It's a Tough Job, but Somebody's Gotta Do It
Recently the NHL has seen two of it's major Canadian markets fire head coaches after seasons gone awry. Pat Quinn and Marc Crawford were shown the door in Toronto and Vancouver respectively, despite both making the postseason in every full season they coached for the teams that let them go. This fact lends itself to the reality that work in the NHL is everyone's dream, but it's not an easy job, and it is by no means secure - regardless of whether or not it should be. Allow me to explain.
For as long as I have been covering hockey, I have been beating the drum that firing the coach is not the answer for a team's woes in 99% of situations. It's just the easiest answer to a question that has plagued GMs since the dawn of time - what's wrong with my team? GMs, like everyone else in the world, are human, and when they see that the team they put together is failing, they would much rather put the blame on a scapegoat than accept it for themselves. So it's then decided that it's not the assembly of players gathered by the GM who have faltered, but rather the way those players were coached, and guys like Quinn and Crawford get the axe.
So in these two cases, I'll continue to beat the drum that it was not the right move to fire the coach for either Toronto or Vancouver. Quinn sits second all-time among Leafs' coaches in wins, made the playoffs every year since he arrived, got out of the first round in every one of those years, and finished comfortably above .500 in each of his seven seasons in Toronto. As far as Crawford is concerned, the man has a Stanley Cup ring, also made the playoffs every season he coached in Vancouver (except for 1999, when he was brought in at the halfway point), also finished above .500 every season he spent in Vancouver, and was liked by most of his players and respected by them all. However these credentials were not enough to keep these two veteran, potential Hall of Fame coaches in a job, which boils down to the same common denominator - a young, inexperienced general manager running the show.
Toronto's John Ferguson Jr. was a longtime Quinn detractor behind closed doors, and the two never saw eye-to-eye. He made atrocious offseason acquisitions, constructing a roster so poor that most felt the team was an obvious longshot to make the playoffs. Yet even when Pat Quinn got them to within two points of a playoff spot, he was fired anyway due to a lack of experience and managerial intelligence on Ferguson's behalf. You don't just up and fire Pat Quinn, especially not to replace him with Paul Maurice, which is a lesson JFJ may be in the process of learning the hard way.
In Vancouver, Dave Nonis did an okay job until the trade deadline. Everyone thought he was pushing his team up the Western Conference ladder by acquiring Eric Weinrich, Keith Carney, Sean Brown, and Mika Noronen, but he wasn't. He was giving away nothing to get nothing. Weinrich was a bust, coming to BC still in a St. Louis state of mind, where losing was the norm and you didn't play to win. Carney was another bust, as he bumbled and fumbled around the ice with a look of utter bewilderment for how quickly the game was moving. Sean Brown played like Sean Brown, and you need look no further than his -14 rating in the 35 games he played before going to Vancouver to get an idea of what that meant. Noronen saw very little ice, and didn't look great, but he was a major upgrade from Maxime Ouellet in the backup role. And when these acquisitions flopped and the team went in the tank, whose fault was it? Why, not Dave Nonis', he's a cap wizard! It had to be Marc Crawford's coaching! Well no, it really wasn't. The Canucks would have been fine with the roster they had, and I'd venture it would be them playing Detroit, Dallas, or Calgary now had Nonis not made so many foolish moves at the deadline.
My point in all of this is that two exceptional NHL coaches lost their jobs recently because two inexperienced GMs made stupid decisions. For all the talk of how failure will not be tolerated and the Leafs and Canucks need to go in a new direction, it makes one wonder why such strict guidelines aren't followed when assessing general managers. I guess that's the way it goes for upper management in the NHL. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it. The Opinion Blog of Matthew Ryder
For as long as I have been covering hockey, I have been beating the drum that firing the coach is not the answer for a team's woes in 99% of situations. It's just the easiest answer to a question that has plagued GMs since the dawn of time - what's wrong with my team? GMs, like everyone else in the world, are human, and when they see that the team they put together is failing, they would much rather put the blame on a scapegoat than accept it for themselves. So it's then decided that it's not the assembly of players gathered by the GM who have faltered, but rather the way those players were coached, and guys like Quinn and Crawford get the axe.
