- Thread starter
- #1
Mooche
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2008
- Messages
- 9,904
- Reaction score
- 247
Pat Burns, the colourful coach who led several NHL teams to some of their best seasons in memory, has died of cancer.
He was 58.
Burns is the only man to win the Adams Trophy as the NHL's top coach with three different teams.
He enjoyed instant success wherever he coached — in Montreal, in Toronto, in New Jersey and Boston.
He led the Habs to a Stanley Cup final in his first NHL season in 1989, the Maple Leafs to their best post-season run in decades in 1993 and then won a Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2003.
The New Jersey team confirmed his death today.
A plain-talking former cop, Burns posted 501 wins and 367 losses between 1988 and 2004.
The native Quebecer stopped coaching upon discovering six years ago that he had colon cancer. He conceded at a public event earlier this year that he was unlikely to live much longer.
Terrible news.
R.I.P Pat Burns -- My thoughts go out to him and his family.