TSN and Sportsnet here in Canada are all over this one, folks: Mike Keenan is on the verge of being hired by the Calgary Flames as their new head coach.
It's going to be very interesting to see how this situation plays out for the Flames. It was obvious that they needed a firmer whip hand than Jim Playfair's last season, but it's also obvious that GM Darryl Sutter has no intention of returning behind the bench.
Keenan, known as "Iron Mike" for his hard, no-nonsense approach to coaching, had his best years coaching the Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers from 1984 to 1994, culiminating in his coaching the Rangers to the 1994 Stanley Cup.
However, Keenan was unable to match that success in St. Louis, Vancouver, Boston and Florida, possibly because he was sidetracked by either management duties or battling with management.
What'll be most interesting will be how the Flames react to Keenan's methods. Some players, like Jeremy Roenick, Joe Thornton and Olli Jokinen, thrived under Keenan and have nothing but kind words to say about him. Others have struggled under his domineering ways and couldn't wait to get away from him.
Jarome Iginla, Miikka Kiprusoff and Dion Phaneuf are the three big stars on the Flames, so their response to his coaching will be watched closely. Given their temperaments they're likely to respond well to his style.
Others, like Kristian Huselius and Matthew Lombardi, might chafe under Iron Mike's rule.
One thing's for sure, Keenan won't be able to pull off that constant
goaltending change during games with "Kipper", unless Sutter brings in
a better backup for him. Kiprusoff might not take too well to getting
yanked and then re-inserted a couple of minutes later.
There's no question that Keenan is a more than capable coach, but he does come with the reputation of being difficult for general managers to work with.
That being said, however, in Darryl Sutter, he's met his match. The Flames GM is every bit as iron-willed as Keenan, and if Keenan tries to overstep his limits, Sutter will crush him.
Yet this could be a match made in heaven, of a coach and GM with the same mindset working toward similar goals, which could ultimately benefit the Flames. Sutter was an assistant coach for Keenan in Chicago, so they probably won't have any trouble working together now.
For the Flames sake, here's hoping Iron Mike's presence shakes up the Flames in a positive way.
Have owners and GMs not already seen how quickly Keenan can demolish a franchise? Most recently, look at the fleece job he did to Florida on his way out - trading Luongo to Vancouver for a bag of pucks. Granted, he won the Cup as Rangers coach, but his ego got in the way of a contract extension and he has done absolutely zero since! His ego is larger than Messier's head.
My vote is to keep Keenan as far away from the Red Mile as possible - too many UFA's coming up that will determine the next five years in Calgary and I don't see Keenan as a reason they would want to stay.
Stick with Playfair or bring in a different fresh face, not a recycled one.
Last edited by IAMCANADIAN on June 14th at 4:28 AM.
As I said in my post, let's not be too hasty. Sutter and Keenan worked together in Chicago so they know each other well. Keenan does have a reputation for being difficult to work with but with Sutter as GM he won't be able to overstep his boundary. Yes, he can still make trade suggestions to Sutter but Darryl will run things his way, not Mike's, and that's the big difference.
If almost anyone else but Sutter were GM, I'd suggest this was a bad move.With a strong GM at the helm, Keenan has to focus on coaching. It seems that when he's focussed on coaching, he does a great job, so this could work out for the Flames.
While I fully agree about Sutter being able to crush Keenan, I see the same thing happening with Keenan as it does other places in that he constantly over steps his bounds, the players grow to quickly hate him and his on ice product does not get much better than his predecessor. I have little doubt he will do little to really help the Flames and will be gone in a years time.
have to agree with 2MA on this,even if Sutter can control Mike's 2 cents I still see the players hating on him.There's always a couple that'll side with him but the vast majority will silently hate on him.
I'll admit that my eyes lit up when I saw that Keenan will coach the Flames. This is a match made in hockey heaven as far as I'm concerned. Keenan will push this team to the top and Sutter will continue his great work as GM bringing in hard-working Keenan type players. Patience is the key word here, as in how much patience will the players have with their new taskmaster and how long before Sutter punches Keenan in the face. But seriously, if any franchise was going to take another chance with Iron Mike this is the perfect fit.
Does this mean Stephane Matteau and Mike Hudson are returning to active duty for the flames.
Keenan will burn out the flames, no pun intended.
Keenan would be a good fit in SJ or Nashville( Before Basille)
These teams needed that extra push to get better.
