Ottawa's Travis Green Misses Out On Jack Adams Award Consideration

The NHL Coach of the Year finalists were announced on Friday.

Jon Cooper of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Dan Muse of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Lindy Ruff of the Buffalo Sabres are the three men who are up for the Jack Adams Award, presented to the head coach “adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.

There was no shortage of analysts who believed that Ottawa's Travis Green should get some love for the award, and for the record, playoff performance has no bearing on the voting.

The award is voted on by members of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association at the end of the regular season, so the Senators' disappointing sweep at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes had no bearing on anything.

Green surely got some votes after leading the Senators into the postseason with a 21-6-3 finish to the season, all while dealing with a rough first half, shaky goaltending, off-ice drama and one injury after another down the stretch, especially on his blue line.

The 55-year-old Creston, B.C. native consistently urged the Senators to ignore those outside distractions, which he billed as white noise, and to stick to the process, whether they win or lose. There was nothing particularly innovative about his message. The impressive part was Green being able to get what appeared to be complete buy-in from his players.

Green was probably never going to beat out Cooper, who, remarkably, has never won the award, or Ruff, who helped snap the Sabres' NHL record playoff drought by winning the Division.

But Muse, the rookie head coach of the Penguins, actually finished one point behind Green's Senators. Jack has a soft spot for rookies, though. Muse is the 19th first-year head coach to be voted as a Jack Adams Award finalist.