Senators fire coach Craig Hartsburg

It took a lot of failures and second chances before Hartsburg was finally fired. The Senators have only won 17 of 48 games. They are 14 points out of a playoff spot in the East. A big damning stat for Ottawa is their road record, which is 6-16-3. Their home record is a decent 11-8-4. It is almost impossible to believe that the Sens rank last in the NHL in goals for. But their 116 goals for places them at the NHL basement.
More Senators team stats here.
The Binghampton Senators' coach Cory Clouston will take over as head coach of Ottawa. Clouston's profile can be found here.
The Sens could also use a decent starting goaltender as well. Ever since Ray Emery left down under lousy terms the Sens never found a suitable replacement. Alex Auld and newbie Brian Elliot have been stellar at times, great sometimes, and shell-shocked due to poor team play on other nights.
Murray was very patient with Hartsburg in order to let him stay that long and fall that far out of the playoff race. It's going to take a miracle for the Sens to make the post season now.

T Tags: Senators+fire+head+coach+Craig+Hartsburg

Melroses bluntly mouths off about Tampa experience

From TSN:

While he didn't name the people involved, Melrose said that he dealt with constant interference from people in the organization.

"I had guys in Tampa who wanted to run the team and I wouldn't let them. I was hired to coach and I coached," Melrose told the Fan 590. "I wasn't playing the right guys. I was playing certain guys too much, I wasn't playing other guys enough. Every day was a constant battle.

"Finally the guys in charge decided they wanted to coach and they got rid of me. That's what it comes down to. It obviously wasn't a hockey decision, because it's not like they've set the world on fire since they got rid of me...Now they've got guys in charge that let them do what they want and obviously that isn't working out very well either."

Thinks that's great stuff? There's more!

Despite many off-season changes to the roster, the Lightning are the worst team in the NHL, with a 6-13-8 record. In the 11 games they have played since Melrose's demise, the Lightning have won just once.

When Melrose was asked if that statistic gave him any glee, the former coach was very candid.

"I'm not going to lie to you, yeah it does, and any coach who tells you otherwise is a liar," Melrose told the Fan 590, adding, "I hope Tampa Bay doesn't win a game in the next year."

Love it. At least he's honest.
With Radim Vrbata and Chris Gratton already put on waivers, it's goingto be interesting to see what else happens in Tampa this year. In the end, you can't always buy chemistry can you? What a disaster.
There's still more comments from Rick Tocchet and Mike Smith at that article. Check it out.

T Tags: Barry+Melrose+interview+about+being+fired Lightning+coach anger Fan 590

Barry Melrose fired

Associate coach Rick Tocchet will take over as interim coach. This comes after only 16 games into the season, where the Lightning are 5-7-4. Is it really Melrose's fault? Perhaps. But Lightning management threw a whole bunch of new faces onto the team and expected too much as well. You can't always buy chemistry.
Somewhere John Tortorella is laughing.

Here is a clip of an interview with Melrose after his firing. He says it's harder to get guys to compete for 60 minutes than it was back in the early 90's.


T Tags: Lightning+head+coach+Barry+Melrose+fired

Why did the Blackhawks fire Savard now?

"This was an extremely hard day for this organization and for me personally," said general manager Dale Tallon in a statement on Thursday. "Denis is forever a part of our organization. We made a tough decision that we strongly feel is the right one as we continue to evaluate our team and create a championship-calibre organization that can sustain success. Joel brings us a wealth of experience and a winning track record that will have an immediate and lasting impact," explained Tallon in the statement.

Cue the word "immediate". Savard achieved a 65-66-16 record in 147 games as Chicago coach. The Hawks had just won 4-1 last night, their first win in 4 starts. Was Savard a bad coach? How?

"The only thing I can say is that last year I thought I did a heck of a job with our young kids," added Savard. "Eight to 10 rookies in our lineup. We had a bit of a slow start this year but I thought the team was on the right track. I guess it goes with the territory. As a coach you're judged on wins and losses."

Savard was good with the rookies and youth. And there was and is a lot of them. But as far as the "wins and losses" part goes, the Blackhawks had a record of 40-34-8 last season and barely missed the playoffs. The year before they were in fubar land and had a 31-42-9 record finishing at basement level in the West.
So the Hawks were a little slow out of the gate this season. It was only 4 games in! Jeezus. This reeks of a higher-quality coach applying for the job, or being available and Savard getting canned because of his lesser experience. Scott Bowman alluded to that in the press conference today.
Unwarranted in my opinion. But as a pundit maybe I don't know the whole story. From afar it smells like bullshit though.
Before the season started I had my questions about the Hawks making the playoffs this year. The biggest reasons for that were:
1. Kane and Toews were no longer under the radar and would be checked a lot closer.
2. They kept getting rid of their veteran players like Lang, Kevin Adams, Yannic Perreault, etc.
Now the 2 oldest players on this team are the 2 goalies, Huet and Khabibulin at 33 and 35 years old respectively. The other "oldies" would be:
1. Brent Sopel (31 years old. A leader? Not sure.)
2. Craig Adams (31 years old.)
The rest are all under 30. Is it too much to ask for Kane (19 years old) and Toews (20 years old) to carry this team? I think so. This group still needs more time. Obviously the organization wants to win right bloody now. Joel Quenneville will do just as good as Savard would have. Once again, that is just my opinion.

Quenneville press conference video here.

T Tags: Blackhawks+fire+coach+Denis+Savard Joel+Quenneville+new+coach

Ted Nolan fired

"Ted has helped us achieve some success over the last two seasons, however it has become clear that we have philosophical differences and have decided together to part ways," general manager Garth Snow said in a release. "Since last season and continuing into the summer, I have realized we do not share the same philosophies."

Philosophies. I bet Nolan must be thinking of one in particular, and that is that Garth Snow has not provided Nolan with any decent talent in the coach's 2 years at the helm. I mean, c'mon, Guerin, Fedotenko and Comrie were acquired last summer. Those 3 aren't going to get the Isles into the playoffs, or even put up a lot of points. And they didn't.
2 years ago the Isles snuck into the playoffs on the last game of the regular season with a team that looked like this. Quite the differencce. But the skill level of players on Long Island has gone south ever since. Take a look at who is signed for this coming season. Snow has a lot of work to do. Signing an aging Doug Weight to click once again with an aging Bill Guerin is hardly the right answer, Garth.

Nolan's record on the Island was 75-68-21.

For a more in depth look at the Snow-Nolan relationship, check out this blog from a guy named Chris Botta, who worked 20 years in the Islanders' organization.

T Tags: Ted+Nolan+fired Islanders+coach Garth+Snow+sucks