Back in '94, I gathered with 3 million of my closest buds, along the canyon of heroes, and saluted the Stanley Cup champs, the New York Rangers.
And their coach, Mike Keenan.
1. " Twenty years after the Rangers Stanley Cup win, has Mike Keenan finally found where he belongs?
.... Keenan has made four trips to the Stanley Cup final, winning it once; hes also earned championships at the OHL, AHL, and Canadian collegiate levels. Hes coached for eight different NHL and two Canada Cup teams......[but now in] Magnitogorsk, Russia, a Soviet-era steel city at the foot of the Ural Mountains, on the cusp of Siberia. The man long known as Iron Mike has ended up in a place best known for its iron mines.
2. ... Keenan had worked his way up through the coaching ranks, with no assignment too small. ... Keenans calculated persona was influenced by (Scotty Bowman, the legendary NHL coach who gave Keenan his big break back in 1979.), .... gave Keenan that AHL Rochester Americans job when Bowman was the Sabres coach and GM. (You hated him for 364 days a year, one of Bowmans former players, Steve Shutt, said about Bowman. And on the 365th day you collected your Stanley Cup rings.)
3. .... Keenans early successes: the championships in college, junior, and minor league hockey; the two trips to the Stanley Cup final with the Philadelphia Flyers in his first three seasons; the Canada Cup wins in 1987 and 1991; another Cup final with Chicago; and the seven-game series win over Vancouver in 1994 that gave the Rangers their first championship in more than half a century.
4. [And this Mike Keenan]: The 36-year-old Keenan emanates all the color and warmth of a bottle of seltzer fresh from the refrigerator. (1985.) The majority of Keenans players would like to run him down with a Zamboni. (1990.) He tears professional hockey teams apart and puts them back together, and he does it with all the warmth and tenderness of one of those guys who club baby seals. (1995.) And those were just from Sports Illustrated alone!
5. In the 80s, players on his Philadelphia Flyers and Canada Cup teams referred to Keenan as Adolf and the Führer. Denis Savard vowed to himself he wouldnt let Keenan break him again. Keenan alienated Brett Hull, Pavel Bure, and Trevor Linden, among others. His Stanley Cup win with the Rangers came in his first and last season with the franchise...
6. In his memoir, J.R., Roenick recalls some of Keenans tactics from back in the day: Wanting to know which players had broken curfew, hed give a bellhop a Blackhawks hat and have him ask players to autograph it as they came in during the wee hours. Later, hed take note of the names.....
Eddie Olczyk, whose life Keenan made miserable during the Rangers 94 Cup season, remember him less charitably.
The belittling, the berating, the degrading way that he treated a lot of guys, whether it was one-on-one or, probably more disrespectfully, in front of the guys, is what really bothered me, Olczyk said. At the end of the day, was it calculated? Absolutely. Did he have a hand in us winning? Absolutely.
7. I think at one point in Mikes career, he was win at absolutely all costs, whatever it takes, he said. I think now theres a little more a different perspective on that. Though thats still the ultimate goal. But its not necessarily as cutthroat or, whatever the word is, as ruthless as it could be.
8. Keenans to-the-point personality pairs well with Russian sensibilities, and his coaching style disciplinarian, yet also encouraging of creativity has suited his Metallurg team.... Keenan conducts his practices in English, same as always. ... For someone who routinely dealt in the dark arts of manipulative sarcasm and mind games during his days in the NHL, this might be a blessing for everyone.
9. I love to teach, I love to coach, I like competition and winning, and I like learning, Keenan said, explaining why hed come to Magnitogorsk himself. One of the first things I wanted to tackle and master and get an insight into was the mentality of the Russian hockey player. Theres a great saying I loved in education that its better to understand than to be understood. The Cold Never Bothered Him Anyway «
10. " Mike Keenan wanted to stay in coaching when he was fired by the Calgary Flames in March 2009. Four years later, he was given the opportunity to return behind the bench half a world away with Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL. His first year in Russia went as perfect as he could have imagined.
On Wednesday, Keenan and Metallurg defeated Lev Praha 7-4 in Game 7 to claim their first KHL Gagarin Cup title. ... Keenan became the first North American coach to win a Gagarin Cup and Stanley Cup, 20 years after he led the New York Rangers to their first championship..."
