By Jeff Wendland
www.qconline.com
It is hard to wipe the smile off Howard Cornfield's face as he watches the Detroit Red Wings and San Jose Sharks battle for the second straight season in the NHL playoffs.
Cornfield could really care less whether the Red Wings or Sharks win their current second-round Western Conference playoff series. He just feels an awful lot like a proud father as he scours the two benches and sees a couple of his closest friends in the game and two men he hired to help lead his Quad City Mallards on a record-setting run in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
On the Sharks bench is Matt Shaw, an assistant coach Cornfield inherited when he took over as the Mallards' general manager in 1996. Shaw had joined the Mallards early in their inaugural season as an assistant to Brad Buetow. Shaw joined forces with head coach John Anderson in 1996-97 to win the first of three Colonial Cups for Quad City.
On the Red Wings bench is Paul MacLean, working as an assistant to Mike Babcock for the eighth season (two in Anaheim and the last six in the Motor City). MacLean led the Mallards to back-to-back 50-win seasons and a Colonial Cup title in 2001. From 2000-2002 he compiled a 112-27 record before taking the post in Anaheim.
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