Three weeks ago I wrote about potential coaching changes in the NHL after the St. Louis Blues fired Davis Payne and replaced him with Ken Hitchcock. When I wrote the blog I identified four coaches that I felt were on the hotseat.
Well we had three coaching changes this past week in the NHL. One of the firings was one of the coaches I identified in my previous blog. The other two coaching changes I did not expect, at least at this present time.
Well cover the two coaches I wasn't expecting to be fired in a moment but let's start with the one that I felt was on borrowed time.
Paul Maurice:
When I wrote about Maurice three weeks ago I left it was only a matter of time before Carolina made a coaching change. Time finally ran out on Monday when Maurice was relieved of his duties and replaced by Kirk Muller.
Maurice finishes his second tenure in Carolina with a record of 116-110-30 and one playoff appearance. While I have never been impressed with Maurice as a head coach I have seen lesser coaches receive multiple opportunities to coach in the NHL. If another team hires Maurice it wouldn't surprise me.
Hired to take his place in Carolina is Kirk Muller who played 19 seasons in the NHL and was an assistant with Montreal from 2006-2011.
Muller's name was mentioned throughout the summer as being a potential head coach in the NHL. He took over as head coach of the AHL's Milwaukee Admirals this year in hopes the experience would lead to a head coaching position. After two months he finds himself behind the bench in Carolina.
Muller is probably best known in coaching circles for coming up with the game plan to contain Alex Ovechkin in the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs and shut down the Capitals offense during the last three games of their playoff series against Montreal. That's important to remember as Carolina has to face Ovechkin six times a season.
Any success Muller will have in Carolina will depend on the play of Eric Staal. Staal is having a miserable season scoring 12 points (5G, 7A) on the season and is a -18 on the ice. He is on pace for his lowest point total since his rookie season in 2003-04 (31 points).
The Hurricanes are currently 14th in the East but only six points out of the final playoff spot. This next month will determine whether Carolina has a chance to be a playoff contender. Either way Muller will have the rest of the season to put his system in place as the Hurricanes move forward.
Bruce Boudreau:
Going into the 2011-2012 NHL season I felt Boudreau had to survive the 1st two rounds of the playoffs to keep his job in Washington.
Turns out he only lasted two months.
Boudreau was fired on Monday after four seasons as coach of the Capitals. He leaves with record of 201-88-40 and reached the 200 win plateau faster than any coach in NHL history.
The Capitals started the season by winning their first seven games of the season but were 3-9-1 in the last 13 games before General Manager George McPhee decided to make a change.
McPhee felt that the Capitals needed a new voice and that Boudreau had done all he could with the roster he had to work with. There had been speculation that Boudreau and Alex Ovechkin had not been seeing eye-to-eye although neither one has indicated that was the problem.
Replacing Boudreau as head coach of the Capitals is former player Dale Hunter who played with Washington from 1987-1999 and was the team captain for five seasons. Hunter had spent the last eleven years as the head coach of the London Knights of the OHL leading them to a Memorial Cup win in 2005.
Hunter is best known for in hockey circles for this hit on Pierre Turgeon in the 1993 playoffs which resulted in a 21 game suspension at the start of the 93-94 NHL season.
With hiring Hunter as head coach, McPhee is hoping the fire he played with on the ice will carry over to the bench and give the Capitals the swift kick in the ass this team needs. As for Boudreau it wouldn't take him long to find another job.
Randy Carlyle:
There has been speculation about the job security for Randy Carlyle all season but I thought he would have a little more leeway after what he had accomplished in Anaheim.
He had lead the Ducks to the Stanley Cup title in 2007 and had made the playoffs in five of his six seasons as head coach in Anaheim.
But the Ducks are 7-13-4 on the season and sit 14th in the West, ten points out of the final playoff spot. They are having trouble scoring goals and have the worst team plus/minus in the NHL at -22.
The talk around the Ducks for the past week was whether they would trade star forward Bobby Ryan. That may still happen at some point but it's easier to fire the coach than turnover an entire roster and that is what happened here.
My opinion is that this coaching move for Anaheim is similar to the one St. Louis made earlier this season where a coach was available and they made a decision to go get him before another team did.
Boudreau did a great job with the Capitals offense when he took over in Washington. My guess is he'll be able to do the same in Anaheim especially with having a first line of Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf & Bobby Ryan (provided Ryan isn't traded)
On the blueline he'll have a couple young defenseman to work with in Cam Fowler and Lucas Sbisa. With Boudreau as coach I could see Fowler becoming Anaheim's version of Mike Green.
As for Carlyle, the situation he is in now is similar to the one in Washington where a new voice was needed and a change was made. Carlyle's record speaks for itself and it won't be long before he is coaching again.
Unlike Boudreau and Maurice, at least Carlyle was able to win his final game as head coach.
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