It’s a week into the Mike Keenan era here, and there are smiles everywhere, including the one on Keenan’s face.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Has the maker of winning teams, but few friends, mellowed in his 11-month absence from the game he loves? Are the nine teams that took a pass on him when they had coaching vacancies last summer regretting not hiring one of the most successful coaches in NHL history?
That’s doubtful. But for now the Vancouver Canucks are pretty pleased with the new man running their high-payroll hockey team. And for now the players are responding, having gone 2-0-1 under Keenan.
“Mike has always been good when you are winning,” said Brian Noonan, who is in his fourth term of duty playing under Keenan. “When he feels the team is working hard, he’s upbeat. When he feels it’s not working hard, that’s when he gets tough.
“It probably was no fun sitting out for him. Has he changed or mellowed? It’s too early to tell.”
Indeed, there is the good side of Keenan as well as bad and ugly ones.
His record speaks for itself. Six of the teams he has coached in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York and St. Louis reached the Stanley Cup semifinals. He got Philadelphia (1985 and ’87) and Chicago (1992) to the Cup finals and won it all with the Rangers in 1994. He had a career record of 470-318-99 when he replaced Tom Renney a week ago Friday.
The bad side of Keenan is he can shift into a total-control mode in a hurry. His undoing in Chicago came in November 1992 after he had agreed to a five-year deal to be the Blackhawks’ general manager. When the season started, Keenan decided he wanted to coach again and he wanted more power. He didn’t want to report to Senior Vice President Bob Pulford.
Owner Bill Wirtz wouldn’t hear of Keenan’s demands and let him go.
Today, Keenan says he never was particularly interested in being a general manager, yet he was coach and GM in St. Louis, where his ugly side was on display.
In 2 1/2 years, he traded away most of the team he inherited and built a huge payroll. He and star Brett Hull were always at odds with one another, and the Blues finally fired Keenan last December.
Keenan came out of that ordeal $5 million richer and perhaps with a new attitude after getting passed over for opening after opening.
When this season began, his only ties to hockey were jobs as a color commentator for St. Michael’s Majors junior hockey team and a columnist for the Sporting News.
“I know there might be some fear of me,” Keenan said last summer. “But the way I look at it is, anything’s negotiable.”
When Vancouver got off to a 4-13-2 start under Renney, those negotiations began with Keenan.
He got a three-year deal worth between $800,000-$900,000 a season, and any player trades must be co-signed by Canucks VP Steve Tambellini.
Keenan is just excited to be working again.
“I’ve had plenty of time to be reflective,” he said. “I’ve thought of the good things I’ve done and many things that I wish I had done differently, how much you appreciate what you do and how much this game means to me–the passion of it.”
“He would be the first to tell you he has made some mistakes along the way,” said Canucks captain Mark Messier, a big part of the Rangers’ Stanley Cup run in ’94. “That’s all about being human. In my mind, his record speaks for itself.”
Numbers-wise, yes. Track-record-wise, that speaks for itself as well. In Chicago, New York and St. Louis, turmoil has followed him. Many of his players couldn’t stand him. People in the oranizations who had to work with Keenan on a daily basis couldn’t either.
Tony Amonte was thrilled to escape Keenan when he was traded to the Hawks from New York. Hull’s only comment when Keenan landed on his feet in Vancouver was this: “You just watch people fly in and out of there now.”
One St. Louis source said Keenan probably would “do well at first because (the Canucks) will try hard because they’ll be scared over the fear of embarrassment. But it’s not the kind of try that lasts.”
Keenan has put on a different face since arriving here. He huddled his club after one of their last workouts and told a joke that had everyone laughing as they left the ice. He has cracked one-liners with reporters.
“It was a great opportunity to sit back (the last 11 months) and learn to be realistic, be patient, and learn to deal with myself,” he said. “And that’s quite a chore.”
How long will the laughter continue? Will there still be smiles on everybody’s faces if the Canucks lose three straight?
Messier believes success requires the pain and sacrifice Keenan demands from his players.
“Winning sometimes can be brutal,” Messier said. “Winning isn’t all flowers and fun and games. Winning sometimes is sheer hell.”
It should be a heck of an interesting time in Vancouver with Mike Keenan in town.
