Pat Burns

Lore & Background

Burns was born in Montreal in 1952 and moved to Gatineau, Quebec, after his father died when he was four. He worked as a police officer in Gatineau for sixteen years before becoming a coach. He led the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup Finals in his first season (1989), losing to the Calgary Flames. He later coached the Maple Leafs to the conference finals in 1993 and 1994, and won the Jack Adams Award in his first season with each of three teams: Montreal, Toronto, and Boston. He retired in 2005 after a cancer diagnosis and died in 2010.

In Their Own Story

The Spectrum was a cauldron of noise, 1975, Game Seven against Buffalo. The Flyers were down late in the third, the crowd a single sustained roar. Pat Burns stood up from the bench, not yet shouting, just watching the ice with those narrow, calculating eyes. He tapped his stick once against the boards. Once. The whole bench went still. He leaned forward, said something low and fast to the two players nearest him, and then sat back down as if nothing had happened. The next shift, the Flyers played like the building was on fire. They won. And in the chaos of the celebration, with confetti and champagne and Bobby Clarke lifting the Cup, Burns was already walking toward the tunnel, coat half-on, already thinking about tomorrow's practice. The fans chanted his name. He didn't look back. He never did.

Reader's Guide

Burns is remembered as a stern, defensive-minded coach who expected the best from his players. He led four different teams to the playoffs at least twice. His three Jack Adams Awards are the most by any coach in NHL history. He was posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2014.

Did You Know?

• Burns won the Jack Adams Award in his first season with three different teams: Montreal, Toronto, and Boston.
• He coached future Hall of Famer Luc Robitaille with the Hull Olympiques in the QMJHL.
• Burns lied about his age to become a police officer at 17, claiming he was 18.
• He survived colon cancer in 2004 and liver cancer in 2005 before the cancer returned and became inoperable.
• A Facebook campaign to get Burns into the Hockey Hall of Fame attracted over 80,000 members.