Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

High Profile Coaches Meet Tonight

10/21/2019 at 9:29am EDT

from Rosie DiManno of the Toronto Star,

There was a time when big-personality NHL coaches walked the Earth and stomped the narrow confines behind team benches.

Pat Burns, on heated occasions, would jump atop the bench to holler at referees or gesticulate menacingly at his opposing number. Or Red Kelly, as well-mannered as they come, deployed pyramid power — placing five plastic pyramids beneath the Maple Leaf bench during the 1976 playoffs against Philadelphia — to blunt their Kate Smith anthem talisman. Can you imagine such colourful silliness and shenanigans today?

What a sober lot the NHL has become.

These are robotic and dim wattage days, depleted of characters on and off the ice. Perhaps because so much of the game has devolved to analytics doffins, hockey sadly following in the footsteps of baseball, worshipping at the altar of arcane eye-glazing metrics, video up the wazoo.

A pair of relics, however, will go cerebrally and charismatically mano a mano on Monday evening at Scotiabank Arena: Mike Babcock versus John Tortorella.

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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