I'm still not sold on Keenan coaching the Flames now that it is official. Keenan's harsh coaching tactics may well be suited for the right type of veterans, but what happens if this coaching change implodes and Sutter decides to rebuild? Keenan has never been one to work well with younger, up and coming players.
With Calgary's two key players - Iginla and Kiprusoff - heading toward UFA status, it doesn't make sense to add a coaching personality that rubs these guys the wrong way. One hurtful comment in the media about these two guys and Iginla and Kipper are going to have second thoughts re-signing as Flames.
I have to believe Iginla and Kipper just had second thoughts on offering Calgary a home town discount this summer or next.
Keenan's a painfully difficult individual, especially with the horns, trident and forked tongue. But he's been one of the better NHL coaches in the league, and I have no reason to believe that'll change.
The problem he had in Boston and Florida should be self-evident: the teams at the time were one-trick ponies. Vancouver and St. Louis players weren't exactly fans of his style. Looking back at my junior and youth hockey experiences, the coaches I learned the most from were the hard-####, the ball breakers, the ones who really pushed me to my breaking point.
This move will come down to the Flames' work ethic. If they work hard, Keenan will be a great fit. If they go soft, he'll make life Hell. Either way, as players they'll learn something from it.
After two decades we have a pretty good book on Keenan. A good (sometimes even great) coach but a horrible General Manager who thinks only in the immediate term. I thought the only way Mike would make it back to the NHL would be as a coach and if he had a very firm hand in the GM office to keep him in line. Long time Keenan friend Darryl Sutter fits that bill to a "T". Iron Mike has to realize that even he's nearing the end of his nine lives, and should be thanking his lucky stars for this eighth chance.
I wonder who's going to be the Keenan whipping boy and become the first one pushed under the bus and shipped out of town. Matthew Lombardi, perhaps?
In a semi-related manner, congratulations to Scott Howson on getting the Blue Jackets GM job. He's both a gentleman and a scholar, and I wish him and his new team great success in 78 of 82 games next season.
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on June 14th at 12:24 PM.
As a die hard Oiler fan, I see this as nothing but good news from Cowtown. It is just a matter of time before Keenan messes up the egos on that team. Of the core group you list, I see Phaneuf as the one less likely to take to Keenan's style due to his age. The border line players will either fit in or move along. Not a bad thing. However, I don't see his style helping the Flames reach the next level. I see this as a desparate attempt to right a lost ship.
Good coach? While I'm sure he was a key cog in the Rangers veteran laden Cup team in 1994, he has since had six losing seasons in his most recent seven seasons, some with the role of GM.
Great fit!!! Like you said, Daryl will run GM duties and do the great job he's been doing of late, while Mike will be the hard #### coach the flames really need. I'm glad he's not the gm, but remember, Daryl picked him out of everyone so there must be a reason.
The flames need someone tough to keep them in line and thats exactly what will happen.
Actually, when I look back on Keenan's numerous accomplishments, I grant him less credit for the 1994 Rangers Cup victory than perhaps he's due. You'll remember during the final the story erupted that he was negotiating with St. Louis for the GM position WHILE STILL COACHING THE RANGERS IN THE BLOOMING STANLEY CUP FINAL! If the rumours are true, Keenan lost the room at the point (which is not hard to imagine) and it was Messier among others that pulled it all back together.
If there was EVER a moment that captured both the vaulting ambition and the poor judgement of Mike Keenan, that was it.
Nevertheless, Keenan did a good job coaching quality clubs in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York. And in Boston he got pretty good performance out o####roup of underachievers.
The problem is when you make him General Manager you get a man who thinks only of today and makes horrific deals like shipping Mike Grier and Curtis Joseph off for Shayne Corson. (Okay, he signed Corson as a free agent, owed the Oilers two first round picks and swapped Cujo and Grier for the picks, but the net result was the same.)
Let's not get to hasty, guys. Mike isn't being given the power to be the GM, and that's where he usually screws with a team. He also has a reputation for messing with the heads of goalies, but I think that Kipper has acomplished enough is old enough, and is just good enough that he won't have to suffer much of that.
Keenan has always coached his teams to be hard hitting, never give up, and defensivly sound. That's what Calgary has been by definition for the past few seasons, I think that Keenan could do very well in Calgary.
hmmm what if he traded Kipper for Kesler? Wouldn't that be smart? LOLZ!
"... if Keenan tries to overstep his limits, Sutter will crush him."
What is this... wrestling?
