Former NHL head coach Pat Burns passes away

by Bob Herpen
Phanatic Hockey Editor

Former National Hockey League head coach Pat Burns has succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 58.
He passed away on Friday at Maison Aube-Lumiere in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

"On behalf of the ownership, management, staff and players of the New Jersey Devils, we are all deeply saddened by the loss of Pat Burns," said Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello in a statement released Friday evening. "Pat was a close friend to us all, while dedicating his life to his family and to the game of hockey. He has been part of our family here in New Jersey for eight years. Today, the hockey world has lost a great friend and ambassador."

The tough-skinned Burns broke into the NHL ranks in 1988 with the Montreal Canadiens, guiding the club to a Stanley Cup Finals appearance -- a six-game loss to the Calgary Flames -- in his first year behind the bench. The effort was key in his earning the Jack Adams Trophy as the league's best head coach in 1989.

After four years with the Habs, he was fired but then hired by the rival Toronto Maple Leafs prior to the 1992-93 campaign. In his first two years with the Leafs, he guided the club to the Campbell Conference finals, and earned his second coach of the year honor in 1993.

Let go by Toronto with the club failing late in the 1995-96 season, Burns hooked on with Boston in 1997 and spent three-plus years at the helm, leading the B's to a pair of playoff berths in 1998-99. His third Jack Adams came following the 1997-98 after taking the Bruins from last place to a playoff spot.

Burns then guided the Devils to a Stanley Cup title in 2003 in his first season with New Jersey, but was diagnosed with cancer the following season. During a leave of absence from coaching, he survived a bout with liver cancer ending in 2004.

However, in 2009, Burns was given a diagnosis of incurable lung cancer, which effectively put to rest any idea of returning to hockey in an active role at any level.

The only man in NHL history to be honored as top head coach three times, Burns finished his career with a record of 501-353-14 with 151 ties in 1,019 games.

Prior to his coaching days, Burns was a police officer in Hull, now known as Gatineau, Quebec, a town right across the river from the Canadian capital of Ottawa.

His first professional coaching stint came as bench boss of the Hull Olympiques in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League from 1984-87. One season as coach with the Sherbrooke Canadiens of the AHL followed before he got the call to Montreal after the Habs fired Jean Perron.

Burns had returned to visit friends in the eastern townships of Quebec back in mid-September, and soon afterwards erroneous reports of his death surfaced.

He faced those rumors with his typical blunt humor, reported at the time by TSN of Canada's Bob McKenzie as saying "They're trying to kill me before I'm dead. I come to Quebec to spend some time with my family and they say I'm dead. I'm not dead, far (expletive) from it. They've had me dead since June. Tell them I'm alive. Set them straight."