Flames Coach Mike Keenan
Recent Record Suggests His Tenure in Calgary Will Be Brief
Mike Keenan may be just the guy to light a match under the Calgary Flames underachieving lineup. But, judging by his coaching record over the past dozen years, there’s every reason to believe his stint in Cowtown will be short and not particularly sweet.
When Flames GM Darryl Sutter replaced former coach Jim Playfair with Keenan, he could point to “Iron Mike’s” coaching successes to justify the move. By doing that, though, he ignored the more recent blots on Keenan’s resume.
Keenan Has Deceptively Good Career Numbers
On the face of it, Keenan’s numbers are Hall of Fame caliber. Coming into the 2007/08 season, he’s 5th on the all-time list in both games coached (1222) and wins (584) - Significant numbers over an 18-year career.
He’s also been a Coach of the Year and has taken three different teams (Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers) to the Stanley Cup finals, winning the whole enchilada once with the 1994 Rangers.
Impressive, but what’s he done lately?
Keenan has made 4 NHL stops since that glorious Cup win on Broadway. In parts of 8 seasons behind benches in St. Louis, Vancouver, Boston and Florida, Keenan has a record 21 games under .500. Worse still, his teams have won exactly 1 playoff series in that time.
Keenan Has a Tendency to Quit
Keenan’s abrasive style has always rubbed management and players the wrong way. Before the regular season even began, he criticized the Flames for having a poor work ethic.
He was shockingly dismissed from the Flyers just a year after taking the team to the finals. He resigned in both Chicago and New York after battles with the front offices.
Keenan hasn’t coached in the league since the 2003/04 season with Florida and resigned from his last NHL job as GM of the Panthers. Of course, there might have been good reason for that. His last act in Florida was to trade all-world goalie Roberto Luongo to Vancouver for disgraced heavyweight Todd Bertuzzi.
Keenan has Rocky Relationships with his Goalies
That move was simply a bad hockey decision. Of course, mishandling goalies was nothing new for Keenan.
Since his Philly days, Keenan has been particularly hard on his netminders. He is famous for indiscriminately yanking them mid-game, sometimes shuffling them multiple times.
In Calgary, this penchant for ripping goalies could prove Keenan’s undoing. The Flames, despite having top-tier talent like Jerome Iginla, Alex Tanguay, Kristian Huselius, Dion Phanuef and Robin Regehr will only go as far as their netminder, Miikka Kiprusoff, takes them.
Kiprusoff is coming into free agency. A rocky relationship with Keenan may be enough to grease the skids for him to skip town. More than likely, though, it will work out the other way around.
Today’s hockey stars don’t respond to ranting and threats like in the good old days. Guaranteed contracts and free agency give them more control of their work environment than ever before. If the Flames’ stars don’t like Keenan, he won’t last long.
But he probably wouldn’t last long anyway. If his last four NHL coaching stops are any indication, he’ll be gone within a couple of years at best. Combine his legendary abrasiveness with a track record of failure over the last 10 years and the clock’s probably already ticking on his tenure in Calgary.
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