DETROIT – New Detroit Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde displayed his self-deprecating humor Tuesday when the results of a rather peculiar survey were mentioned to him.
Lalonde was identified as the third-most handsome NHL coach in research by Gambling.com.
“As we all know, beauty is subjective. However, with technology being an ever-increasing factor in people’s daily lives (and as a bit of off-season fun), researchers at Gambling.com turned to popular beauty measurement app Golden Ratio Face to help determine which NHL coaches are aging like fine. wines and whose hard-knock-hockey-careers have taken their toll,” Gambling.com said in a release.
“Someone’s going to get fired for that,” Lalonde said. “Someone just sent me a text ‘congrats’ I had no idea, I didn’t get to open it.”
Lalonde ranked behind Edmonton’s Jay Woodcroft, the Red Wings’ former video coach and just ahead of Nashville’s John Hynes.
“Are you sure that’s not the bottom up?” Lalonde said. “Those are two really good coaches, but I’d put them towards the bottom with me in that category.”
Lalonde asked where San Jose’s David Quinn ranked and was told he was near the bottom (29th).
“If David Quinn is (near) the bottom and I’m (near) the top, that’s a bad, bad list,” Lalonde said.
At least he ranked higher than his former boss, Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper, who came in at 27.
“I could have told you that a long time ago,” Lalonde said.
For what it’s worth, Washington’s Peter Laviolette ranked last.
Family out of harm’s way
Lalonde was relived his family landed in Detroit Tuesday morning after being evacuated from their home in Tampa due to Hurricane Ian.
“This time of year, it’s a reality living in Tampa,” Lalonde said. “We get these all the time and everyone always calls me ‘are you OK?’ and the worst we get is a broken branch up front. But to evacuate, this is real. This is kind of the way of life for them. My family is up north now, which I’m excited about but obviously very scary.”
After Lalonde was hired on July 1, his family decided it would be best to remain in the Tampa area for the season with his kids in school.
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