As Don Cherry announced the finalists for the Jack Adams trophy, the video board had three Family Feud-style sections that revealed the nominees. And sandwiched right between Mike Babcock and Guy Charbonneau was Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau.
While both Charbonneau's and Babcock's teams finished with the best records in their respective conferences, and both advanced past the first round of the playoffs, Boudreau can still be considered the top coach in the league.
While Babcock and Charbonneau have had full seasons with star-studded teams, Boudreau took a team of mostly average guys that was 6-14-1 and finished off 37-17-7, including winning their last 7 games to reach the playoffs. Over a full season that would have come out to 108 points for the season. That would have been better than Montreal and only second to Detroit.
The question comes down to "How do you define the best coach?" Is it a coach that keeps a great team running smoothly all season and into the playoffs? Is it a coach that returns a storied franchise to greatness? Or is it a career minor-leaguer that stepped up and turned around the fortunes of a promising team.
I'm just glad I'm not on the voting list. No man is a bad candidate, so it will be exciting to see who comes home with the hardware.