Sutter: Obviously you've forgotten your role around here Keenan. You see, you're a coach and I'm a general manager and that makes you my *****
Keenan: Listen here son this business was built by the blood, sweat, and tears of guys just like me. If you haven't learned it yet, you're going to learn the hard way to never go up against Mike-the-ironfaced-madman. Because if you're even thinking of going up against me you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll have you out of here before Spector's hockey blog even mentions rumors of you leaving. And that's the bottom line, because Mike-the-ironfacedmadman said so.
Mike Keenan is not the next step in helping the Flames to the Stanley Cup he will move this team backwards. Sutter might as well picked a cave man out of the ice to coach thise team, Mike Keenan's yle of coaching is too old school for todays players. His players will lose respect for him he all-star game if not sooner. Today's younger players want a coach that will instill in them the power to conquer and from what I've seen of Keenan he's far from that.
I don't see how you can say that dude. Really, he and Sutter like to have their teams play the same style of games. The only knock I have on Keenan is how he's been known to play mind games with his goalies over the years. If he starts doing that #### with Kipper, or a younger guy like Pheneuph, he'll be toast in no time.
I'm not going to say anything. I'm still recoverign. Here are selections from what Mike said in Calgary:
On the Flames development:
"We got close to a job that went unfinished and hopefully we are in a position now where we can go to the same spot and finish it off and that's exactly what we're here for."
On coming to work in Calgary:
"I'm working with people that I'm familiar with, that I'm very comfortable with and very confident in. I think we have good chemistry and I feel this is a very good selection in terms of my career and at the same time I'm hoping that I can help these young players, through my experiences, learn what it takes to be a winner."
On his hard-noes reputation:
"I think if you want to scrutinize my coaching reputation, demeanor, approach and if you really want to examine it closely, I have changed and if I hadn't I wouldn't have lasted or coached in the league as long as I did. I'm certainly not the same coach as I was in 1984 as a youngster with no experience as I was in 1994 when we won the Stanley Cup with a veteran team, as I was when I coached teams that weren't quite frankly capable of succeeding."
On getting back into coaching in the NHL:
"I did not like the way I had left the game and thought about coming back in a situation that I would be a lot more comfortable with and would like to end my coaching career on different terms. I would love to stay here and end my career here. I'm at a point in my career, in terms of where I'm at professionally, and I wanted to come here because of the people working here."
After almost a week to digest the hiring of "Iron" Mike Keenan I have the following thoughts I'd like to share....
Maybe, just maybe, Mike Keenan is a smart man... Perhaps he realizes that his chances of being involved in the NHL are almost gone and that this opportunity could be his last. Maybe he thinks that if he can get this team into (or win) the finals, have a season of no controversy, get along with the players and management, show all the naysayers of the hockey world what he can do with a talented team (no offense Vancouver, Florida, Boston, but I did say TALENTED) he can parlay this chance Darryl has given him into another higher up/executive position with another team or even the NHL front office in a few years...
Maybe, just maybe, the Calgary Flames players understand that this is their last shot as a group and that a coach like Mike Keenan who has been there before can lead them where they want to go, instead of a rookie coach who in all honestly had the look of a "deer caught in the headlights" on more than one occasion when standing behind the Flames bench last season.
Maybe, just maybe, Darryl Sutter had a talk with his key players (Iginla, Kipper, Phaneuf, Regehr) before Keenan was offered the position and got their input and what their thoughts were???? Maybe they realized that Playfair was too soft on them and that they got away from being the team they were in 2004 and 2006? Maybe they realized they needed a hard*** behind the bench to push them?
Maybe, just maybe Darryl Sutter actually has a clue as to what he's doing?
screenguy76 - S
Last edited by screenguy76 on June 20th at 6:20 PM.
Screenguy's got it right. Keenan's not stupid and neither is Sutter. I don't see Keenan playing the same games he did in St. Louis, Boston, Florida, etc., because he knows that Sutter, the players and the fans won't accept it. Sutter didn't just fall out of bed one morning two weeks ago and decide to call Keenan. This move was thought through and very deliberate, and I'm sure the top players were consulted beforehand.
The Flames may not win the Cup, but I'm going on the record that they'll be a more focussed and a harder working team under Keenan. If they are, they'll go deeper into the playoffs and with a break or two who knows what will happen. Flames fans obviously want the Cup but in the end they will be happy with a team that has an identity and where the players play hard every night.
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
