Coaches: The Best NHL Coaching Legends from Lester Patrick to Pat Burns

Raymond B. Blake is director of the Centre for Canadian Studies at Mount
Allison University and the author of Canadians at Last: Canada
Integrates Newfoundland as a Province.

Stan Fischler, the author of more than 60 books about hockey, focuses
his latest volume on 20 NHL coaching legends. In a largely descriptive
narrative, he tells their stories, sometimes quoting transcripts of
interviews with them, sometimes letting the coaches tell their own story
in their own words, and sometimes writing in the third person.

One is never sure, however, what makes the coaches featured here
“legends.” Is Emile Francis a coaching legend simply because he was
engaged in a violent confrontation with fans after he attacked a goal
judge? (Francis was a general manager of the New York Rangers at the
time and not a coach.) Is Kevin Constantine included because he was one
of the youngest coaches in the NHL? Why are Ted Sator, Darryl Sutter,
Jacques Caron, and at least nine others in the book included? Brian
Kilrea and Eddie Shore were never head coaches in the NHL. Where are
Dick Irwin, Harry Sinden, Glen Sather, and Punch Imlach, who are
generally regarded as being among the best and most successful NHL
coaches?

It is probably too early to label Jacques Lemaire and Mike Keenan
legends—as Fischler does—but even the interesting chapters on their
careers, together with those on Scotty Bowman and Al Arbour, are not
enough to recommend this book to hockey enthusiasts.