Al MacNeil

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Al MacNeil (born November 17, 1935 in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada) is a former NHL player and coach.

He played parts of eleven seasons in the National Hockey League as a rugged defenseman with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Black Hawks, New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins.

Upon retiring as a player, MacNeil turned to coaching, where he won three Calder Cup Championships in six years with the American Hockey League Nova Scotia Voyageurs.

[edit] Montreal Canadiens

In 1970-71 MacNeil was a mid-season replacement as Head Coach for the NHL Montreal Canadiens. At the time, the Habs looked set to miss the playoffs for a second straight year and coach Claude Ruel had just resigned. MacNeil guided the team back into the playoffs and led them to an unexpected Stanley Cup championship. The Habs stunned the heavily favoured Boston Bruins in the opening round of the playoffs, and then defeated the Minnesota North Stars and Chicago Blackhawks, the latter series was won after falling behind 3-2 in the series.

Of note, rookie Ken Dryden had only played six regular-season games in the 1970-71 season, but MacNeil starting him in the playoffs, due either to Dryden's perfect winning streak at the end of the regular season or his 1.65 GAA. Another crucial choice was having rookie Rejean Houle mark the Blackhawks goalscorer Bobby Hull. Houle was nicknamed the "shadow of Bobby Hull" as Hull only managed to score one even-strength goal in the series.

Unfortunately, MacNeil had a frosty relationship with Henri Richard, notably when MacNeil benched Richard during the finals series against the Blackhawks which led to Richard publicly criticizing the coach. In game seven held at Chicago, after being down 2-0 for the first two periods, the Canadiens scored three goals in the third to take the series and the championship, with Richard scoring the equalizer and game winner. MacNeil and Richard hugged at the end of the game, but that did little to patch up their differences. Richard was a highly admired and respected veteran of the team, so MacNeil was forced to step down as coach, though stayed within the Canadiens organization to coach their farm team.

[edit] Atlanta/Calgary Flames

In 1979, he took over the Atlanta Flames, just before the team moved to Calgary. He would last three seasons as head coach of the Calgary Flames before moving into a number of management related capacities within the Flames organization.

On December 10, 2001, MacNeil returned to head coaching duties after almost two decades when the Flames head coach at the time, Greg Gilbert, was suspended for a period of two games for his role in a brawl in a game with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. When Greg Gilbert was fired in the next season due to the Flames poor performance, MacNeil once again assumed head coaching duties in the interim before Darryl Sutter was hired.

MacNeil retired in 2005 after being involved in professional hockey for close to 50 years as a player, coach, assistant manager and director of hockey operations.

Montreal Canadiens Head Coaches
Laviolette • Lecours • Dorval • Gardner • Lalonde • Dandurand • Hart • Mantha • Dugal • Siebert • Lépine • Irvin • Blake • Ruel • MacNeil • Bowman • Geoffrion • Berry • Lemaire • Perron • Burns • Demers • Tremblay • Vigneault • Therrien • Julien • Gainey • Carbonneau