Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford seems to be indicating that in spite of a rollercoaster start to the season, head coach Peter Laviolette’s job is safe. “With what our team’s gone through with the number of injuries and whatnot, to consider making any changes early in November I think would have been way premature,” said Rutherford. This means Laviolette will be fired soon.
No, seriously — this is the NHL. Laviolette has been at the helm for more than four years, which is an eternity in the league. Tampa Bay lured the well-preserved mullet of Barry Melrose out of a long career in broadcasting for a head coaching stint of exactly 16 games; the NHL is famous for its mix-and-match approach to coaching. And while Laviolette’s last four seasons include one Stanley Cup, they also include three failures to make the playoffs, which is odd, because I thought every team made the playoffs in the NHL. Oh well.
So: either the ‘Canes pick it up before the end of the year, or Peter Laviolette becomes the winningest American-born coach to be featured on the intermission report on Versus. Mark it down.
[Canes Country: Laviolette Given a Vote of Confidence]
2 responses so far ↓
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Normally, I’d agree. But this is Jim Rutherford.
The thing to remember here is that Rutherford is fiercely loyal to the point where it can even be bad for the team. Look at the way the team was handled in the off-season following the ‘02 run to the finals or the amount of time Rutherford took to ditch Paul Maurice in spite of some truly awful hockey from the team.
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[...] this blog is like getting tomorrow’s news today - we predicted nearly two weeks ago that Laviolette would be out before the end of the year, and that has come to pass. The hand writing on the wall spelled “12-11-2,” total [...]
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