Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Mike Keenan

New Calgary Flames coach.I don't mind Iron Mike

Never had much time for him when he coached Vancouver. He seems to have a problem "playing well with others".


Despite Keenan's coaching record his inability to maintain working relationships with players and team organizations has resulted in a lack of long term coaching positions. His coaching resume includes abrupt terminations or resignations from coaching or general manager positions, sometimes at bafflingly inopportune, or peak, moments of his career.

Keenan was unceremoniously dismissed from the Philadelphia Flyers a year after leading them to the 1987 Stanley Cup Finals. After taking the Chicago Blackhawks to the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals, Keenan was forced to focus solely on his GM duties when longtime Blackhawk player and assistant coach, Darryl Sutter, was being courted by other teams to be their head coach. Owner, "Dollar" Bill Wirtz did not want to lose Sutter, especially since Keenan had stated, in July, 1992, that he wished to focus solely on his duties as general manager after the 92-93 season. Keenan lost a power struggle with Senior V.P. Bob Pulford after the 1992-93 season, resigned his position, and was soon hired by the New York Rangers. Incidentally, Darryl Sutter resigned as head coach of the Blackhawks in 1996 after Jeremy Roenick made derogatory, and, well-publicized, comments on a local sports-radio show. Keenan managed to coach the Rangers to the Stanley Cup in his first and only year as head coach, but was unable to coexist long enough with general manager Neil Smith and resigned weeks later, citing a violation of his contract by the Rangers. Unremarkable stops as coach or general manager in St. Louis, Vancouver, Boston and Florida (twice) followed.

In September of 2006, Keenan again attracted headlines when he abruptly resigned as general manager of the Florida Panthers. It was speculated that Keenan had lost a power struggle with head coach and longtime friend, Jacques Martin, over personnel decisions. Martin succeeded him as general manager upon his resignation.

"Iron Mike" was also notorious for pulling or switching his goaltenders, sometimes multiple times in a period. In game 4 of the first round of the 1987 playoffs, Keenan pulled his goalies, Ron Hextall and Glenn Resch, a total of five times in a single game (the 5th time to gain a man-advantage in the last minute of play).

Goaltender Roberto Luongo said the following regarding Keenan's penchant for pulling his goalies while a member of the Florida Panthers in 2002:

�Not a big deal. [Keenan] does it so much that we expect it. If he�s your coach and you�re an NHL goalie on the bench, you have to be ready, just in case.�

As a Canuck fan - I couldn't be happier!!!

Until I read this, I was worried about Calgary next year.

Maybe Calgary wants a really high first round pick.During Keenan time,it was always easy to get tickets for the Canucks,usually free.Hey,he traded Luongo for Bertuzzi.

I don't know about Mike. At one time, I used to think he was a great motivator, in Bowman's image.

Go Flames Go