Here are the numbers: The Phoenix Coyotes are 32-37-7 this season and have missed the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
The team is 139-159-24 (.469) since the current coach took over four seasons ago. The Desert Dogs have never made the playoffs under this coach and their best finish was fourth in the Division, 38-37-7 in 2007-08.
Under normal circumstances this guy would be done.
But in Phoenix (or Glendale, Ariz., for the sake of accuracy), the coaching situation is a little more complicated.
After all, Coyotes co-owner Wayne Gretzky, the Great One, “the best of all time,” is the head coach.
“I wouldn’t fire him. Would you fire him?’ said one NHL executive we asked last night, a guy who screamed for anonymity.
“How would you like to be (Coyotes president) Doug Moss, walking into the Great One’s office to tell him to clean out his desk? How long do you think Moss would last?”
Not long. Gretzky was the guy who fired the TV announcer, Curt Keilback, and the PR guy, Rich Nairn, after the tem had a bad year in 2006-07 as if it was their fault. That’s been Gretzky’s history as a coach. Blame somebody else.
Sadly, it doesn’t work that way when you wield so much power. Gretzky is the team’s managing partner, alternate governor and head coach. He has complete control over all personnel. This disaster of a franchise has his stamp on it.
How owner Jerry Moyes can look into the empty stands and then watch that horrible team on the ice every night make ones wonder how he sleeps. The Coyotes are a dog in every sense and the guy in control has been Wayne Gretzky.
Scotty Bowman, a legend who was fired in St. Louis after taking the Blues to two Stanley Cup finals and was then fired in Buffalo with a record of 210-134-60, has to wonder what it takes anymore.
This league has been full of good coaches who were fired.
Meanwhile, Wayne Gretzky, who has always been a rare commodity, is now the rarest of them all — a weak player personnel guy and bad coach who keeps his job.
By the way, I probably wouldn’t try to fire him, either.
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Our Congratulations
Congratulations to Manitoba Junior Hockey League alumni Ian Lowe and Ryan Adams of Bemidji State University.
On Sunday, Bemidji State beat Cornell 4-1 to reach NCAA hockey’s Frozen Four for the first time in the school’s history..
Lowe is a former member of the Swan Valley Stampeders while Adams is former OCN Blizzard forward.
On April 9, Bemidji will face the Miami of Ohio Redhawks in the national semifinal. The only other Manitoban in the Frozen Four is Winnipeg-born Colin Wilson of heavily-favoured Boston University.
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