Opinion | The Jack Adams curse is nothing Sheldon Keefe and Jim Montgomery couldn’t handle

The Jack Adams Award, given to the NHL’s coach of the year, is a quirky honour. For starters, it might be the NHL trophy most in need of being renamed — and the sooner they get Scotty Bowman’s name on it, the better.

While most of the top awards are voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association, the league’s broadcasters pick the top coach. Looking back over the list of winners, it tells a tale more of resilience and the fickleness of NHL owners than of excellence.

Check out the past decade. Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour, the 2020-21 winner, stands out because he’s only coached one team and hasn’t been fired. The other nine have been at some point, including last year’s winner, Calgary’s Darryl Sutter, who won two Stanley Cups in Los Angeles and still lost his job.

Paul MacLean won in 2012-13 and never got another NHL head coaching gig. Ditto for Patrick Roy, the next year’s winner. Win the Hart Trophy or the Norris and it might be a step toward induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame; win the Jack Adams and it’s like being visited by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come — congratulations, and here’s the tombstone detailing when you’re going to be blamed for everything and fired.

So, to say Jim Montgomery of the Boston Bruins and Sheldon Keefe of the Maple Leafs are currently the top candidates is both a compliment and, probably, a warning. Then again, given that both have woven personal stories of redemption into their coaching careers, they are already well aware that today’s hero can quickly become tomorrow’s outcast and vice versa.

The Bruins are atop both the Atlantic Division, hockey’s toughest, and the Eastern Conference, hockey’s best. Most of the very good teams are in the east, and most of the very bad ones are in the west. The fact that Montgomery has Boston winning at a 138-point pace tells you the surprising decision last summer by Don Sweeney and Cam Neely to replace Bruce Cassidy (the 2019-20 Jack Adams winner, by the way) might have been the right one.

Montgomery, 53, ruined his previous head coaching opportunity in Dallas while losing a battle with alcoholism. He was fired in December 2019. Returning with a strong Bruins team while delivering a message on the dangers of alcohol abuse has made him one of the most compelling figures of this NHL season.

It will be difficult for the Bruins to maintain this pace, but if they do, not only will Montgomery win the Jack Adams but David Pastrnak will take the Hart, Hampus Lindholm the Norris and Patrice Bergeron all the other individual trophies that matter.

That Keefe, the NHL’s youngest head coach at 42, is even in this conversation tells you what a good job he’s done. Boston has lost only four games in regulation all season, while the Leafs lost four of their first 10. More than a few voices called for a coaching change after that mediocre 4-4-2 start. The seeming availability of Barry Trotz became a connection many were eager to make.

Since then, however, the Leafs are an excellent 17-3-4 (.792) and nobody’s talking about bringing in Trotz anymore. But this is about more than just wins and losses.

The Leafs have dressed four goalies, and at one point co-starters Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov were both out with injuries. On the blue line, they have already used 12 defencemen. Only Justin Holl and Mark Giordano have played all the games, and the team’s best, Morgan Rielly, has been out since Nov. 21 because of injury.

Despite all that, Keefe has coaxed the Leafs into a superior defensive squad, now second to Boston after ranking 19th last season. There are many reasons, improved puckstopping being one. But getting star forwards Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner to become committed, sturdy defensive players has been a crucial part of the process. Part of that is player maturation, but part of it has to be credited to coaching.

Like Montgomery, Keefe’s hockey journey once seemed headed for the rocks. As a young player, he was closely affiliated with controversial agent David Frost, an association that motivated Keefe, like some others, to become somewhat of an outlaw. Refusing to shake the hand of OHL boss David Branch after leading the Barrie Colts to the 2000 OHL championship was just the tip of that proverbial iceberg.

When it all went bad — Keefe’s NHL playing career ended after a few abbreviated seasons — it seemed that might be all we would ever hear of him, unless he got in even bigger trouble. One of the other members of Frost’s cabal, Mike Danton, ended up in jail.

But Keefe chose another path. He started to rebuild his life and began a coaching career in Pembroke, Ont. that over time has taken him to the NHL. He’s now in his fourth season with the Leafs, with one of the best regular-season records of any Toronto coach in history. His playing career lasted 125 NHL games; as an NHL bench boss, he’s already coached 238 regular-season and playoff matches.

We’re only at Christmas and much could still change. Lindy Ruff’s done a great job in New Jersey, Dave Hakstol has helped Seattle become competitive and Brind’Amour really is the face of the Hurricanes. But Montgomery and Keefe have stood out this season. Both needed some serious personal grit just to get to here.

Damien Cox is a former Star sports reporter who is a current freelance contributing columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @DamoSpin

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