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-p...t-khl-gagarin-cup-title--video-162244029.html
And their coach, Mike Keenan.
1. " Twenty years after the Rangers Stanley Cup win, has Mike Keenan finally found where he belongs?
.... Keenan has made four trips to the Stanley Cup final, winning it once; hes also earned championships at the OHL, AHL, and Canadian collegiate levels. Hes coached for eight different NHL and two Canada Cup teams......[but now in] Magnitogorsk, Russia, a Soviet-era steel city at the foot of the Ural Mountains, on the cusp of Siberia. The man long known as Iron Mike has ended up in a place best known for its iron mines.
2. ... Keenan had worked his way up through the coaching ranks, with no assignment too small. ... Keenans calculated persona was influenced by (Scotty Bowman, the legendary NHL coach who gave Keenan his big break back in 1979.), .... gave Keenan that AHL Rochester Americans job when Bowman was the Sabres coach and GM. (You hated him for 364 days a year, one of Bowmans former players, Steve Shutt, said about Bowman. And on the 365th day you collected your Stanley Cup rings.)
3. .... Keenans early successes: the championships in college, junior, and minor league hockey; the two trips to the Stanley Cup final with the Philadelphia Flyers in his first three seasons; the Canada Cup wins in 1987 and 1991; another Cup final with Chicago; and the seven-game series win over Vancouver in 1994 that gave the Rangers their first championship in more than half a century.
4. [And this Mike Keenan]: The 36-year-old Keenan emanates all the color and warmth of a bottle of seltzer fresh from the refrigerator. (1985.) The majority of Keenans players would like to run him down with a Zamboni. (1990.) He tears professional hockey teams apart and puts them back together, and he does it with all the warmth and tenderness of one of those guys who club baby seals. (1995.) And those were just from Sports Illustrated alone!
5. In the 80s, players on his Philadelphia Flyers and Canada Cup teams referred to Keenan as Adolf and the Führer. Denis Savard vowed to himself he wouldnt let Keenan break him again. Keenan alienated Brett Hull, Pavel Bure, and Trevor Linden, among others. His Stanley Cup win with the Rangers came in his first and last season with the franchise...
6. In his memoir, J.R., Roenick recalls some of Keenans tactics from back in the day: Wanting to know which players had broken curfew, hed give a bellhop a Blackhawks hat and have him ask players to autograph it as they came in during the wee hours. Later, hed take note of the names.....
Eddie Olczyk, whose life Keenan made miserable during the Rangers 94 Cup season, remember him less charitably.
The belittling, the berating, the degrading way that he treated a lot of guys, whether it was one-on-one or, probably more disrespectfully, in front of the guys, is what really bothered me, Olczyk said. At the end of the day, was it calculated? Absolutely. Did he have a hand in us winning? Absolutely.
7. I think at one point in Mikes career, he was win at absolutely all costs, whatever it takes, he said. I think now theres a little more a different perspective on that. Though thats still the ultimate goal. But its not necessarily as cutthroat or, whatever the word is, as ruthless as it could be.
8. Keenans to-the-point personality pairs well with Russian sensibilities, and his coaching style disciplinarian, yet also encouraging of creativity has suited his Metallurg team.... Keenan conducts his practices in English, same as always. ... For someone who routinely dealt in the dark arts of manipulative sarcasm and mind games during his days in the NHL, this might be a blessing for everyone.
9. I love to teach, I love to coach, I like competition and winning, and I like learning, Keenan said, explaining why hed come to Magnitogorsk himself. One of the first things I wanted to tackle and master and get an insight into was the mentality of the Russian hockey player. Theres a great saying I loved in education that its better to understand than to be understood. The Cold Never Bothered Him Anyway «
10. " Mike Keenan wanted to stay in coaching when he was fired by the Calgary Flames in March 2009. Four years later, he was given the opportunity to return behind the bench half a world away with Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL. His first year in Russia went as perfect as he could have imagined.
On Wednesday, Keenan and Metallurg defeated Lev Praha 7-4 in Game 7 to claim their first KHL Gagarin Cup title. ... Keenan became the first North American coach to win a Gagarin Cup and Stanley Cup, 20 years after he led the New York Rangers to their first championship..."
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-p...t-khl-gagarin-cup-title--video-162244029.html
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