(WGR 550) – On Dec. 9 the Buffalo Sabres were in last place in the Eastern Conference, and third last place in the NHL. The Tampa Bay Lightning were one point out of first place in the Atlantic Division and actually got into first place for a long period of time after that. Lindy Ruff’s Sabres not only caught the Lightning to win the Division, but they were second in the Eastern Conference behind the Carolina Hurricanes.
Tampa Bay blew their lead because it lost three of four games to the Sabres starting in February picking up two of eight points, while the Sabres got 7-of-8 points. Despite all that, Lightning coach Jon Cooper won the Jack Adams Award on Wednesday as the NHL’s best coach over two deserving candidates in Ruff and Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Muse.
Cooper led his team to that collapse in the Atlantic allowing the Sabres to catch them and then lost in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fourth straight season. Now to be fair, the voting had already been completed by the time the playoffs started.
Ruff led his team to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years and a 30 point improvement from the season before. He them was a Game 7 overtime goal from leading them to the Eastern Conference Final. Muse led the Pens to an 18 point improvement while Cooper’s Lightning was four points better.
Ruff also helped his team play much improved defense cutting 47 goals off their goals against. In the process the Sabres scored 18 more goals.
The award is voted on by the NHL Broadcaster’s Association. Cooper is very good to the networks and those broadcasters love him for it. That includes ESPN, TNT, Sportsnet and TSN. He also is good with broadcasters around the league. In my opinion this year’s voting was nothing more than a popularity contest. There of course were other years where Cooper deserved the award and didn’t get it, but in my opinion, he shouldn’t even been in the top three this season.