Burns winning the cup in '03
It isn't rare for someone to be passed over in the decision for Hall of Fame classes. Die hard fans of the team the player played for, or fans of the player himself for that matter, rally together against the board of inductees for an explanation.
Pat Burns enjoyed a fantastic career and a great life. He began his NHL coaching career in 1988 where he coached the Montreal Canadiens. His first season coaching, the Canadiens finished first in the division, made it to the Stanley Cup Finals AND won the Jack Adams award as the league's top coach. All this in his first year of coaching.
He coached in Montreal for the next three years, each time losing in the second round of the playoffs.
In 1992, he coached the Toronto Maple Leafs. He coached there for 4 years and showed consistency again; making the playoffs each year, getting to the third round a couple of times.
In 1997 he went to the Boston Bruins where he coached for another 4 seasons. He managed to make the playoffs in 3 of those seasons.
In 2002 he was signed by the New Jersey Devils. In that season he coached the Devils to their 3rd cup in 8 years. The next season he made the playoffs but was eliminated in the first round.
Pat Burns made the playoffs 11 times in his seasons 14 of coaching (in 1996 and in 2001 he had shortened seasons because he was fired.) In all, he had a 501-353-151-14 record. This was with 4 different teams showing how consistent he made his players throughout the course of his career.
These numbers alone (including the Stanley Cup and the 3 Jack Adams awards) should qualify for him to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
But the past 2 years he has been snubbed by the committee leaving him outside looking in. In hockey it isn't rare for a coach or an owner or GM to be placed in the Hall of Fame. As a matter of fact, the last Hall of Fame Class without a builder (aka a GM or coach) was way back in 1981. Bill Hay, Chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, at first said it was "confidential" and he couldn't give the reasoning as to why Burns wasn't elected this year. He later said "It's always been the Hockey Hall of Fame and not the NHL Hall of Fame" meaning that Pat Burns' career directly affected the NHL rather than the sport of hockey itself. But with that saying, then explain how builders have been placed in the HOF for the past 30 years!
Not only are almost all hockey fans pulling for Pat to eventually be put in the Hall of Fame, but the players are also. This year Hall of Fame Class member Joe Nieuwendyk (who played for Burns in 2003) said "He was a Hall of Famer in my mind." Fellow 2011 Class member Doug Gilmour (who played for Burns when he was with the Maple Leafs) added "With Joe and the relationship I had with Pat, we'd love to see him in there one day and we know he will be."
Pat Burns was always categorized as a tough coach to play for. If the team was doing okay and winning he was a fun guy to be around but as Scott Gomez put it in 2003 "If we ever lost a couple of games in a row, he'd be a guy we'd like to avoid."
But this type of tough-love was one of the reasons why Pat Burns was such a great coach. He made sure his team would succeed by making them hate to lose. And he did just that through his 14 years of coaching NHL hockey.
Burns had to give up coaching the Devils after the 2004 season when he was diagnosed with Colon cancer. He continued working for the Devils though as a "special assignments" coach. After a long fight, Burns beat out the cancer but only to be diagnosed with another cancer, Liver Cancer, in 2005. He was able to beat this cancer as well but the fight took him away from hockey entirely.
In 2009 he was diagnosed with a third cancer, this time in his Lungs. The prognosis wasn't good and Burns in an interview in early 2010 said "I know my life is nearing its end and I accept that." They planned to build a youth hockey arena in his home town of Stanstead, Quebec in his honour and the arena should be completed sometime this year.
Pat past away this past November. Many players, coaches, and executives went to the funeral to pay respects. I can literally list players right now but it would go on forever. Players who knew him closely, and even players who never knew him, went to the funeral. It was a sad day for hockey (I was sad that day as well being that I was a big Devil fan 2003 when they won the cup). Burns was 58 years old when he died.
people line up to enter the funeral
Now here's the controversy. You'd think that they'd put such a great coach into the Hall of Fame. But now that the person is dead, wouldn't you think a nice tribute would be to put him into the Hall of Fame as soon as possible? Wouldn't that be the right thing to do in this case.
Analysts assumed that they omitted him this year because "it'd look like they'd put him in just because he died tragically rather than because of what he contributed to the sport."
As good of a point that may be, I'd still say that it'd have been the right thing to put him in this year. I think the longer they push off not putting him in, the worse it'll look.
So the NHL missed 2 opportunities to put him into the Hall of Fame. How many more years are they going to delay to honour this great individual? Because we are ALL waiting
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