4 Philadelphia Flyers Jack Adams Award Winners

The Jack Adams Award has existed in the National Hockey League since the 1973-74 season. The award is handed out each season to the best head coach in the league. Two teams, to date, have had their coaches win the Jack Adams Award on four occasions. One of those teams is the Detroit Red Wings and the other is the Philadelphia Flyers.

Fred Shero

Fred Shero was the first ever recipient of the Jack Adams Award in 1973-74. His Flyers finished the regular season with 50 wins and 112 points in 78 games and were placed first in the West Division. The point total was a 27 point improvement over the previous season. After sweeping the Atlanta Flames in the first round and ousting the New York Rangers in seven games in the semi-finals, Philadelphia won the Stanley Cup in six games over the Boston Bruins.

The 1973-74 Flyers were led by Bobby Clarke, Rick MacLeish, Bill Barber and Bernie Parent. They would win the Stanley Cup the following year as well, their last Cup victory to this date. Shero coached the team from 1971-72 to 1977-78. He followed that up with three years as bench boss of the New York Rangers. His teams were runners-up twice, Philadelphia once and New York once.

Pat Quinn

Pat Quinn, in just his second year as head coach, won the Jack Adams Award in 1979-80. The Flyers totaled 116 points during the regular season, good for first overall in the NHL. After ploughing through the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers and Minnesota North Stars in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Flyers lost to the New York Islanders in the finals.

Reg Leach led the 1979-80 Flyers with 50 goals while Ken Linseman led the team in points. Bobby Clarke and Bill Barber were still key factors on the team.

Pat Quinn coached in the NHL from 1978-79 to 2009-10 with the Flyers, Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers. Quinn never won a Stanley Cup but did find his way to the finals again in 1993-94 with the Vancouver Canucks. Pat won the Jack Adams again in 1991-92, with Vancouver.

Mike Keenan

Mike Keenan won the Jack Adams Award in his first year as head coach, 1984-85. ‘Iron Mike’ coached the Flyers to first overall in the NHL with 113 points. Once again, Philadelphia made it to the finals after beating the New York Rangers, New York Islanders and Quebec Nordiques. Unfortunately, Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers proved too strong and beat the Flyers in five to take the Stanley Cup.

Tim Kerr led the Flyers that season with 54 goals. Also leading the team were Brian Propp, Dave Poulin, Mark Howe, Rick Tocchet and Pelle Lindbergh.

Keenan coached in the NHL from 1984-85 to 2008-09 with the Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames. Two of Mike’s teams in Philadelphia were runners-up for the Stanley Cup. He also coached the Chicago Blackhawks to an unsuccessful run at the finals. Behind the bench of the 1993-94 New York Rangers, Keenan got his only Stanley Cup.

Bill Barber

Bill Barber was head coach of the Flyers for just a season and a half. He took over from Craig Ramsay part way through the 2000-01 season and Philadelphia had a 31-13 record under the former player, earning him the Jack Adams. The team finished with 100 points and a second place Atlantic Division seeding. The Flyers lost in the first round to the Buffalo Sabres in six games. Mark Recchi, Keith Primeau and Simon Gagne starred.

Barber coached the following season and hasn’t coached since. Bill played for the team from 1972-73 to 1983-84. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1990.

The 4 Captains In Atlanta Flames History

The Atlanta Flames joined the National Hockey League, along with the New York Islanders, for the 1972-73 season. The Flames lasted eight years in Atlanta before moving to Calgary for 1980-81. The team was fairly successful in that they reached the Stanley Cup playoffs in six of the eight years. However, they never won a series and only won two games in the post season, one against the Los Angeles Kings in 1976-77 and one against the New York Rangers in 1979-80.

Over their eight years in the NHL before moving to Alberta, the Flames had four team captains. Two finished their careers in Atlanta, one was a second overall pick by the Flames in 1973 and one played just two games shy of 1,000 over his NHL career.

Keith McCreary

Atlanta’s first team captain wore the ‘C’ from 1972-73 to 1974-75, the final three years of his NHL career. McCreary was picked up 18^th overall by the Flames in the 1972 Expansion Draft. Five years earlier, he was involved in another NHL Expansion Draft, picked up by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1967, 52^nd overall.

It was expansion that made the NHL career of Keith McCreary. Previous to 1967-68, he played just one playoff game with the Montreal Canadiens in 1961-62 and nine regular season games with the Habs in 1964-65. He went on to play 532 regular season games in the NHL, scoring 131 and assisting on 112 for 243 points. McCreary played an additional 16 games in the Stanley Cup playoffs, four with Atlanta, adding four points.

