Wednesday, April 15, 2009

And Yet Again; I am Right

Blogger: Vance
Back on January 5th, what seems like eons ago. I put up a post gauging the hot seat of NHL coaches. Included in this list was none other than Craig MacTavish. This is what I said.
Craigers reacts to the ending of The Notebook.

Craig MacTavish - Edmonton Oilers
The last vestige of the helmetless era, one of the heroes of the Rangers Cup win, role player of the Oilers Dynasty, and he was Dany Heatley before there was Dany Heatley (too soon? Yeah, probably.) But here we have a coach that's been with the Oilers since 2000, only led them to the playoffs 3 times, and has finished 4th or worse in the division every other year. How many passes will he get? He can't keep living off Fernando Pisani's epic run to the finals in 2006, can he? This has got to be his last chance, currently sitting 10th in the west, MacTavish's chances? Well, I'd say about the same as San Jose winning the West.
Well, once again the Hockey Gods have proven to be with me, as not only did San Jose win the West (what a limb I went out on there) but Craig MacTavish has indeed been fired by the Edmonton Oilers. Word has it, and by word I mean TSN, that the Oilers will search far and wide, both young and experienced, to fill the void behind the bench. So obviously that means that Guy Carbonneau, Pat Quinn, and Peter Laviolette, will all be interviewed.

Turns out; like my playing days, I'm not sure what's goin' on around me.

But here's a wild card, if they truly want to go the route of unknowns, a la John Anderson and Craig Hartsburg, how bout former Sabre, Predator, Penguin, Flame, Cane, and Avalanche defensement Bob Boughner, who recently was awarded the OHL's Coach of the Year for 2008-2009. His second Matt Leyden Trophy in a row. He led the Windsor Spitfires to an utterly impressive record of 57-10-0-1. Unfortunately, in the old NHL guard, he won't get an interview.

But really, was this firing all that hard to pick up on? Not at all. It's been a long time coming, regardless of any Darryl Katz text message claiming otherwise. I think I did pretty well picking the fired coaches, Therrien, Hartsburgh, Carbonneau, and now MacTavish. This is me strokin' the ole ego, even if they disprove of strokin' it during work hours.

Where I did pathetically terrible was St. Louis, Andy Murray was not fired, but rather should be a Jack Adams candidate. To him I apologize and wish him all the luck against Vancouver.
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
 
Fact: BanginPanger is not meant as an insult to the one and only Darren Pang, nor do I claim to be him. The views and opinions presented on BanginPanger are of my own, and no other namesake of the site, the NHL, Buffalo Sabres, Washington Capitals, or anyone else.