It has become a regular occurrence in professional sports-the recycled coach. The Carolina Hurricanes took it up a notch recently when they fired Peter Laviolette to re-hire Paul Maurice.
I have never been more stunned in my life. It's not as if the Hurricanes hired Scotty Bowman, or another well regarded Stanley Cup-winning coach, they hired Paul Maurice. A total bore and a failure. After getting run out of Raleigh in 2003, he shockingly got another job as the head coach in Toronto and again failed. Not only does he have a proven track record of ineptitude, his style bores the fans to tears, so it's not as if an exciting fast-paced brand of hockey is going to arouse interest among casual fans. It arouses tears, frustration and sleep.
Why did the Hurricanes hire him, you ask? Because he is a good friend of the GM, Jim Rutherford. That's a cute story. Unfortunately, you have a business and franchise to run. This isn't your grandson's recreational soccer team. This is a professional franchise. I find this move wholly unforgivable. After digesting this move for over a week, the only reasonable conclusion I can draw is that the Hurricanes want to move. Attendance has been lagging due to the economy, and this move will guarantee even more people will stay home. The losing will continue, and the style of play has become more unwatchable. There is no reason to go to the RBC Center anymore to support a franchise who values a personal friendship between the owner and GM with a man who has tried and failed at coaching much more than it's relationships with the city and fans, and it's duty to put an honorable product on the ice.
Jim Rutherford has made many moves which have benefited the Hurricanes greatly over the years, but this weird move trumps them all. It's time for you to be fired, Jim, your friendship with Raleigh is over. Unfortunately, Jim's friendship with the owner, Peter Karmanos is just as strong, so this is not going to happen. Go ahead and move the Hurricanes to Winnipeg. The strong friendship bond between the owner-GM-coach has superseded common sense, and has survived the loss of millions of dollars over the years. Canadian winters are no match for that.
3 comments:
Could be worse, what if GM was friends with Art Shell or Rick Majereous
You probably know I don't follow hockey the way I used to, but I too was shocked by this move. As an interesting side note, I actually learned about the move through George's facebook status, not through ESPN or SI.com or anything like that. The power of social networking sites... But I digress.
I really don't understand the Maurice hiring at all. I saw some comment where Rutherford (I think it was him) said that coaching the Maple Leafs preps you for anything.. I thought that was completely retarded. How does going to coach a big team for a few years and having losing season after losing season further qualify you to come back and retake the reins of the team that you previously had had many other losing seasons with? Doesn't that just prove that other than the glorious 2002 Cup Finals run, you basically just lose a lot? Eh, like you said, I guess friendship is more important than actual coaching ability. The Hurricanes will undoubtedly be worse off because of this move. I am as baffled as you, Snoop...
I don't know what you are talking about. Mo is a proven .400 coach. In baseball, you get in the hall of fame for hitting .400. So what if he has only won 1 out of 4 games. Thanks JR for hiring your boyfriend and screwing the fans. Fire the best coach the Canes have ever had, bring in the worst coach they have ever had.
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