This year, three members of the Black&Gold will be heading to Las Vegas in June for the 2009 NHL Award Ceremony. Coach Claude Julien, Cpt. Zdeno Chara and goalie Tim Thomas are all up for their perspective awards and we're going to go over exactly who their competition is and how they stack up. First up is Julien:
Claude Julien (Jack Adams Award)
Julien is up against San Jose's Todd McLellan and St. Louis's Andy Murray. The Jack Adams Award goes to the coach who "has contributed the most to his team's success," though the candidates are not usually chosen for their team's statistics or standings within the League.
McLellan led his team to their first President's Trophy this year, clinching the #1 spot in the League, followed closely by Boston. McLellan, a rookie coach, helped his San Jose Sharks become of the best teams in the League, losing only a handful of games as they became a Stanley Cup favorite. However, San Jose lost in a huge upset to the Anaheim Ducks (a previous Cup winner) in the first round of the playoffs, something I'm sure no one, especially McLellan, saw coming. He helped shaped all aspects of the Sharks' game, including making their defense a practical stonewall against offensive minded teams like Detroit and Vancouver. San Jose basically shut down offensive attacks from every team and with top goalie Nabokov at their head, they had all the markings of a dominant NHL franchise. McLellan, who worked with the Detroit Red Wings as an assistant has helped his team take the NHL by storm. San Jose broke the record for best first 30 games out of the start of the season, beating the 1929-1930 Boston Bruins, with a 25-3-2 record, with a 20-0-2 record for their first twenty two game at home. If McLellan wins this award, he will be the second rookie in history to win it, after Bruce Broudeau from Washington in 2007-2008.
Murray: At the beginning of the season, it didn't look as if St. Louis was going to be a possible contender for the Stanley Cup. That is, until Murray helped his team to have one of the greatest comebacks in NHL history jumping from #15 in the Western Conference to #6, landing themselves a playoff spot, something they haven't had since the 2003-2004 season. They finished their last 41 games with a 25-9-7 record, which is a League best for the second half of the season. These stats are great by themselves, but considering St. Louis was without Paul Kariya, Eric Brewer and Erik Johnson (three of their best players), who were all out with long-term injuries, this story makes it to the record books. This is the first time Murray has been a fanist for the Jack Adams award as well, as well as being the sixth coach in Blues' history to reach 100 wins (which he got with a 3-1 victory over Columbus in April).
All coaches are great contenders, though Julien and McLellan are favored to win. Julien is favored because he's shaped Boston to be the team it is today (minus last night's game); McLellan is favored for what he's done with San Jose. He's helped shaped the Boston Bruins into a fierce contender, practically erasing the damage former coach Dave Lewis did to the team. He's helped lead the team to one of their best records since the time of Esposito and he's brought the grit back to Boston. He's helped sustain the team's offensive lines, as well as strengthen their defensive lines and power play.
The Jack Adams Award is given annually to a top coach and was started in 1974 in order to honor the late Jack Adams, former Detroit Red Wings coach who led his team to three Stanley Cups during his career.
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