Peter Laviolette's Carolina Hurricanes made history this season for all the wrong reasons.(Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
Viewpoint: Scott Morrison
Final week grab-bag: Carolina's woes, traditional foes
Last Updated Wednesday, April 4, 2007
by Scott Morrison
In the midst of another curious week in the world of hockey, time to contemplate and perhaps even answer a few of the burning questions:
1. What happened to the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes?
In the span of a year, they went from holding the Cup to holding a share of a rather dubious record: of becoming, along with the faltering Edmonton Oilers, the first champion and finalist to both miss the playoffs the following season.
And they did so rather convincingly, though not quite as convincingly as the Oilers, who have managed to lose 17 of the past 18 games down the stretch. The Hurricanes, meantime, won just one of their past five games (and that required a mighty comeback and overtime to beat Florida) with a playoff spot and reputations both hanging in the balance.
There are no shortage of reasons for their demise, either. After a short and hectic summer, the Hurricanes were missing something, missing that "feeling" from the first day of training camp. They opened the season with four straight losses, got briefly untracked, but had a difficult time ever getting on a prolonged run. A couple of times they managed to win three in a row, but they were always followed by a couple of losses. Once they won five in a row through Christmas, but won just one of the next five. And so it went.
General manager Jimmy Rutherford said earlier in the season that his team was struggling to find the work ethic and intensity that made it successful last year, during the season and especially in the playoffs. But then, teams that make the long run through spring often do have trouble finding the switch the following year.
A variety of things conspired against the Hurricanes, from a few player departures they hadn't expected, to key and prolonged injuries, to Conn Smythe-winning goaltender Cam Ward experiencing growing pains and being forced to play too often, to star centre Eric Staal struggling at times. And many other reasons only made it worse.
It just may be as simple, too, that in this age of parity in the NHL, that success may go just as fast as it arrives. Nah, it is never that simple.
1a. Who, if anyone, takes the fall in Carolina?
That is a tough call. It certainly won't be Rutherford, but whether coach Peter Laviolette survives will surely be pondered internally for a while. There were obviously coaching decisions that were made, from the over-use at times of Ward to the non-use of players obtained through trades, that suggest the coach and GM were not on the same page.
But after winning the Cup, Laviolette was also rewarded with a long-term contract. Two questions have to be answered: can these two guys get on the same page and can the team afford to eat his contract if the first answer is no?
2. Who would be crazy enough to be the next coach of the New Jersey Devils?
You would be surprised by how many people would happily line up and accept a mediocre (by league standards) salary for the right to be the next guy fired by Lou Lamoriello, even when it apparently makes no sense whatsoever.
Not many big-league jobs come along, after all, even if this one has a shorter shelf life than most and a winning record doesn't necessarily guarantee employment. And coaches are usually equipped with that feeling they will be the one who does what few others have managed, which in this case would be survive a full season.
It may just be that assistant coach John MacLean, a former Devils star who is behind the bench with Lamoriello now (and was last season when Larry Robinson resigned) will get promoted. He is actually in his fifth season as an assistant with the Devils and may even be a good choice to become head coach, at least to start the year because there are no guarantees he would finish it.
2a. Was it the right decision firing Claude Julien?
Who the heck knows? As mentioned in the accompanying blog and as many of the reader replies have indicated, it is too soon to know and there appears to be much of the story still untold. If the sense was the players were starting to not respond to Julien, if too many bad habits were creeping in, or that the team wasn't being prepared properly, then perhaps it was. There just wasn't enough visible evidence to know for sure. This much we do know, it sure sends an absolutely horrible message that coaches with the record that Julien amassed can be dismissed.
3. Is there any chance Montreal and Toronto can both make the playoffs?
Yes, but the chances are slim, though not impossible.
It would require Montreal defeating the New York Rangers on Thursday night and the Rangers then losing their final game against Pittsburgh. It would then require the Maple Leafs beating the New York Islanders on Thursday and the Canadiens on Saturday night.
Stay tuned.
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About Scott
- Scott Morrison, the recipient of the Hockey Hall of Fame's 2006 Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award, has been covering hockey for 25 years. The Toronto native began his career at the Toronto Sun in 1979. After spending more than 11 years as a hockey writer and columnist at the paper, Morrison became Sports Editor in 1991 and led the section to being named one of North America's top-ten sports sections in 1999 - the first sports section in Canada to receive the AP Sports Editors North American Award. Scott, a former two-term president of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, joined Rogers Sportsnet in 2001 as Managing Editor, Hockey, and is currently both a commentator on Hockey Night in Canada and a columnist for CBC.ca.
