If Brian Sutter had to finish second to anyone in the coach-of-the-year voting, he couldn’t have picked a better candidate than Phoenix Coyotes coach Bobby Francis.
Francis edged Sutter in the voting for the Jack Adams Trophy that is voted on by the NHL Broadcasters Association.
Francis is the son of former coach Emile Francis, who Sutter said “was like a father to me” in his days in St. Louis.
Sutter basically watched Francis grow up, but couldn’t have predicted he would ever be a coach–let alone a coach of the year. “Mr. Francis was a great coach,” Sutter said. “I’m happy for Bobby.”
Sutter said he would have liked to have had Alex Zhamnov at the awards ceremony as a Selke candidate for top defensive forward. That award went to Michael Peca of the New York Islanders. Zhamnov finished 12th in the voting.
Can’t get much closer: Both the Vezina Trophy for top goaltender and the Hart Trophy for league Most Valuable Player finished in ties and had to be settled by tiebreakers. Montreal goaltender Jose Theodore was the winner both times.
Theodore’s 15 first-place votes were better than Patrick Roy’s 12 to give Theodore the Vezina. Theodore then had 26 first-place votes for the Hart to Jarome Iginla’s 23. It’s the first time awards had been decided by a tiebreak.
Earlier in the day, Iginla, who claimed the Ross Trophy as top scorer (96 points) and the Maurice Richard Trophy as the top goal-scorer (52), won the Lester Pearson Award from NHL players as the league’s top player. He is the first black player to win the award.
Speed it up: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the league will implement rules to speed up play next season, specifically faster line changes and faceoffs.
Under the new rules, after a stop in play the visiting team will have five seconds to change its line. The home team will then have eight seconds to change. The linesman will then drop the puck for the faceoff after another five seconds, even if one of the centermen is not in the faceoff circle.
The hurry-up rules will not be enforced during the final two minutes of a period or in overtime. Bettman said the change may take eight to 14 minutes off the length of a game.
Behave yourself: The league plans on being tougher on players who complain to referees about penalty calls. Instead of incurring a 10-minute misconduct penalty, a player will now be given a minor penalty, which will result in a power play for the other team. If the player continues to complain, a misconduct penalty will be added to the minor.
Buffalo-sized problems: Bettman said the league is supervising the management of the Buffalo Sabres in light of the financial troubles of owner John Rigas and his other company, Adelphia.
Adelphia is under SEC investigation and may file for bankruptcy. The Sabres are also deeply in debt–some of it to Adelphia–and are for sale. Bettman hopes to have a new group of owners by the start of the season.
Moving on? Wolves general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, in town to get a look at the players he’ll have next season as the minor-league affiliate of the Atlanta Thrashers, said Thursday that Wolves coach John Anderson will interview for the vacant assistant coaching position in St. Louis.
