Remembering Pat Quinn, the Maple Leafs' last great head coach

For the foreseeable future, Pat Quinn - who passed away Sunday at the age of 71 - will be remembered as the last great head coach of the team at the center of the hockey universe, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Sure, he coached the Edmonton Oilers for one season after his time in the Big Smoke, and all of Canada will think back fondly on the 2002 Winter Olympics, the 2004 World Cup, and the 2008 World Junior Championships, all of which ended in gold, with the red-and-white maple leaf flag hanging from the rafters.

But Quinn made his biggest mark with the blue and white, guiding the National Hockey League's most-followed franchise to a level of success that many remember with longing. 

An imposing presence behind the bench, buoyed by his bruising style as a defenseman in the 1970s, Quinn - who also served as the team's general manger for a few seasons - bucked hockey's trap trend and instituted a game plan built on speed and skill, resulting in a record of 300-196-52-26 in 574 regular season games over the course of seven seasons.

He also led the Maple Leafs to six straight Stanley Cup playoff appearances, including two conference finals and three second-round appearances.

How things have changed in Toronto.

During Quinn's tenure, the Maple Leafs averaged 97 points per season and played 80 postseason games. Since his departure following the 2005-06 season (a move that many players, including Leafs great and captain Mats Sundin, didn't support), the club has averaged 82 points per year, with a grand total of seven playoff games.

No, he didn't bring that long-sought-after Cup to the streets of Canada's largest city, or take the team as close to it as he did the Vancouver Canucks in 1994. But for a fanbase starved for any semblance of on-ice success, Quinn's reign behind the bench recalls brighter days with a squad that Leafs fans could get excited about.

Pat Quinn's passing is cause for reflection, as his seven-year tenure in Toronto reminds fans what they love about this great game while debates rage over postgame media scrums and stick salutes. Quinn brings back memories of an NHL in which the Maple Leafs were, at the very least, a perennial playoff team, offering a brand of hockey that brought people out of their seats rather than Leafs jerseys onto the ice.