WINNIPEG, Manitoba _ Jets coach Paul Maurice was set to square off against new Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton for the first time Thursday night but didn't see any reason to prepare for the game differently.
"The guy in the suit is usually the least important guy in and around the bench," Maurice said.
Maurice then somewhat contradicted himself when reminiscing about Joel Quenneville, Colliton's predecessor whom the Hawks fired Nov. 6 _ 15 games into his 11th season with the team.
"Joel, for me, ran the best bench in the league in terms of how fast he was to make adjustments," Maurice said. "His ability to handle a player like Patrick Kane, who is unique in terms of shift length early in his career to where it gets to recognizing when the game was kind of at the tipping point. He'd get those guys out at the right time, I thought, in two of the Cups in the way that he ran the bench. This is just coaches kind of watching other coaches, (he) had a really big impact.
"So what I said about the guy in the suit may not have applied to him."
