Coaching Carousel Creates Caustic Canadians Cantankerous Cacophony

It didn't take very long for the Ottawa Senators and the Minnesota Wild to find replacements to their underachieving former coaching staffs. But there is a few glaring things that the mainstream media isn't quite talking about (or find enough reason to bring up) is that these two coaches hired within days of one another are retreads from other NHL teams. And then there are the Montreal Canadians who sources tell me have fans that are quite tired of Michel Therrien's second tour of duty there. They demand a French-Canadian coach and two of them have just been gobbled up by other teams. And as a side note, Marc Crawford, who is assumed to, wants to get another kick at the can and getting an assistant job with the Senators.

Bruce Boudreau has come from successful teams with the Capitals and Ducks, however, both of those teams have underachieved mightily. He had plenty of success building teams in the ECHL and American Hockey League before getting the call up to Washington D.C. His system brought a new resurgence to the Capitals utilizing Ovechkin in more ways than one by making him more of a two-way player. But his welcome was worn out by mid-season of 2011. The Ducks were also in a state of disarray looking for some way to generate offense easier than the Randy Carlyle coaching style. But again, the same pattern emerged as Bruce's playoff impotence arose once again. I think the Minnesota Wild will have a new direction with Bruce, but once they get into playoff contention, are the Wild going to go home early in the playoffs too? They already have that now with the coaches they had. This is where the bigger complaint of more rehashing of coaches comes from in guys that never seem to win at the major league level. Will the Wild just use Bruce to get them into better shape and then promote someone else to take over from there? We'll keep an eye out on how this new hire in the Twin Lakes transpires.

Guy Boucher on the other hand is another familiar face. Besides being a stand-in for a 007 villain, Boucher has been in a few teams before getting fired and winding up coaching in Switzerland. He's another guy similar to Boudreau in that he's been successful in the American Hockey League and the Quebec Major Junior League. He developed players for the Canadians in Hamilton, expecting to be called up eventually. But the Canadians went another way retreading Therrien and Boucher took the Tampa Bay Lightning job. He didn't last long in Tampa only fighting through some lean years and eventually getting fired in his third year of a four year contract. Again, I don't understand how Boucher could do better than what Ottawa had given that his past track record in the NHL isn't a great resume.

Senators general manager Pierre Dorion said they interviewed "just under 10" candidates to be their new coach.

The CBC article doesn't list the rest of the names they spoke to, but I wonder how many new names that could've gotten a chance to coach at the NHL level.

The "Rooney Rule" in the NFL is supposed to bring about changes in their coaching world exposing new candidates instead of rehashing familiar faces. It could very well work out for both Boudreau and Boucher in their respective teams, but once they get to a certain point, is it going to be another trip to the chopping block?

[Via:FOX Sports and CBC News]

Wild Fire in Canada's Capital

I am glad that this story is not marked with the inclusion of a major tragedy, but the surprise that something like this happened to a major league team. The Minnesota Wild's truck hauling their game equipment to the Scotiabank Place in Kanata, ON for the weekend game against the Senators. Now the Wild team is scrambling around to find replacement in time.

The cause of the fire is unknown and currently under investigation according to the TSN article. I am going to guess that there is going to be "firings" in the equipment managements department as they are the ones designated with the responsibility to transport everything.

[Via: TSN]

Heatley Traded to Sharks

The Dany Heatley vs Ottawa story has ended... for now.

The former 50-goal scorer was traded to the San Jose Sharks, along with a fifth-round pick in 2010 for forwards Jonathan Cheechoo and Milan Michalek and a second-round 2010 pick.

Even though some media pundits understood it was just a matter of time before Heatley was going to be traded, the main hold up was Ottawa being satisfied with the return value. When Heatley becomes troublesome again, will San Jose regret giving up Michalek and Cheechoo? If there was any doubt that Heatley wouldn't continue to open up to the media and provide another gem of insincerity, think again.

"I'm excited obviously, I'm excited to be a Shark," Heatley said. "I want to thank everyone in Ottawa, the organization, the fans, and the city. I had a great four years here (and) I'm happy to move on."

That would be a great example of a "left-handed compliment." Allow me to translate: "Hey, Ottawa, it's been real, but I really am glad I am not in your stinkin city anymore"

Unless these two teams meet in the Stanley Cup finals, the Sharks do not play a regular season game in Ottawa, but is scheduled to play the Senators in San Jose on December 1st.

[Via: Rogers Sportsnet]

Yea! Finally A Trade!

This hockey season has been thus far uneventful for the blockbuster trade, so ANY trade that happens is big news. The Ottawa Senators, who are holding on to a top ranking in the Eastern Conference, is bringing in two key players from the 2006-07 Stanley Cup to get them over the hump and to the promised land of hockey greatness.

Mike Commodore, a fan favorite in both Calgary and Carolina, came to national recognition after starting the trend of wearing white terrycloth bathrobes. He hits big and scores big from the blueline. Stillman is an aging and often injure-prone forward, but still has a scoring touch. This looks like a real good change of pace for the Sens, which many message board fans quickly judged this a huge steal for Bryan Murray. But what did good 'ol "JR", Jim Rutherford think of his end of the deal?

"We're very happy to address one of our needs, making our defence more mobile and adding a player like Joe that can play on the power play," Rutherford told The Canadian Press. "Also, we view Patrick as a real character player, a real good young player that can fit into our style of play.

The Canes were playing inconsistent and underachieving for a team one year removed from the Stanley Cup. Maybe this makes Carolina a better team when something clearly wasn't working.

As for me, I am glad there is a trade to talk about. Whoopie!

[Via: TSN.ca]