As announced on VERSUS, the three finalists for the NHL’s coach of the year award are Bruce Boudreau of the Capitals, Guy Carbonneau of the Canadiens and Mike Babcock of the Red Wings.

No problems with the first two, as Boudreau not only turned around the Caps after the firing of Glen Hanlon early in the season but Washington was one of the best teams in the league in 2008 period, winning a ton of games down the stretch just to squeeze into the playoffs as Southeast division champions.  Carbonneau took a non-playoff team from 2006-07 that wasn’t expected to do much this year to the top seed in the NHL’s Eastern Conference, this despite having shaky goaltending at times from both Cristobal Huet (since traded) and rookie Carey Price. 

I’m not too high on Babcock being the third choice, yes the Red Wings won the President’s Trophy but how much is coaching really involved when you still have Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom and other reliable veterans including the goaltending tandem of Chris Osgood and Dominik Hasek (though both faltered late)? 

I would have considered Barry Trotz, who somehow found a way to get Nashville in the playoffs despite their new owner trying to pull a Rachel Phelps (a la Major League) and liquidating the team before relocating it.  Actually Claude Julien might have been my third choice though, since absolutely nothing was expected of a Bruin team that was in disarray after giving away Joe Thornton two seasons ago, lost one of its best players in Patrice Bergeron for much of the season, and had career journeyman Tim Thomas as their number one goaltender.  Boston also made the playoffs to the surprise of many. 

In any case, odds are Boudreau will win the award.