Peter Laviolette lost out on the Jack Adams award as the NHL’s Coach of the Year. Calgary’s Bob Hartley took home the honor.
In his first season behind Nashville’s bench, Laviolette guided the Predators to a 47-25-10 record for 104 points, and catapulted them back into postseason for the first time since 2012. Young forwards like Craig Smith, Colin Wilson and Filip Forsberg thrived in his system, and the team became one of the better possession squads in the league.
His competition in Calgary, Bob Hartley, also led his team to a surprise playoff berth, and even won a round. Vingeault, while he had higher expectations than the other two, met them head on. The Rangers accomplished everything they set out to do in the regular season by capturing the President’s Trophy.
Unfortunately, like several of the awards tonight, the results were so close that each finalist could mage a legitimate case for winning. Nashville’s late-season slide certainly didn’t help Laviolette’s cause, and it was the difference between being the Central division champions who faced Minnesota in the first round, and playing the eventual Stanley Cup Champions.
Laviolette finished third in the voting.
The Flames kept winning and winning despite poor fancy stats, being thought of as too early in their rebuild, and losing Mark Giordano before their final playoff push. Amazingly, they were able to eliminate the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Los Angeles Kings, from postseason contention, while also defeating the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the playoffs.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-partner=”tweetdeck”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Peter Laviolette finished third in Jack Adams voting. Barry Trotz finished fifth in his first season in Washington.</p>— Adam Vingan (@AdamVingan) <a href=”https://twitter.com/AdamVingan/status/613852993922928641″>June 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-partner=”tweetdeck”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Adams voting: (CARLYLE GOT A THIRD PLACE VOTE) <a href=”http://t.co/rpXGsues6M”>pic.twitter.com/rpXGsues6M</a></p>— Travis Hughes (@TravisSBN) <a href=”https://twitter.com/TravisSBN/status/613852823730692096″>June 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
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