3. Mike Keenan
The Bruins started the 2000-01 season well enough, kicking off with a 3-0-1 record. After that, they went on a four-game losing streak, which resulted in the firing of head coach Pat Burns just eight games into the season. Burns had been the head coach for the previous three seasons, qualifying for the playoffs in his first two seasons with the Bruins and missing out in 2000.
Burns was known as a tough head coach during his time in the NHL. Getting rid of him could have opened the door to hiring a coach with a different style to see if the team would respond better to a new type of leader. The Bruins did not take this route. Instead, they hired the even tougher, Mike Keenan, as head coach.
Keenan walked into a situation where the Bruins were finding new footing. They were without their franchise cornerstone, Ray Bourque, for the first time in 20 years after being traded to the Colorado Avalanche, and they had one of the youngest teams in the league.
However, their young stars and new captain Jason Allison, stepped up and proved themselves, with Allison and Sergei Samsonov setting career-highs in points (95 and 75 points respectively) that would hold for the rest of their time in the NHL. Joe Thornton also scored 71 points, which was a career-high at that time, early in his 24-year NHL run.
Along with having to coach a relatively young team, Keenan also had to deal with his starting goaltender’s injury woes. Byron Dafoe had to sit out multiple times during the season due to his hamstring and knee injuries, totaling 36 games missed. When Dafoe was healthy, he went 22-14-7 with a .906 SV% and a 2.39 GAA with two shutouts on the season.
The Bruins finished fourth in the division with a 36-30-8-8 record, just missing the playoffs. Boston decided not to keep Keenan on as head coach after the season ended, a move that he was critical of, saying that GM Mike O’ Connell ‘doesn’t have a full realization of what it takes to turn a team around’. Keenan led the Bruins to a 33-26-7-8 record in his 74 games as head coach. He went on to coach the Florida Panthers from 2001-2003 and then the Calgary Flames from 2007-2009.