You Know What They Say, They Are Hired To Be Fired

In the last month, 5 coaches have been fired, 4 of them head coaches. Perry Pearn was an assistant coach for the Montreal Canadiens, until about a month ago. Davis Payne was head coach of the St. Louis Blues until 2 weeks ago. And Paul Maurice (Carolina Hurricanes), Bruce Boudreau (Washington Capitals) and Randy Carlyle (Anaheim Ducks) all in the last week. However Boudreau, was hired in place of Carlyle with the Ducks just 2 days after being fired. The beneficiaries of these head coach firing's are: Kirk Muller (Carolina Hurricanes), Ken Hitchcock (St. Louis Blues), Dale Hunter (Washington Capitals) and Bruce Boudreau (Anaheim Ducks). It is interesting how so many coaches are fired pretty early in the year. And in someone like Paul Maurice's case, to a team that didn't necessarily have too big of expectations. I guess GM's and management have decided that if the team isn't performing by the quarter mark of the year, it's time to pull the plug. And rightfully so. A stat shows that post-lockout 71.9% of teams that are in the playoffs at the quarter point of the year make it in to the playoffs at the end of the year. one thing that will be interesting to see is how Dale Hunter does in Washington. Some people may remember him as a Capital in the 80's and 90's. Hunter is making the jump from junior coaching to NHL coaching, which hasn't gone too well in the past. In fact, that jump has only worked a couple of times. Some notably good junior coaches that didn't do to well in the NHL and are currently in junior are: Craig Hartsburg and Don Hay. Both these coaches have had tonnes of success at the junior level, and at the junior international level, but couldn't get it done at the NHL level. Which begs the question, Why? Is it the Pressure? The players? I don't know. But good luck Dale Hunter. You and all the other new coaches have quite a bit of work to do.