Coaches Come and Go, But GM's Last Forever

[Dr. Jack]

Coaches Come and Go, But GM's Last Forever

by NHL Guru, Rink Rat

The Rink Rat has long thought the least advanced area in hockey was
coaching. There they are behind the bench of NHL teams, great haircut and
terrific suit, well all except Ken Hitchcock of course, pacing up and down,
waving their arms, whispering with their assistants, shouting profanities,
waggling their fingers at the referees, calling the occasional time out and,
when the final buzzer sounds, practically sprinting down the tunnel.

Later, captured on TV, they spout mind-numbing clichés and then soon
after they're fired. Gotta be more to it than that. But consider these
names: Al Sims, Bob Berry, Pierre Creamer, Bob Murdoch, Bill Dineen, Michel
Bergeron, Lorne Henning, Barry Melrose, and Tom Webster. Each one of them -
hired, coached, and
fired.

Thanks for the memories.

In each case a general manager hopped up to the microphone and declared
each beaming new coach a 'good fit,' or whatever silly phrase was popular at
the time. Soon that same gm decided his team should 'move in a different
direction' or 'go to a new level' and in order to realize that direction or
level, well, sorry
Bob or Pierre or Tom, you've got to go.

This season has seen three coaches given the bum's rush. San Jose
Sharks exchange one veteran coach for another, Calgary Flames dumped an
inexperienced coach for a fossil, and Colorado has foisted a man with four
months as an assistant coach - that means he puts the cones out on the ice
before practice - on Patrick Roy.

This could be fun. Except that people's careers are at stake here.
Time and again we see decisions which vary between strange, puzzling, and
down right weird. Mario Tremblay in Montreal was spectacularly inept; Bryan
Trottier of the Rangers gives the impression of being in over his head;
Jersey's Pat Burns hasn't learned anything from his previous coaching
stints; Mike Keenan wages war with his own players; Bruce Cassidy can't
handle Jaromir Jagr in Washington; Greg Gilbert likely wasn't ready in
Calgary, and Tony Granato may have produced his first mistake in his first
press conference as coach of the Avalanche. Good luck boys, and don't buy a
house.

Perhaps the problem isn't so much the constant parade of lousy coaches
through the league, but the constant parade of stupid decisions by the
league's general managers. What does it take to get one of these guys
fired? No-one knows for sure because the occurrence is so rare. No general
manager in living
memory has been fired because of his hiring practices. Look at Calgary
general manager Craig Button. He made a hash of first coach Don Hay, then
did little better with Gilbert, has ancient Al MacNeil in place now and, if
he lasts long enough, will hire the next Flames coach. He will? Sure. The
team's owner insists Button has the authority. Ridiculous. Button should
have been fired before Gilbert.

NHL teams put a lot of money into their players' development and insist
those players demonstrate a minimum competence before handing them a roster
spot. Smart teams insist their head coach have previous experience as a
boss. But seldom do people appointed general managers have much practice
running
anything, which may account for the poor quality gm's around the league.

the Rat can be reached via email @ rsbookiekiller@hotmail.com