ANAHEIM –– Fresh off his 1,000th career regular-season victory, Ducks coach Joel Quenneville will seek No. 1,001 against his former captain, Jonathan Toews, and the Winnipeg Jets on Friday.
Quenneville and, in a way, Toews are both on their second stop since departing Chicago, where they were the fulcrum of three Stanley Cup champions between 2010 and 2015. Quenneville has coached in Florida and now the OC, while Toews took significant time away from the game before returning to sign with his hometown Winnipeg Jets.
Just the second coach to reach 1,000 wins – Paul Maurice, Lindy Ruff and Barry Trotz are all nearing the benchmark as well – Quenneville almost left himself stranded on 969 victories.
He was abruptly removed from his position with the Panthers in 2021 and barred from seeking NHL employment until last season as a result of his inadequate response to the 2010 sexual assault allegations made by two players and a team employee against a Blackhawks video coach in 2010.
Now, Quenneville returned to the bench after linking up with Ducks’ general manager and former teammate Pat Verbeek and inheriting a young team brought forward to a 21-point improvement last year by predecessor Greg Cronin. It’s not dissimilar from the situation he stepped into with Chicago, which had developed Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, among other young stars, under Denis Savard.
“I’m happy to be getting the opportunity to be back in the game and to be around a team like we have right now,” Quenneville said. “A lot of the excitement that we’re generating this year – from the talent, the skill and the youth we have – puts us in the position where you can see how effective we can be with that type of recipe when you look back on what happened in Chicago.”
Quenneville was asked if he ever thought he might not get such an opportunity – or any at all – to coach in the NHL again, which he deflected almost as artfully as Chris Kreider tips a puck at the net front.
“It’s something I don’t think about, my motivation and my goal was always, ‘Once you win the Cup one time, you can’t wait to do it again,’ and that’s always been the reason why we’re doing what we’re doing,” Quenneville said.
Quenneville has the Ducks on a 94-point pace, which would represent a 14-point bump over last season. More importantly, their second-place position in the Pacific Division has them on track for their first playoff berth since 2018.
“He just brings an energy, a level of fun. When things are wrong, he addresses them and then we move on,” Ducks veteran defenseman Jacob Trouba said. “I think that’s something I appreciate in him. Nothing really dwells. If he has an issue, he’ll address it and then it’s time to move forward.”
Quenneville shared custody of the Wednesday night on which his club rallied to beat the two-time defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers with Leo Carlsson, who potted three points in his first action in a month and a half after undergoing thigh surgery.
Carlsson would be the equivalent of Toews in any sort of Blackhawks-Ducks parallel.
“His belief in me has helped me a lot, I think that’s the biggest thing. I feel like I know a lot of stuff, so I feel like it’s more the character stuff,” said the 21-year-old Carlsson of the 67-year-old coach.
Quenneville has 121 additional wins in the postseason. He’s 244 victories behind Scotty Bowman in the regular season and 346 shy of the nine-time Cup winner factoring in the playoffs. Bowman worked in Chicago as an executive and his son Stan was the GM for the three Cup-winning rosters after taking over for Dale Tallon (the younger Bowman, whose suspension was concurrent with Quenneville’s, now manages Edmonton).
“(Scotty Bowman’s) in a different league when I look at his company,” said Quenneville, who notched his first win in the 1996-1997 season, very shortly after Bowman collected his 1,000th. “He’s lonesome up there, the number he’s at. Scotty and Stan were in Chicago together. We had some great wins. He’s got a lot of Cups, and he’s been very successful in the game.”
Thirty years after becoming a head coach, he said that his methods hadn’t varied tremendously over time, nor was he trying to “reinvent the game.” Nonetheless, it had certainly evolved from the spectacle fans were seeing in the ’90s.
“Everybody can skate now. The shots are harder. Guys are bigger. Guys are stronger,” Quenneville said. “In the last couple of years in the playoffs, it’s getting physical and it’s getting demanding, so there’s still some traits from the old times.”
The Jets might be pining for the “old times” of last season, when they won the Presidents’ Trophy. Their points percentage has dropped an NHL-worst 233 points year-over-year.
Toews was recently asked by The Athletic’s Murat Ates if he would consider waiving his no-trade clause for a more competitive situation.
“I wouldn’t consider going anywhere. I want to play for this team,” Toews responded.
Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck won not only the Vezina Trophy last year as the NHL’s top goalie but the Hart Trophy as its MVP, too. He resurrected that dominance overseas, turning in a dominant performance for Team USA in its first gold-medal win since 1980.
Winnipeg at Ducks
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Honda Center
TV: Victory+
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