My friends at Vancouver Canucks Op Ed fired back at my analysis of the Paul Maurice firing in Carolina:
Maurice's firing is questionable because it appears to be purely about 'change' rather than 'progress'. Yes, other teams fire for this reason all the time, but it may be counterproductive in this case. Maurice was extremely fortunate to coach an NHL team for so long, especially given his age, but does that mean it's simply his time to be fired?
I take the point, but it's kind of hard to argue that Maurice was experiencing anymore forward progress with the Hurricanes. Following the playoff run to the Finals in 2002 (91 standings points and a Southeast Division title), the Hurricanes crashed and crashed hard in 2003, finishing with 61 points -- dead last in the NHL. I don't care about the injury situation, or recent history of losers in the Stanley Cup Finals following that performance up with a season of futility, that should have been more than enough to get Maurice fired. Yet the Hurricanes stuck with him.
What's worse, the performance in 2002-03 completely destroyed the momentum the Hurricanes had at the box office. In 2001-02, the Hurricanes averaged 15,508 fans per game -- an increase of about 2,200 fans per game over the previous year.
In the wake of their run to the Finals, attendance creeped up only a few hundred fans per game. However, most of the big crowds arrived in the first half of the season, energized by the playoff run the previous year. Once it was clear the 'Canes were going nowhere but Myrtle Beach, the crowds thinned out, and haven't come back. This year, Carolina is dead last in home attendance (11,673), with crowds off about 20 percent from 2002-03.
Sorry, but a record of 8-12-8-2 and fourth place in the weakest division in the league isn't enough to put fannies back in the seats. This wasn't just change for change's sake alone, this was a sound business decision to try to inject some energy into a failing franchise. Even better, the sort of system that new head coach Peter Laviolette favors, might just inject the kind of excitement the Hurricanes desperately seem to need:
In eight-plus seasons, Maurice was 268-307-99. While always respected for his hockey intelligence, Maurice was regularly criticized for his devotion to the neutral-zone trap.[Hurricanes GM Jim] Rutherford wants Laviolette to introduce the more up-tempo, offensive brand of hockey that he used with the Islanders.
"Just watching from a distance his two years with the Islanders, I like the way that team played," Rutherford said. "They created a lot of things, scored a lot of shorthanded goals."
Sounds like the sort of recipe that might actually jumpstart things in Carolina -- which is good news, as the top of the division isn't exactly out of reach at this point of the season.
Okay, okay, okay. We give in!
It was fun being ‘contrary’ for a while, but now our heads are starting to hurt from the effort of defending this guy.
See ya, Paul Maurice.