Mark Madden's Hot Take: Penguins' Mike Sullivan deserves better in Jack Adams Award voting

The Penguins’ Mike Sullivan was not a finalist for this year’s Jack Adams Award. It’s given annually to the NHL’s best coach, except quite often it isn’t.

Sullivan finished eighth in the year’s voting, which is done by NHL broadcasters. He didn’t necessarily deserve to win the award, but he guided an injury-riddled team to 108 points.

Sullivan is a lot better than the NHL’s eighth-best coach.

Sullivan has coached the Penguins for seven years and hasn’t yet been a finalist for the Jack Adams Award. He’s got to content himself with Stanley Cups won in 2016 and ’17.

Ex-Penguin Rick Tocchet, a former NHL coach and now an analyst with TNT, was on my radio show and said that voting for the Jack Adams Award should wait until the end of the playoffs. He also acknowledged that won’t happen.

Voting after the playoffs would be unwieldy. It wouldn’t make sense to not give it to the coach that wins the Stanley Cup.

But isn’t the postseason the most accurate measure for a coach?

Darryl Sutter of Calgary won this year’s Jack Adams Award. But his Flames were eliminated by a lower seed in the playoffs’ second round.

Andrew Brunette of Florida finished second in the voting. His Panthers won the Presidents’ Trophy for having the most points in the NHL. But Florida was swept by a lower seed in the second round.

Dean Evason of Minnesota finished fourth in the voting. But the Wild got beat by a lower seed in the first round.

The playoffs are when you see who can coach. You truly go head-to-head with the guy behind the other bench. Tactics, adjustments and matchups are constant and cumulative. Coaching matters more.

Florida decided badly when it appointed Brunette head coach after Joel Quenneville resigned Oct. 28 because Chicago’s video-coach sexual-assault scandal occurred during Quenneville’s time coaching the Blackhawks.

Brunette had been an assistant. He had zero head coaching experience. Florida had a legit team. It needed a legit coach.

Brunette struggled vs. Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper in the second round as Florida scored just three goals in four games after netting a league-high 340 times during the regular season.

But Brunette finished runner-up in the voting for the Jack Adams Award.

Of the coaches still in the playoffs, the New York Rangers’ Gerard Gallant has his team overachieving the most. He finished third in the Jack Adams Award voting.

Like Sullivan, Gallant would rather win the Stanley Cup. Like Sullivan, he just might.