Pat Burns was what any hockey coach should be. The son of a fireman, Burns was a disciplinarian and tactician as a coach, but he was a humble, bright, beautiful person. Pat Burns was a hockey coach, but for four cities, he was OUR hockey coach. Burns was the only man to win the Jack Adams Award (for coach of the year) with three different teams. Not only did he win it, he won it in his first year in each city, in Montreal in 1988-1989, Toronto in 1992-1993 and Boston in 1997-1998. The one time he didn't win the award in his first season was in New Jersey in 2002-2003. He won the Stanley Cup instead.
The Devils franchise has never been the same since Burns had to prematurely retire after the 2003-2004 season due to colon cancer. The franchise is in disarray, having lost almost all the veterans except for Martin Brodeur. Burns was a rock, and I know that if not for the realities of life, he would have been coaching, and coaching successfully in New Jersey even today. But life is never that easy. Life is never that simple, and never that easy.
Pat Burns had to retire due to colon cancer, and after he successfully beat it, much like the 501 teams he beat in his coaching career, another opponents was lined up: liver cancer. He beat that too. Burns was a winner on and off the field. Finally, unlike his NHL coaching career, he met an opponent that was unbeatable. After being diagnosed with incurable lung cancer in 2009, Burns realized that his shift was soon to be over. Deciding to forgo treatments, Burns made the choice to live out the rest of his life in peace, and do what he did best, help people.
Pat Burns was a police officer before making the move to coaching hockey, and if ever there was a man that could patrol the streets it was him. He was outwardly serious and dour. He rarely cracked a smile while standing over the bench on the ice. On a team that had the league's strongest physical presence, Scott Stevens, Burns was arguably the most intimidating. And I loved him for it. The Devils coach was a very transient situation, with Larry Robinson being fired two years after winning a cup after being hired right before the playoffs. Burns should have been the anchor for the Devils, and he would have. His image was all over the 2002-2003 title team. That was my team, our team, because it was his team.
The one thing that Pat Burns had not accomplished in his first 12 years of coaching was being able to lift the Stanley Cup. Other than maybe football, there is no sport where winning is truly the only thing any player dreams about. Stats aren't that important in hockey. Lifting the most beautiful trophy in sports is. For Burns, it was one chance he had thirteen years earlier that haunted him. In just his first season of coaching, he had his Canadiens holding a 2 games to one lead against Calgary in the Stanley Cup Final. Three losses later, Burns' chance to hoist the cup was gone, and it would be a long time until he got another one.
The Devils in 2002-2003 were a very good team. They had the third best record in the NHL, and the second best in the Eastern Conference. Unluckily for them, they had to play the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference in the Easter Conference Finals, the Ottawa Senators. They played a game seven, in Ottawa, in about the hardest environment for any road team. To add to the odds, the Devils gave up the first goal of the game about six minutes in. Somehow, down a goal, on the road, already having squandered a 3 games to 1 lead in the series, the Devils pulled it out, winning 3-2. Burns had his shot again.
Two weeks later, after Marty Brodeur's 3rd shutout in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Devils won their third Stanley Cup in 9 years, but more importantly, a hockey lifer realized his dream. Pat Burns won the Stanley Cup. His hockey trophy case was full. If nothing else, I am so glad that Pat Burns got the chance to hold that gorgeous trophy above his head, because he deserved it as much as anyone.
Pat Burns died a week ago, and it was a death that resonated loudly in the hockey community, but it also resonated with me. I have not seen one of my sports heroes die before. Yes, there was Sean Taylor, and other football players whose lives were cut short by horrible acts of violence. This was different, this was a sport icon dying because of a disease. Pat Burns, and all other coaches and athletes alike are supposed to be the ones that can beat all comers, but cancer does not discriminate. If it can take down the toughest people on earth, and Burns was certainly one of them, it can take down anyone. Burns beat every NHL team there is, and he was strong enough to beat cancer not once, but twice. But asking for him to do it a third time was too much.
Pat Burns will be remembered as a great coach in four different cities. Toronto and Montreal are the biggest of rivals on the ice, but even they can agree that Pat Burns was an amazing head coach, and a more amazing person. The image of head coach, someone who should be stoic and poised and domineering and smart, fits perfectly with that of Pat Burns. But it was those rare moments when Burns cracked a smile, or Burns calmed the bench down that let us all know just how special this man really was.
Pat Burns Tribute
