The National Hockey League announced the finalists for the Jack Adams Award on Tuesday, the award given to the NHL coach that "contributed the most to his team's success," according to NHL.com and Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings, Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper and first-year Colorado Avalanche coach Patrick Roy were revealed as finalists.
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The finalists were selected after members of the NHL's Broadcasters' Association submitted ballots at the end of the regular season with the top three vote getters being named as finalists.
Each coach led his team to the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs this season but was ousted in Round 1 as the Red Wings fell to the Boston Bruins in five games, the Lightning lost to the Montreal Canadiens in four games and the Colorado Avalanche dropped a heart-breaking series to the Minnesota Wild in five games.
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Babcock is up for the award for the second time after placing third in 2007-08 and became a finalist after leading the Red Wings to a 39-28-15 (93 points) record and their 23rd straight playoff appearance, which is a record for North American sports.
Babcock navigated the Red Wings through a myriad of injuries in their first season of the Eastern Conference as star players Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg each missed 37 games to ailments. Babcock had to work with a make-shift lineup as 38 different players suited up for Detroit this season and nine rookies made their NHL debuts under his tutelage.
Cooper shined in his first season behind the bench, guiding the Lightning to a 46-27-9 record (101 points) and a second place Atlantic Division finish after the club was 28th overall in 2012-13. Cooper brought the team to the postseason for the first time since 2010-11.
Tampa Bay fell one-game shy of the franchise record for road wins with 21 and a league-high eight rookies appeared in at least 40 games under the leadership of Cooper, including Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson, who had breakout seasons.
Roy changed the entire culture of the Avalanche, leading them to a 52-22-8 (112 points) record in his first year as coach as the team finished third in the overall standings after placing 29th just a year ago.
Colorado, which didn't suffer a regulation loss when leading by two goals in the third period through the course of the entire season, matched a franchise record for wins, led the NHL in road wins (26) and ranked fourth in the league in goals (250) as Roy molded his young speedy team into a playoff contender.
Prediction: Babcock did a lot with a short-handed Red Wings team and helped keep its playoff streak alive and Cooper turned the Lightning around and surprised a lot of people, but Roy is the right choice to win the Jack Adams Award. Roy became the first coach in history to take a team from the bottom three of the standings one year to the top three the next since the league expanded to 21 teams in 1979. Roy sculpted a great season with his young team, which came out of the gate hot and didn't look back. Despite a playoff collapse in Round 1, the future is bright in Colorado partially due to Roy, who deserves to win the Jack Adams Award.
The winner of the Jack Adams Award will be announced Tuesday, June 24, during the 2014 NHL Awards from Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas.
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