Nov 24, 2014
Naylor: Quinn was a fixture of the game in so many places
Pat Quinn was one of those people around whom there were no boundaries in the hockey world. He was an NHL player and head coach, Olympian, a World Junior Coach and in the final chapter of his hockey life was chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame. As TSN's Dave Naylor writes, everyone has their own perspective on Pat Quinn because he was such a fixture in the game for such a long time, in so many different places.
By Dave Naylor
Pat Quinn was one of those people around whom there were no boundaries in the hockey world.
As a player he wore the sweaters of the Leafs, the Canucks and the Atlanta Flames. As a coach or executive he was a Philadelphia Flyer, Los Angeles King, Vancouver Canuck, Toronto Maple Leaf and Edmonton Oiler.
He was an Olympian, a World Junior Coach and in the final chapter of his hockey life was chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
And though from the midpoint of his life onward he was most closely associated with Canada's West Coast where he was living when he passed away Sunday, his roots go back to Hamilton, Ont. when it was far more of a true blue-collar city than it is today.
Everyone has their own perspective on Pat Quinn because he was such a fixture in the game for such a long time, in so many different places.
But only in Ottawa was Quinn seen in the role of villain, as the largest figure in the Battle of Ontario, when the Senators and Maple Leafs had four playoff meetings in five seasons, all of them Maple Leaf victories.
Quinn's Leafs were big and brash and arrogant and confident, the biggest show in the country's biggest market.
Senators fans in those days believed their teams were better but there was an intimidation factor when the Leafs would roll into town with their gum-chewing giant of a coach whose aura seemed like a game-changer.
Those Leafs and Senators teams seemed to take on the personalities of their respective coaches. The Senators were conservative, safe, lacking much personality. By contrast, Quinn's Leafs had an edge to them, a swagger you could trace directly to the coach.
And every time the Leafs would rise to the occasion and ultimately exploit the sense of weakness around the Senators of those days.
So it's not hard to understand that Pat Quinn was not beloved in our Nation's Capital, that he came to symbolize everything people there hate about the Leafs.
But if you dig a little deeper, it wasn't so much hatred as it was begrudging respect for the dynamic he brought to the rivalry with his larger than life presence.
And an acknowledgement that during the heyday of the Battle of Ontario, Ottawa had no answer for him.