The ultimate OHL snub
Jay McKee was clearly the best coach in the OHL this year. Yet he’s not
Once upon a time, Shakespeare in Love won the best picture Oscar over Saving Private Ryan. So, it’s not like awards voters never get it wrong.
Still, the full-blown, five-alarm display of absurdity the Ontario Hockey League gave us this week when awards finalists were released was something special.
Trying to understand how Hamilton Bulldogs’ head coach Jay McKee isn’t the Eastern Conference finalist for coach of the year is tougher than doing a Wordle in Sanskrit.
This was the no-brainer of all nobrainers.
Yet, somehow the league’s general managers — who vote for this award — made a hash of it.
Consider the resume they overlooked.
In his first year behind the Hamilton bench, the 44-year-old led the Bulldogs to a ridiculous 51-point improvement over the last season there was hockey. That 107-point tally was a team record. It also earned the city its first-ever Hamilton Spectator Trophy as regularseason champions.
Under McKee, the Bulldogs scored 65 more goals than in the pre-COVID season, cut goals against by 91, saw their power play jump from eighth to second and their penalty kill improve from 16th to fifth. They finished with the eight top players in plus-minus, the nominee for top goalie (Marco Costantini) and top defenceman (Nathan Staios) and the No. 1 ranking in Canadian junior hockey.
Geez, going into Thursday’s Game 4 of the first round playoff matchup with Peterborough — the Bulldogs were leading 3-0 after a 7-2 win on Wednesday and hoping to close of the series in a sweep — his team has lost a grand total of four games since the calendar turned to 2022. Which isn’t just amazing but entirely impressive that he was able to keep his guys focused when so many of the contests down the stretch were essentially meaningless.
Yet, when the announcement came about the finalists on Wednesday afternoon, he wasn’t there.
“I do not have an explanation for that,” says Bulldogs GM Steve Staios. “I would be interested to hear the answer as well.”
The guy who was chosen for the honour — Mississauga Steelheads coach James Richmond — had a nice year to be sure. He’s a good coach.
That said, he ran a team that finished 25 points behind McKee’s, finished seven spots lower in the overall standings, scored 71 fewer goals and allowed 13 more.
Choosing him over McKee is like declaring Pete Best the greatest Beatle.
Sure, McKee had a stacked lineup. But that’s not always easy to coach. There are egos and personalities to manage. Besides, you should probably ask why he had a stacked roster.
Yes, the team made some trades at the deadline to bring in superstars Mason McTavish and Arber Xhekaj. But McTavish spent time at the Olympics and only played 24 games for Hamilton. Xhekaj had some injuries and only suited up for 33. They sure helped but that’s not why they were stacked.
Rather, every veteran player on his roster — save for two who missed a bunch of games — posted career-best numbers. Every single one had their best performance extracted by the coach and his assistants.
“There’s no more I could ask as a general manager,” Staios says. There really isn’t.
Just in case you’re wondering if maybe McKee isn’t liked around the league for some reason and that’s got something to do with this, that’s not it either.
“In 10 years of covering hockey, he’s the nicest guy I’ve covered,” says Josh Brown of the Waterloo Region Record, who covered the coach when he ran the Kitchener Rangers.
That’s certainly been the experience here. He’s been professional, accessible and his team has played an honest game. He’s come in to a new place and done as close to a perfect job as a coach could do. The whole thing is just goofy. Staios pointed out that by rule he wasn’t allowed to cast a ballot for his own guy. That said, maybe the fact that he recognizes how good McKee is and other GMs couldn’t see that says something about his hockey acumen and helps explain why his team is way out in front and theirs aren’t.
Whatever the reason, it is a headscratcher. “I wish I could say more,” Staios says. “But I feel the same.”