So in these two cases, I'll continue to beat the drum that it was not the right move to fire the coach for either Toronto or Vancouver. Quinn sits second all-time among Leafs' coaches in wins, made the playoffs every year since he arrived, got out of the first round in every one of those years, and finished comfortably above .500 in each of his seven seasons in Toronto. As far as Crawford is concerned, the man has a Stanley Cup ring, also made the playoffs every season he coached in Vancouver (except for 1999, when he was brought in at the halfway point), also finished above .500 every season he spent in Vancouver, and was liked by most of his players and respected by them all. However these credentials were not enough to keep these two veteran, potential Hall of Fame coaches in a job, which boils down to the same common denominator - a young, inexperienced general manager running the show.
Toronto's John Ferguson Jr. was a longtime Quinn detractor behind closed doors, and the two never saw eye-to-eye. He made atrocious offseason acquisitions, constructing a roster so poor that most felt the team was an obvious longshot to make the playoffs. Yet even when Pat Quinn got them to within two points of a playoff spot, he was fired anyway due to a lack of experience and managerial intelligence on Ferguson's behalf. You don't just up and fire Pat Quinn, especially not to replace him with Paul Maurice, which is a lesson JFJ may be in the process of learning the hard way.
In Vancouver, Dave Nonis did an okay job until the trade deadline. Everyone thought he was pushing his team up the Western Conference ladder by acquiring Eric Weinrich, Keith Carney, Sean Brown, and Mika Noronen, but he wasn't. He was giving away nothing to get nothing. Weinrich was a bust, coming to BC still in a St. Louis state of mind, where losing was the norm and you didn't play to win. Carney was another bust, as he bumbled and fumbled around the ice with a look of utter bewilderment for how quickly the game was moving. Sean Brown played like Sean Brown, and you need look no further than his -14 rating in the 35 games he played before going to Vancouver to get an idea of what that meant. Noronen saw very little ice, and didn't look great, but he was a major upgrade from Maxime Ouellet in the backup role. And when these acquisitions flopped and the team went in the tank, whose fault was it? Why, not Dave Nonis', he's a cap wizard! It had to be Marc Crawford's coaching! Well no, it really wasn't. The Canucks would have been fine with the roster they had, and I'd venture it would be them playing Detroit, Dallas, or Calgary now had Nonis not made so many foolish moves at the deadline.
My point in all of this is that two exceptional NHL coaches lost their jobs recently because two inexperienced GMs made stupid decisions. For all the talk of how failure will not be tolerated and the Leafs and Canucks need to go in a new direction, it makes one wonder why such strict guidelines aren't followed when assessing general managers. I guess that's the way it goes for upper management in the NHL. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it. The Opinion Blog of Matthew Ryder
posted by Matthew Ryder at 8:18 AM
9 Comments:
moving quinn was A GREAT IDEA.
it was time for change
I definitely agree with the idea that a lot of the time it is the general manager's assembly of the team that causes the fault. It's very hard for a coach to coach a team into the playoffs when they don't have anywhere near the talent needed to do so.
JFJ had to make this Quinn move. Because had Ferguson kept Quinn on another year, and it was another playoff miss, then it's both Ferguson's job that's lost, along with Quinn.
Initially I thought it would be a parade in Toronto, but the reaction has but way more negative than that.
It's a great point. Ferguson gave Quinn Allison, who cannot skate by the way, Eric Lindros, who once again came nowhere close to playing a full season Alex Khavanov was playing a 4th defenseman role that he was no where near good enough to play in. On top of that he dealt Klee, who was still relatively young and was to me, a bright spot, for another old useless bum in Richardson.
NOT QUINNS FAULT!!
Disrespect considering he dragged a terrible team to 2 points within a spot, and that he had this Leafs in the playoffs for many years before.
Terrible idea bringing in a completely unexperienced young GM in Ferugson by the owners to being with. It's proving costly right now.
*begin
there's no doubt crawford was the better move out of these two firings. Crawford had the talent, Quinn didn't. In the end the Leafs ended up closer than the nucks to a spot.
If Quinn was kept, then we'd all be complaning about that happening. Either way the leafs fans will whine!
With Crawford, Nonis had to make a reaction.
There was nothing wrong with the gming here. Crawford had all the talent. But Crawford didn't get it to work.
NSU - 4efer, 5210 - rulez
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