Blackhawks vs. Lightning Stanley Cup Preview: Who has the better coach?
Leading up to Wednesday’s Game 1, Puck Daddy is previewing every facet of the Stanley Cup Final between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Tampa Bay Lightning — on the ice and off the ice.
CHICAGO
The Chicago Blackhawks have not missed the playoffs since Joel Quenneville took over for Denis Savard in 2008-2009. Since then, they’ve won two Stanley Cups and could have won three if it weren’t for those meddling Kings.
Quenneville is really lucky. He has a team that’s remained relatively intact over the years and can pretty much coach itself, if needed. Where Coach Q draws criticism is in his decisions of who to put in the lineup and how to manage the ice time of certain players.
Though it does appear Q has settled on a forward core. He did have a momentary brain fart during the series against Anaheim where he took out Teuvo Teravainen and Antoine Vermette. It was clear that was the wrong move and the players were reinserted into the lineup for the following game.
Another area of concern is Q’s decision to basically go with four defenseman. He’s lucky that Duncan Keith is super human and can play astronomical minutes per game. When coach does decide to let the bottom two guys (Kimmo Timonen and friend) take the ice, it’s ugly. Really, really ugly, and they’re relegated to at most eight minutes TOI per game. Q is lucky fatigue hasn’t struck his defense, or at least, hasn’t hit them yet.
TAMPA BAY
Jon Cooper has won nearly every level he’s coached at.
In 2009-10, Cooper captured a championship with the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL. Two seasons later, he won the Calder Cup with the Norfolk Admirals, the AHL affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The team Cooper led in Norfolk was record setting, winning 28 straight of its final regular season games. They followed it up with a 15-3 record on their way to the championship. On his roster were now-familiar names like Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn, and Ondrej Pavalec.
Cooper was promoted to head coach of the big team after Guy Boucher was fired mid-season the next year. The team missed the playoffs, but would go on to place third in the Eastern Conference in Cooper’s first full season behind the bench. Without Ben Bishop in net due to injury, Tampa Bay was quickly swept out of the playoffs by Montreal.
And that leads up to where we are now. Once again, the Lightning placed third overall in the East. After a somewhat bumpy 20 games, Cooper and much of his roster are at the big dance for the first time.
Cooper, an actual lawyer, just exudes cool. He uses words like ‘asinine’ when answering dumb questions about not starting Bishop in the playoffs. Does that really matter in the grand scheme of things? Not really.
Sure the nerves are going to be there, but he’s probably not going to show it.
Advantage: Tampa Bay.
Curve ball, eh? Cooper is one of the best and most under-rated coaches in the NHL. He’s methodical and trusts his team. He makes big changes only when he feels the team really, really needs it. Quenneville will do what he wants, when he wants, good or bad.
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Jen Neale is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter! Follow @MsJenNeale_PD.
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