Laviolette Fired, Maurice back

Wow

 

dude. quit fucking with me. Paul Maurice? I'm done if that's the case.

 

from the team's release:
RALEIGH, NC—Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, announced today the team has relieved Peter Laviolette of his coaching duties and that Paul Maurice will assume the role of head coach. Rutherford also announced that Ron Francis has been named the team’s associate coach, and that the remainder of the team’s coaching staff will remain in place.

“This is a real strong addition with Paul and Ronnie leading our coaching staff,” said Rutherford. “As we go into a very tough group of games in December, my hope is that the coaches make minor adjustments to the system and the players regain their confidence.

“We would like to thank Peter for his years of service to the Hurricanes organization, and we wish him and his family the best moving forward.”

Maurice, 41, returns to Carolina as the winningest coach in franchise history, having scored 268 wins in his 674 regular-season games coached during his eight-plus seasons with the team, from Nov. 6, 1995, until Dec. 15, 2003. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., native has amassed a coaching record of 344-357-137 record in 11 NHL seasons with the Carolina franchise and the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he coached in 2006-07 and 2007-08. Maurice guided the Hurricanes to the 2002 Eastern Conference title and two Southeast Division crowns during his first stint as the team’s head coach.

This marks Francis’ first coaching assignment since his retirement as a player in 2005. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., native was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2007 as the NHL’s second all-time assists leader (1,249), third all-time games-played leader (1,731) and fourth all-time scoring leader (1,798 points). He played 16 of his 23 NHL seasons with the Carolina franchise and is the team’s all-time leader in nearly every statistical category. Francis, 45, has served as the Hurricanes’ director of player development since November 2006, and was named the assistant general manager on Oct. 4, 2007. Jason Karmanos will reassume the role of vice president and assistant general manager which he held from 1998-2007, before rejoining the team this year as executive director of hockey operations.

 

adding Franchise is awesome, but adding Maurice is horrible.

 

lol, someone texted me that, I thought they were joking. Didn't they fire Mo partly because his offensive system was too conservative? Now they Canes can't score again so they hire him back. I bet the next coach is Kevin Dineen.

 

Ummmmm, why didn't they go after Ted Nolan ? ? ? ? I'm not sure regressing back to the Coach Mo days is gonna work this time (yeah, yeah he took the Canes to the Cup Finals back in '02, I remember that . . . ). I say let Ron Francis be the coach and lets see what he can do.

 

.....
Francis has never coached before so instead of just throwing him in and giving him the head coach job they ease him in as an assistant. They hire Maurice back b/c he and Francis have a good rapport and he can act as a mentor. Apparently Maurice only signed a deal though the end of the season, so Francis could very well be the head coach this coming training camp.

 

I'm down with that.

 

3 year deal for Maurice? Guess it's a good idea to let Francis get some more experience.


CANES SIGN COACH MAURICE TO THREE-YEAR CONTRACT
The Carolina Hurricanes want more of Maurice.

The team signed head coach Paul Maurice to a new three-year contract, it announced on Monday.

Maurice, 42, is in his second stint behind the bench for the Hurricanes, and last season led the team to its first playoff appearance since its Stanley Cup-winning run in 2006. Maurice, who was not coaching the team that season, previously coached the Hartford Whalers/Hurricanes franchise from 1995-2003, leading them to the Stanley Cup finals in 2002.

The Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario native went on to coach the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2006 to 2008 before being fired and re-joining the Hurricanes last December.

"When Paul came in, he did a really good job of bringing the coaching staff together," said team general manager Jim Rutherford. "They had good chemistry, and the delegation of certain areas where everybody felt they had an important role in the staff worked well."

The rest of the Canes' coaching staff remains intact as will, with a few title changes.

Ron Francis is now associate head coach and director of player personnel.

Tom Barrasso, who was formerly known as the team's goaltending coach, has received the title of assistant coach, though he will still work with the Canes' goalies.

Assistant coaches Tom Rowe and Kevin McCarthy will continue in their current roles.

Last season, the Hurricanes struggled mid-season but finished up strongly with 97 points (45-30-7), good enough for sixth in the Eastern Conference. After eliminating the New Jersey Devils and the Boston Bruins from the NHL playoffs in two straight seven-game series, Carolina was swept by the eventual Stanley Cup-winning Pittsburgh Penguins in the Conference Final.

Maurice is the winningest coach in franchise history with 301 wins in 731 games.

Rutherford said that his presence greatly improved the team's outlook following two seasons of not making the playoffs after winning the Cup in 2005-06.

"That chemistry then that flowed over into the team," Rutherford said. "The players bought into it and bought into the adjustments that were made. I really felt that Paul did an exceptional job at that, which really helped in the overall picture."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

 

Laviolette Fired Maurice back

I did back them already. A little curious what your record is on these picks?