Columnist image

Host, TSN The Reporters with Dave Hodge

| Archive

My thumb is up to the next NHL coach to be fired, especially if he has never been fired before. Let me explain. The best hockey coaches get fired. That's how they improve. 18 current NHL coaches have been fired a total of 32 times. Two leading contenders for the Jack Adams Award are Nashville's Peter Laviolette and Winnipeg's Paul Maurice, fired three times each.

It seems easy to conclude that they are better at their current jobs for the fact they've had a few others. LA's Darryl Sutter has won two Stanley Cups after being fired three times. Joel Quenneville has two Stanley Cups in Chicago that followed two less successful stints in Colorado and St. Louis.

Claude Julien, Mike Babcock, and Laviolette also celebrated championships with teams that didn't bring them into the NHL.

So when you hear that Mike Yeo or Craig Berube might not make it to the end of this season, feel good for them and the nine other coaches who haven't yet been fired for the first time--the best is yet to come.

--

My thumb is down to the potential that exists for a complete lack of late-season excitement in the NHL's Eastern Conference, the kind of excitement that comes with a close and hectic playoff race.

With 16 teams in the East as opposed to 14 teams in the West, it figures that more teams will remain alive longer in the larger conference. Obviously not, because If you're hoping for a compelling stretch run in the East, you're basically pinning that hope on…..wait for it… Florida and Toronto.

The Panthers are currently four points out of the eighth and last playoff spot, and the Leafs are another three points back, so never mind the idea that things might not be too interesting in early April, the eight playoff teams in the East could be decided well before that.

The Western Conference promises to be tighter, especially because the Pacific Division is so bunched behind front-running Anaheim. I know it's supposed to matter how the playoff teams line up and what the first-round match ups will be, but the LA Kings' two Stanley Cup runs have shown that it really doesn't matter. Making or missing the playoffs does.