This past Friday Nov. 19, the sport of Hockey lost one of its true greats in coaching legend Pat Burns.
Burns started his career in the NHL by coaching his hometown Montreal Canadiens before moving to Toronto, Boston and finally winning his Stanley Cup in 2003 in the New Jersey swamp.
Burns had beaten cancer twice and was even falsely pronounced dead earlier this year, before losing this last battle with lung cancer. Tributes have been flying in from across the hockey world and most have featured one question:
How and why was burns not elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame before his passing?
The HHOF induction ceremony for this year was less than one month ago and would have been such a fitting send off for Burns. The voters knew he had a terminal illness and for them not to vote him in this year ahead of some, frankly, below par inductees is disgraceful. Burns will surely be inducted next year but by then it will be too late and the damage to the league has already been done.
Bitterness aside, here is a great video tribute to Burns from an October edition of Coaches Corner, finally Don Cherry gets something right. The Burns stuff starts about half way through.
Everyone should also give this poignant obituary from the Toronto Star a read. Obituary writing must be very difficult, but this writer captures the emotion well, while also telling a story.
RIP Pat.
Obituary writing is a real art. Some British newspapers are especially good at it.
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