Pat Quinn

Pat Quinn was team captain in Atlanta for the 1975-76 and 1976-77 season, also his final two in the NHL. Quinn was with the Flames right from the start, taken 34^th overall in the 1972 Expansion Draft. Pat also was part of another expansion draft, taken eighth overall by the Vancouver Canucks in 1970.

Quinn, more noted for his work behind the bench and in the front office, played 606 regular season games in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver and Atlanta. The defenseman scored 18 goals and totalled 131 points. Pat played in just 11 playoff games, adding one assist. The year after retiring as a player, Pat immediately jumped behind the bench as assistant coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Tom Lysiak

At the 1973 NHL Amateur Draft, Lysiak was taken second overall by the Flames behind Denis Potvin who went to the Islanders. He was a promising offensive threat that had led the WHL in scoring the previous two seasons.

Tom played with the Flames from 1973-74 to 1978-79 and was captain in his final two years with the club until an eight player trade sent him to the Chicago Blackhawks on March 13, 1979. Lysiak continued on with Chicago until retiring after the 1985-86 season.

Over 919 regular season National Hockey League games, Tom scored 292 and assisted 551 for 843 points. In 76 Stanley Cup playoff games, mostly with Chicago, he added another 63 points. As a Flame, Lysiak played for Canada at the 1978 IIHF World Championships held in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Canada finished third behind the Soviets and Czechs.

Jean Pronovost

Jean Pronovost played two years with Atlanta and was captain in his final season with the club, 1979-80. Like the other three, he would not play for the Flames in Calgary. Jean was with the Washington Capitals when the team moved to Canada.

His NHL career started in 1968-69 with the Pittsburgh Penguins and ended after the 1981-82 season. Pronovost was unfortunate to play for just the Penguins, Flames and Capitals in an era when those teams just weren’t very good. He appeared in 998 NHL regular season games, scoring 391 goals and assisting on 383 for 774 points. Jean played in just 35 playoff games, adding 20 points.

Hockey Trivia: NHL Streaks and Longevity

Everyone or every team can have their fifteen minutes in the spotlight. It’s the ones that stretch out the fifteen that are truly great. This is your chance to test and expand your NHL hockey knowledge regarding streaks, both individual and team.

Q. At 35 games, what team has the longest undefeated streak during a regular NHL season?

A. The 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers not only set the record for the NHL but for all of North American professional sports. The team went 25-0-10 during the streak while going only 13-12-10 for the rest of the season. The Flyers went on the Stanley Cup finals that season before bowing out to the New York Islanders.

It was Pat Quinn’s first full season as an NHL head coach and he was awarded his first of two Jack Adams Awards as coach of the year. The core of players that formed the Broad Street Bullies were still on the roster. This group included Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Reggie Leach and Rick MacLeish. Ken Linseman was Philadelphia’s offensive leader with just 79 points in 80 games. Pete Peeters and Phil Myre split the goaltending duties.

Q. What team holds the NHL record for the longest regular season winning streak at 17?

A. The 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins set the mark. The Penguins ended up with the best record in the NHL that season but were upset by the New York Islanders in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Scotty Bowman coached the Penguins, who were coming off consecutive Stanley Cup championships in 1990-91 and 1991-92. At his side as assistant coach was long time Penguins leader Rick Kehoe. Mario Lemieux led the way offensively with 160 points over just 60 regular season games.

Q. Who is the NHL’s Iron Man, having played 964 consecutive regular season games between 1975 and 1985?

A. Doug Jarvis started his streak of 964 games from his first game as a rookie during the 1975-76 NHL season. Jarvis played for the Montreal Canadiens, Washington Capitals and Hartford Whalers before finishing off his NHL career in 1987.

Jarvis broke the record previously held by Garry Unger. Unger played 914 consecutive games. There have been just 19 players in National Hockey League history to play 500 or more in a row. Steve Larmer is the only other player with more than 800 straight with 884 Craig Ramsay is the only player with 700 or more with 776. Interestingly, all-time games played leaders Gordie Howe, Mark Messier and Ron Francis are not included in the group of 19.

Q. With 502 consecutive regular season games played, which goaltender will most likely hold that NHL record through time?

A. Glenn Hall will undoubtedly forever hold this record. The days of the goaltender playing every game of the season are almost half a century gone. Hall played all 70 of his team’s regular season games from 1955-56 to 1961-62. The first two years were played with the Detroit Red Wings and the rest was with the Chicago Black Hawks. Glenn Hall played in the NHL from 1952-53 to 1970-71 with the Red Wings, Black Hawks and St. Louis Blues.