A Life Lived
Pat Burns lived, Pat Burns died.
If that was all I wrote, who would care. I obviously care, or I wouldn’t write this blog.This is a blog about the Man. It’s also about my perspective on him as well.
I hope you enjoy what you read.
Pat Burns was born on April 4, 1952. He passed away on November 19 2010. In his life he was many things, a street cop in Gatineau, a husband, a father & a grandfather. A legend to some; an Icon in Leafs Nation.
For the majority of us who did not know him personally he was a former NHL coach. Statistically speaking he coached over 1000 games in the NHL and won over 500 of them.
He is the only coach in NHL history with 3 Jack Adams trophies, amazing when you consider that he won coach of the year with 3 different teams, Montreal, Toronto & Boston. Ironic that those are 3 of the most storied franchise in NHL history, and part of the original 6. To this day, I’m still trying to understand how he didn’t with Coach of the Year when the Devils won the Stanley Cup
It all started though with a bold move that few saw coming
Former Olympiques general manager Charlie Henry said he wanted to make a bold move when he hired Burns to coach his team in 1984. The Olympiques then had a poor reputation and losing record. There was a sour atmosphere around the team.
When Wayne Gretzky bought the team, said Henry, it was time to make a statement about the team heading in a new direction. And Burns was the perfect man to lead the change. After spending two years as an assistant coach with the Olympiques, Burns was hired as their head coach in 1984.
The bottom-dwelling team promptly shot up the standings, especially after Burns and scout René Young began to accumulate hard-working players, the type Burns liked best.
Seven Hull players were named to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Lebel Division all-star team in 1984, and the Olympiques rose in the standings to finish second. The next season, 1985-86, they finished first and earned a trip to the Memorial Cup.
But a brutal tournament schedule did the Olympiques in. The final game took place at 11 a.m., just 121/2 hours after Hull beat the Portland Winter Hawks 9-3. The Guelph Platers (coach by former Senators bench boss Jacques Martin) won the final 6-2 on four days’ rest.
“We worked hard all season, gave it everything we had right to the end,” captain Rick Hayward said afterward. Senators goalie coach Rick Wamsley, who played for Burns at the end of his career and then coached with him in Toronto, described Burns as the ultimate competitor.
“He had a real simple approach to the game: If you were playing well, you played; if you were not playing well, you didn’t play much, if at all,” Wamsley said. “It was always black and white, no grey, with Pat.” As a coach, Wamsley said, Burns was big on repetition.
“I think we did only 18 drills in four years in Toronto. He brought enough structure to his team, but allowed the players to play. He expected effort and if he got it, the team generally performed well.” Wamsley conceded, however, that Burns was not a coach the players liked.
“I think you have to define ‘like,’” he said. “I think he wasn’t liked every day, I think that’s fair to say.” But when he took an over-achieving Leafs team to within one win of the Stanley Cup final in 1993, the players knew a lot of their success had to do with Burns’s coaching.
Ottawa assistant general manager Tim Murray said the NHL needs more “guys like Pat … guys who tell the truth and don’t beat around the bush. That’s the type of the guy he was. He didn’t play politics and he succeeded because of abilities as a coach.”
He eventually made his way to Montreal and had a very good run there. He then headed to the Leafs, then Boston , then to New Jersey where he won his only Stanley Cup in 2002-2003. He coached from 1988 to his final season in 2003-2004.
In his entire tenure as an NHL coach, his teams never missed the playoffs EVER.
When he took over the hapless blue & white in 1992 he revitalized the Leafs. In his first season as coach they accumulated 99 points, a massive improvement from seasons past.
Pat Burns always said his best days as coach; the ones he remembered with most fondness; were in Toronto. He never quite got over that firing – disappearing in his truck in the middle of the night, leaving a message to the players on the dressing room blackboard.
I never really got over it either. He was my favourite coach of all time, with John Brophy being a close second (google his AHL career) & that other Irish coach, Pat Quinn. Pat Burns will always be the Coach to me.
Considering he coached for as long as he did; give credit where credit is due.
