Sad news to report as the Hockey fraternity Has Lost two more members this day, including its most decorated coach ever. Former player, legendary coach, and the chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Pat Quinn, died at age 71. Quinn, who began his coaching career as an assistant coach under Hall of Famer Fred Shero in 1977, passed Sunday night at Vancouver General hospital according to a statement from Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants. He was the fourth all-time winningest coach in the NHL. Born January 29, 1943 in Hamilton, Ontario, Quinn was a defenseman who played 606 NHL games as a player for nine seasons playing for the Atlanta Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks, but was better known as a coach for 20 years. Quinn coached for several NHL teams, reaching the Stanley Cup Finals with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1980 and with the Canucks in 1994. Quinn also coached the Edmonton Oilers, the Los Angeles Kings and the Maple Leafs. Internationally, Quinn coached Canada to several gold medals, including an Olympic gold in 2002 and a International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship gold medal in 2009. He was named head coach of the American Hockey Leagues Maine Mariners in 1977 and debuted as an NHL head coach late in the 1978-79 season with the Flyers. The next season, Quinn won the Jack Adams Award as the top coach in the league. That same season, the Flyers had a 35-game unbeaten streak, still an NHL record. A lot of that team had played for Pat in Maine and knew him and trusted him, Former Flyers captain and Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke told the Canadian Press. His presence, just as a man not as a coach, was one you would trust. You trusted what he was trying to implement with our team. It was almost instant with Pat. Generally you dont see that with coaches. They usually have to prove themselves, but we all just immediately trusted him, mostly, I guess, because of his presence. Quinn later won the Jack Adams in the 1991-92 season when he was with the Canucks. Quinn graduated with a B.A. in economics in 1972 from York University in Toronto, Ontario, three years after he began his NHL career with the Maple Leafs. After retiring from his playing career in 1977, Quinn considered law school, before accepted his first coaching position with the Flyers. Five seasons later, he was fired by the Flyers in time to take the exam for spring acceptance into law school. On account of being still under contract with the Flyers, his tuition was subsidized by the club. In 1984, he was named head coach of the Los Angeles Kings and went on to finish his degree at the University of San Diego He earned his law degree from the Widener University School of Law, in Delaware. Quinn never actually practiced law, but utilized his acquired knowledge in his subsequent executive positions with the Canucks and Maple Leafs. Quinn was a member of the committee that determines who is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Hockey Babble also reports with a heavy heart, the passing of Viktor Tikhonov. He was 84. Russias Kontinental Hockey League said early Monday that Tikhonov, the Soviet hockey coach whose teams won three Olympic gold medals but fell to the United States in the Miracle on Ice, died during the night after a long illness. He had been receiving treatment at home for an undisclosed illness that had left him unable to walk in recent weeks. The entire global hockey community has lost a great coach, Vladislav Tretiak, who played goalie for Tikhonovs Soviet team and now heads the Russian Hockey Federation, told Russias R-Sport news agency. He devoted his entire life to hockey until the last second. Even when I was with him in the hospital, we were discussing what needed to be done and how, in order to raise the Russian national team to the very highest level. Russian president Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to Tikhonovs family, the Kremlin said. The Russian Sports Ministry called his death an irreplaceable loss for hockey fans worldwide. Tikhonovs funeral will take place Thursday with a memorial service at CSKA Moscow, the club he coached to 14 national championships, Russian media reported. Born in Moscow in 1930, Tikhonov played bandy, football and ice hockey. He started his hockey career at the top level as a defenceman with VVS MVO Moscow and Dynamo Moscow and won four consecutive championships (1951-1953 with VVS, 1954 with Dynamo) but is mostly remembered for his extraordinarily successful coaching career including 14 years in charge of the Soviet national team. During his era as the head coach of the Soviet Union and Russia, he led the national team to three Olympic gold medals and eight World Championship titles between 1979 and 1992 and the 1981 Canada Cup. He also won one Olympic silver medal in the stunning upset by the United States on American soil in February 1980, one World Championship silver medal and two World Championship bronze medals. Tikhonovs teams went on to reclaim Olympic gold in 1984 and 1988, and he took the post-Soviet Unified Team to another gold at the 1992 Games. He also led the Soviet team to eight world championship titles. An authoritarian leader with a taste for intense training sessions, Tikhonov used the Soviet political system to control his players and was known to cut star players from the team for international tournaments if he feared they might defect to the West. Tikhonov remained an active coach until 2004, when he stepped down from the Russian national team aged 73 after an unsuccessful comeback. He continued to shape Russian hockey as part of the management of CSKA and the Russian Hockey Federation until this year. He was inducted into the builders’ category of the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1998 and is also a Russian Hall of Fame member. He won numerous awards in his native country such as the Order of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of Friendship of Peoples, the Order For Merit to the Fatherland, the Order of Honor, the Order of Friendship, the Medal for Distinguished Labor and the Medal for Military Valor, and he was named Honored Coach of the USSR, Honored Master of Sports and Honored Worker of Physical Culture. Tikhonov suffered the loss of his only son, Vasili, last year following an accident in his apartment. He is survived by his wife Tatyana and his grandchildren. In recent years, Tikhonov provided guidance to his grandson, Viktor, who also plays hockey, was the 28th overall pick by the Phoenix Coyotes in the 2008 NHL Draft and was on the team that won the 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Minsk and also played in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. Via the IIHF the NHL and the Associated Press -David Amaya
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 17:20:41 +0000
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