By Kevin Canessa Jr.
Publisher of NewJersey-Devils.com
Pat Burns was first eligible for the Hockey Hall of Fame seven years ago -- in 2007. And yet somehow, he is just now getting in.
Burns died in 2010 -- and there were opportunities for the man, who won the Jack Adams Trophy three times as coach of the year -- to get in while he was alive.
In 2007.
In 2008.
In 2009.
In 2010.
And somehow, the buffoons who choose those who are granted “admission” into the Hall felt it was proper FOUR TIMES while he was still alive to say, sorry, Pat, winning a Stanley Cup and coach of the year with the Canadiens, Maple Leafs and Bruins, all while only missing the playoffs once as a coach is NOT enough to get you in.
Folks, think about this for a second.
Pat Burns is the only coach in NHL history to have won the Jack Adams three times with three teams. He won a Stanley Cup Championship his first season in New Jersey. He took the 1988-89 Canadiens to the Finals in his first year as a head coach.
And none of this mattered until seven years after his original eligibility? None of this mattered until almost four years after his death?
I know this will perhaps come across as being a homer, but the truth of the matter is, it’s an utter disgrace that it took until yesterday for Pat Burns to be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. And I feel as if there wasn’t enough outrage when he kept getting passed over in previous years.
I’ve often been asked who my favourite Devils head coach of all time is. Jacques Lemaire is in a class by himself. And because I have a personal connection to Peter DeBoer, I will always have great admiration from him. But Pat Burns, a surprise hire as it was, came in here -- took over for a team that had struggled the year before in the post-season -- and marched right to the Finals and a seven-game victory over Anaheim.
If I am starting a hypothetical team with anyone as its coach, it’s very hard for me NOT to pick Pat Burns to coach this faux team.
And it’s very hard for me, looking back over these last years, to fathom that there were a considerable number of people -- 18 idiots on a committee each year to be precise -- who for years felt Burns’ resumé wasn’t enough to get him into the Hall.
With that being said and the case, and with that kind of history, how the hell does anyone get into the Hall?
The 18-member selection committee should be ashamed it took this long (with apologies to any newcomers to the committee). Pat Burns should have been able to appreciate and enjoy this special day while he was alive. And instead, he lost his ferocious battle with cancer without ever knowing he was a hockey hall of famer.
Thanks, committee of 18. Thanks so bloody much for nothing.
Here’s hoping nothing like this ever happens again, especially to anyone who was or is a class act and just an all-around wonderful man as Pat Burns was.
And here’s hoping that somehow, he’s smiling down from the heavens when the day comes soon where he enters the Hall he should have been elected to long, long ago.
