Welcome Matt: Canucks coach Tocchet is miles ahead of competition for Jack Adams

Here’s my ballot for NHL coach-of-the-year:

• Rick Tocchet
• Rick Tocchet
• Rick Tocchet

Not only should the Canucks bench boss win the Jack Adams, he should win it in a landslide.

Because no coach in the league this season has done a better job nor turned around a more sad-sack organization.

Do you remember where the Canucks were when he took over last January?

Not only were they en route to missing the playoffs for a third consecutive season and a sixth time in seven years, but they were wholly out of touch with common decency after the mishandling of Bruce Boudreau’s firing.

They were amongst the worst organizations in sports, and the conventional wisdom was that it would take some time to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Fast forward to this September, when even the most optimistic Canucks fans were simply hoping to sneak into the playoffs. Instead, the Canucks clinched a playoff berth on March 30, with nine games to go, as the first Canadian team to do so.

The Canucks are already 19 points better than last year and have six games remaining to further extend that turnaround. If they win them all, they would tie the largest year-to-year improvement in club history.

They likely won’t, but that shouldn’t affect Tocchet’s Adams campaign one iota.

And in part, that’s because every other team in Vancouver’s orbit was good last year.

The Boston Bruins won the Presidents’ Trophy. The New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes both topped 100 points. The Florida Panthers went to the Stanley Cup Final.

Out west, Colorado, Dallas, Edmonton, and Vegas were all 100-point clubs last year. The Winnipeg Jets are also likely to exceed 100 points this season, but they were a playoff team last season. With all due respect and through no fault of his own, Rick Bowness has missed time on the bench this season.

So it’s Tocchet by a mile, and if you’re constructing coach-of-the-year arguments for other candidates, you’re doing so for the sake of the argument.

There’s no there, there.

I suspect Tocchet will be the third Canucks coach to win the Jack Adams later this June, joining Pat Quinn, who oversaw that record 31-point improvement in ’92, and Alain Vigneault, who presided over a 13-point improvement in 2007.

It’ll be richly deserved.

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