Jack Adams Award preview - 06-21-10
We'll be previewing the seven NHL awards which count over the next three days. (Sorry Lady Byng fans.) This morning, we'll preview the Jack Adams Award which goes to the NHL's top coach.
Joe Sacco - Colorado Avalanche (43-30-9, 95 points)
Dave Tippett - Phoenix Coyotes (50-25-7, 107 points)
Barry Trotz - Nashville Predators (47-29-6, 100 points)
Who we would vote for: Tippett. He stepped into a rotten situation on and off the ice in the wake of Wayne Gretzky's disastrous run as the Coyotes' coach. And despite the fact he wasn't named head coach until halfway through training camp, Tippett provided the team some much needed structure. In the process, he turned a squad with out much offensive punch into a legit playoff team which gave the Sharks a run for the top spot in the Western Conference.
Who will win: Tippet. Sacco turned the Avalanche around after it was a lottery draft pick team the previous season and Trotz, as he seems to do every season, pushed a Predators team somewhat meager on talent into the playoffs, but Tippett had to contend with tons of potentially debilitating issues on and off the ice.
(Photos: Sacco-Doug Pensinger/Getty Images; Tippett-/Paul Connors/Associated Press; Trotz-John Russell/Getty Images)