Coaching Confidence

A couple days ago, KK pointed me to an ESPN article that ranked the NHL coaches. It's no surprise that the success he's achieved in leading the Red Wings has Mike Babcock (who received his first NHL coaching job from Brian Murray) ranked first among the 'Elite'.

But where does our new head coach, Craig Hartsburg, rank among the 30 teams? It's obvious that his jumping around and inability to hold onto various head and assistant coaching positions around the league would not lead ESPN to rank him among 'The Proven'. Despite this upcoming season being his first back in the NHL for a while, I would say that his 184-184-69-6 record as a head coach with Chicago (95-98) and Anaheim (98-01), his 257-231-74-10 record as an assistant coach with the Minnesota North Stars (89-90) and the Philadelphia Flyers (90-94, 02-04), and his 226-125-23-23 record as an OHL head coach with the Guelph Storm (94-95) and the Soo Greyhounds (01-02, 04-08) would have at least made me consider him a 'Jury's Still Out' candidate.

Instead, Craig Hartsburg is labeled 'Suspect', in need of proving people wrong. I think he's done just that. It was while coaching him at the Soo that Hartsburg got Emery to really shine, just as Murray got him to shine the year before his fallout under Paddock. As an overall coach, he helped Canada achieve three straight golds at the World Juniors; as an assistant coach in 2006, and as head coach in both 2007 and 2008.

He has also convinced Curtis Hunt to leave the WHL, where his coaching record stands at 209-171-23-29 with the Moose Jaw Warriors (02-04) and the Regina Pats (04-08). Hunt was Hartsburg's assistant coach for both the 2007 and 2008 World Junior golds, in addition to being assistant coach for other Canadian tourneys involving our younger players. Considering that neither of these men has ever given up, that they have been able to get excellent results from their teams of youth both in their respective leagues and on the international stage, and considering it's a year that the Sens need their younger players and rookies to step up, I couldn't imagine a better team to take on the job.