Few people have made such an impression from the bench as Mike Keenan did. The iconic coach was known as” Iron Mike” and made a name of himself as a tough guy, who never was afraid to criticize his players if he thought they did something bad. And to some degree, he even degraded them in the open and to the media.
Mike Keenan coached the New York Rangers in the mid-1990s, but he didn’t do much coaching, according to several players. According to some, it was the star player Mark Messier who more or less ran the team, and Keenan sure did have his favorites. Many players back then didn’t really like Keenan’s coaching style, and one of those was Tony Amonte. When Amonte was on the Cam & Strick Podcasts, he shared several stories about Keenan, all of them not so flattering.
One of them was about when Amonte was asked into Keenan’s office, and in there was a whiteboard list with Amonte’s name on the bottom. Amonte was asked where he felt he should be on the list. Amonte responded by pointing to the number third place, right under Messier and Adam Graves. That made Mike Keenan lose his mind completely.
” He’s like f* no! Sit the f* down!, Amonte recalled.
“You’re just a rich prick from Boston.”
Tony Amonte got offended by Keenans yelling, especially since he wasn’t from a wealthy family. That Keenan brought up his family was the last straw for Amonte, who shortly after got traded to the Chicago Blackhawks.