Former coach Quinn recalled fondly by Flyers

UNIONDALE, N.Y. - Pat Quinn, according to Flyers president Paul Holmgren, was someone whom those in sports like to call "a player's coach."

"I think most of us would've done whatever he asked us to do," Holmgren, who played for the team in each of Quinn's 4 years as head coach, said yesterday by phone. "Run through that wall? Sure. How many bricks do you want left over? We would've done anything for him."

Holmgren, a member of the 1979-80 club that "The Big Irishman" led to a 35-game unbeaten streak and a trip to the Stanley Cup finals, is among many in the hockey world mourning the loss of Quinn, who died Sunday night in Vancouver after a lengthy illness. A former NHL player, longtime coach and executive, Quinn was 71.

The fifth coach in franchise history, Quinn manned the Flyers' bench from 1979 to '82. He joined the team in 1977 as an assistant to Fred Shero. In parts of four seasons at the helm, Quinn amassed a record of 141-73-48. He was honored as the league's coach of the year after the '79-80 season, which culminated in the Flyers' losing in six games to the New York Islanders in the finals.

Quinn led the Vancouver Canucks to the finals in 1994. He also coached the Los Angeles Kings, Toronto Maple Leafs and, as recently as 2010, the Edmonton Oilers. He coached Canada to a gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending the country's 50-year gold-medal drought in men's ice hockey.

Holmgren said Quinn was "one of the most respected men in our business." Aside from the likes of Bob Clarke, Bill Barber, Reggie Leach and Rick MacLeish, Holmgren said, the '79-80 Flyers squad was made up of "a lot of no-name guys, guys who were just sort of up-and-coming." The unbeaten streak, 25 wins and 10 ties from Oct. 14, 1979, to Jan. 6 1980, remains not only an NHL record but the longest in any of the major North American professional sports.

Most of the credit for the streak, Holmgren said, goes to Quinn, "because of the way he got his team to believe in themselves and come together as a group."

"It wasn't like we were an ultra-talented team or anything like that," Clarke told the Canadian Press. "We weren't the Edmonton Oilers or the Montreal Canadiens. We had some good players and some journeyman players, and he made us into a really good team that the style of game we played was ahead of the other teams in the league at that time."

As a defenseman for nine NHL seasons, Quinn played for Toronto, Vancouver and the Atlanta Flames. After coaching the Flyers, the Hamilton, Ontario, native attended Widener University en route to earning a law degree.

Quinn returned to Philadelphia to coach the Flyers' Winter Classic Alumni team on Dec. 31, 2011, at Citizens Bank Park.

"He was, in my opinion, a great coach, and he was a mentor to me for a number of years after our years together in Philadelphia," Holmgren said. "I talked to him frequently when he was in Vancouver, when he was in LA. He was always a guy that would pick up the phone and call you just to check in and see how you're doing. He means a lot to me personally."

Flyers veteran forward Vinny Lecavalier crossed paths with Quinn with Team Canada for the 2004 World Cup and then again in Turin, Italy, for the 2006 Winter Olympics. Though he was around him for only a few weeks at a time, Lecavalier remembers how Quinn "owned the room" whenever he spoke.

"That type of persona," Lecavalier said. "People really respected him, and, when he talked, everybody really listened. Obviously, he knew the game. I didn't know him that well personally, but, as a coach, he was great. He was a great guy and a great coach. Everybody really respected him."

Though he never played for him, Ron Hextall's familiarity with Quinn dates to when the 50-year-old Flyers' general manager was 8 or 9 years old. His father, Bryan, was a teammate of Quinn's with Atlanta, where Quinn played from 1972-77.

The young Hextall was watching his dad practice one day when a fight broke out between Quinn and Butch Deadmarsh. It was, as Hextall recalled, "a doozy" that left both players bloody. But it was what Hextall witnessed after practice that left an impression. Outside the locker room stood Quinn and Deadmarsh, now in their street clothes, talking, almost as if nothing happened.

"The whole way home, I grilled my father on, 'Why did they fight out on the ice? Why were they talking? Why were they friends after that?' I couldn't quite grasp the concept," Hextall said. "But I think it shows you the competitor Pat Quinn was. I think he's one of the finest gentlemen in the game of hockey. I really believe that. He was a hockey guy. He loved the game as much as anybody. He was a gentleman."