I don’t believe the Toronto Maple Leafs will ever have another coach who will leave his mark on the team, the fans, and the city the way Pat Burns did. Unless of course Wendel or Dougie is the coach, then it might happen. 281 regular season games. Two magical seasons, a disappointing lock-out shortened campaign, followed by his dismissal as his sputtering team was hitting the stretch run. But two immaculate playoff journeys. Ones we’ll never forget. Ones synonymous with success, and ones that defined Burns’s time in Toronto.
Burns was a blue collar guy. The type of guy Toronto falls in love with, three times over. When you think of Pat Burns, you think of Doug Gilmour, Wendel Clark, and Dave Andreychuk. You think of Bob Rouse, Sylvain Lefebvre, Jamie Macoun, and Todd Gill. You think of heart. You think of “The Passion Returns.” And return it did, with Burns playing an influential part.
Certain moments with Path Burns have stuck with me, all these years later: Burns’s return to Montreal. Having come to Toronto via the hated Canadiens, it was no secret he wanted to stick it to his former team. He wanted that game, bad. Everyone knew it. And his players went out and won it for him. I even remember the score: 5-4 Toronto, with the Leafs holding on for the road victory. The craziest thing was the Leafs were down 4-0 at one point. At the end, there was Burns on the bench, swinging his arm around, in what might have been an early interpretation of the fist pump. Pat Burns was ahead of his time.
Another bittersweet memory for me was Pat Burns leaving the Toronto bench in the playoffs against Los Angeles, I believe he wanted to break the neck of Barry Melrose. Melrose totally had it coming. I believe that Melrose ordered the hit on Dougie, I won’t ever change that opinion. Passion existed that night; there was fire in the eyes of Pat Burns.
Who can forget game seven against the Kings, when it was over and the teams had shaken hands, there was Burns at the Maple Leafs bench, applauding his players as they left the ice for the final time. Twenty-one grueling playoff games. Three game sevens. A coach proud in defeat. I’ll never forget the ass-tap Burns gave Gilmour as #93 stepped off the ice, ending a season the likes of which we’ll never see again.
I’m not a fan of the New Jersey Devils, but I’m glad Pat Burns won the Stanley Cup. He deserved it. I remember reading a few years back that you won’t find a picture of his Devils championship team on his mantle. Instead, you’ll find the photograph of the 1992/1993 Leafs. As Burns put it, that team was “special.”
That is one reason why Pat Burns is a hero to me.
Until the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup in my lifetime – and I’m beginning to realize this may never, ever happen – every man who comes to coach the blue and white will be compared to Burns. When he was back there, it was the closest the Leafs have ever comet o being a Cup winner, ahhh the bittersweet memories of 1993, and all you Leafs fans know my pain.
Just like no one can ever replace Cito Gaston at the Blue Jays until they win more than 2 World Series, which I may never see again in my lifetime.
In 2004 everything changes, Pat Burns survived colon cancer in 2004 and liver cancer in 2005, however; he retired from coaching after the second diagnosis. In 2009, Burns acknowledged he had been diagnosed with cancer for a third time, this time lung cancer. The cancer was incurable and he decided to forgo further treatment.
During an April 2010 interview Burns stated “I know my life is nearing its end and I accept that.
Pat Burns overcame many obstacles to get to the top of the mountain. He beat everything in regards to the odds. He beat cancer twice, however Cancer had to come back a third time before it could be said that Pat could be beaten. It took 3 different types of Cancer & 7 years to do it. Any one person that can do that is a hero to me. A lesser person would have submitted much sooner.
“As your life gets closer to the end, you realize that your body gets weaker, your mind gets working hard, but your heart gets softer. As you get closer to family, you get closer to God, there are things you realize along the way and all the great people you’ve worked with,” he told friends and a community that, in his heart, he never really left.
It seemed only fitting that just a day after he passed that his beloved Toronto Maple Leafs would play against the first team he ever coached; the Montreal Canadians.
The tribute of course brought tears to my eyes, thank you CBC & HNIC.
In the minds of many Leafs & Habs fans he never really left,
In my mind, I’ll always have my memories of Pat Burns…
“Have the courage to live. Anyone can die.”
Pat Burns lived & Pat Burns died.
We will always remember Pat Burns, he died like he lived, just like his 93 Leafs,
He did it with passion.
Oakley
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