is certainly not an ideal situation for the Avalanche, who have lost three games in a row after going up 2-0 in the series against the Golden Knights. Mark Stone was the overtime hero on Tuesday night, scoring the winner and also helping shut down the Nathan MacKinnon line. After scoring 13 points in the first six games of the playoffs, MacKinnon has been held pointless in each of the last three.

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