Canes fire Laviolette, bring back Maurice

December 3, 2008   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

In a surprising move, the Carolina Hurricanes fired coach Peter Laviolette earlier today replacing him with former coach Paul Maurice.

Recently, Laviolette became the winningest American coach in league history passing John Tortorella with his 244 wins five more than the ex-Lightning coach. In five seasons, Laviolette guided Carolina to a 167-130-30 record including winning the Whaler/Hurricanes franchise’s only Stanley Cup when they defeated the Edmonton Oilers in seven games three years ago.

While it’s true the Canes were mediocre at best with a 12-11-2 record good for 26 points and eighth in the conference, they also were without star right wing Justin Williams who’s gone for the season. Perhaps just missing out on the playoffs the last couple of seasons was enough to warrant Laviolette’s loss of faith from GM Jim Rutherford.

Still, I can’t help but wonder if this is a panic move as Maurice seems like a step down even though he got them to the Cup Final in 2002 before losing to Detroit in five.

In any event, Rutherford made the move and had this to say:

“When you look at our team right now, I would say that without counting to the exact number or identifying names, we probably have a handful of players that are playing to our expectation. That leaves an awful lot of players that have more to give.”

I can’t help but admire that last part about players not giving their best which reminds me of some underperforming players on Broadway who pull nice checks even though the club remains in first heading into tonight’s showdown with the Penguins.

Anyway, I gotta run. Be back later with a report on how the Ranger new lines do. Wonder if the coach read this site?