Rangers: Gallant Award Snub Won’t Matter If He Wins The Stanley Cup
New York Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant was robbed of the Jack Adams Award yesterday after Darryl Sutter was named the winner. While not winning the award might sting, Gallant does still have a game tonight, something the other finalists don’t have to worry about.
Gerard Gallant has been a finalist for the Jack Adams award three times in his coaching career, and he has won once before with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2018. Not winning this year has to sting when you compare the two teams.
The Jack Adams Award is given out to “the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.” The NHL Broadcasters’ Association decided that was Sutter, but there is a strong case to make for Gallant.
The Rangers are a young team, with an average age of just 26.7, two years younger than the average age of the Flames at 28.8. While the age of these players is not the only thing that matters here I think the fact that the Rangers do not have as much experience does.
The New York Rangers have not been to the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2017. Since then they have been rebuilding this team with this being their first year of really turning the corner to success. A big reason for that turnaround has to be the new coach behind the bench.
Gerard Gallant is a great head coach, and he has helped the Rangers a lot this season.
The Rangers had one of the best power plays around with a percentage of 25.23 percent, which is almost five percent above the average of around 20 percent. They also had a really strong penalty kill and had one of the best defenses in the game giving up just 207 goals all year.
The Rangers were a remarkably good team this season, and I know Igor Shesterkin the netminder was a big part of that success, but this team would not have gotten this far without the help of their coach.
Then again the Rangers are still going for the one trophy that matters – the Stanley Cup. Both of the other two finalists for the Jack Adams, Andrew Brunnette and Darryl Sutter, bowed out of the playoffs in the second round, yet Gallant and his team are still competing for the Stanley Cup. At the end of the day, that is the trophy that he wants to win this season. A Jack Adams Trophy is good, but the Stanley Cup is even better.
The Rangers are back in action tonight for game two against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Rangers won game one taking a 1-0 lead in the series.