ESPN REPORT: The Carlton Football Club head coach is being fired due to…
The New Jersey Devils have fired head coach Lindy Ruff, making him the ninth head coach in the NHL to lose their job in 2023–2024.
Furthermore, he is the most recent illustration of why sitting behind an NHL bench could be the most disposable job in all of sports. Twenty-five head coaches have been sacked during the NHL season in the previous five years.
In what way does that differ from other sports? According to ESPN Stats & Information research, in the same length of time, there have been 32 in-season coaching/managerial changes in Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NFL combined. With thirteen, the NFL has the most. Major League Baseball has nine, while the NBA is in second place with ten.
Former Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said, “To be honest with you, I thought the number would have been a little bit higher.” “I am aware that the past 16 to 18 months have been quite busy. It’s quite a bit. However, it does occur.”
There are a number of reasons why NHL teams lose head coaches at a far faster pace than their MLB, NBA, and NFL counterparts.
Editor’s Selections
Seeking a spark, the fiery devil Ruff, forward Green 44d
Watch the NHL Awards: Kucherov leads for the Hart 44dWyshynski, Greg
NHL trade deadline rankings updated by Wyshynski: the top 40 players who might be traded before 3 p.m.
40d Greg Wyshynski
Every circumstance has its subtleties. Almost all in-season coaching changes have one thing in common: management has reached a breaking point. The seven clubs who have fired coaches this season all had playoff hopes going into the season; these teams range from the Edmonton Oilers, who were the preseason front-runners for the Stanley Cup, to the Ottawa Senators, who had one of the league’s busiest offseasons.
Either a poor start or a squad experiencing a free fall caused that final point of separation. The Oilers’ bad start—they had lost 10 of their first 12 games—was what forced them to make a change by the middle of November. The Senators followed suit following an 11–15 start that saw them progressively drop out of the postseason conversation after dropping five of six games in mid-December.
The New York Islanders and Los Angeles Kings were in free fall. After starting 20-7-4, the Kings—another team that could contend for the Stanley Cup—lost 14 of their next 17 games before altering their roster at the All-Star Break. After losing nine of their next 11 games and replacing Lane Lambert with Patrick Roy, the Islanders were 17-9-9.
The Kings and Oilers were the only two clubs out of the six that switched coaches prior to Ruff’s dismissal to start the season in a postseason position on Tuesday. The Senators trailed by 19 points, while the Blues, Islanders, and Minnesota Wild were all more than five points out of the wild card. In the fight for wild cards, the Devils were eight points adrift of the front-running clubs.
NHL games can be seen on ESPN networks.
There will be one hundred only regular-season games on ESPN, ESPN+, Hulu, and ABC this season. ESPN+ customers will have access to over 1,000 out-of-market games with NHL PowerPlay on ESPN+.
• How to watch; • Sign up for ESPN+; • Watch NHL games live on ESPN
There’s also the idea that, given the difficulties teams continuously encounter in trying to trade players due to a salary cap that has gotten even more restrictive in recent years, changing coaches might be the easiest move to make.
According to NHL Coaches Association executive director Lindsay Pennal, “if a team has certain expectations from ownership and management, it’s going to be a GM who is let go or a coach who is let go.” “We are able to observe who gets chopped down. Teams in the NHL are prepared to make a decision if they have dropped a few games within a short period of time.”
The fact that the three NHL coaches with the longest tenures—Jon Cooper of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Mike Sullivan of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Jared Bednar of the Colorado Avalanche—show that perseverance pays off is promising, according to Pennal.
Five of the last eight Stanley Cups have been won by those three coaches, after all.
However, this season has seen the firing of several coaches who served as evidence that success and longevity have their limits. Over the course of his more than five seasons, Craig Berube won a Stanley Cup and guided the St. Louis Blues to four consecutive postseason trips. For four seasons in a row, Dean Evason guided the Wild into the postseason.
They were dismissed as well. Additionally, there was symmetry in their firings, which highlights the expectations of the team. Berube, Evason, and Jay Woodcroft were also in-season additions made when their respective teams felt a change was necessary. Woodcroft was fired after spending parts of three seasons in Edmonton.
The saying “hired to be fired” is therefore frequently used to describe NHL coaches.
“I can only surmise what coaches tell me, which is that this comes with the territory,” Pennal stated. They don’t stay together for very long as a team, but they move in circles a lot. They may be employed by a different team despite being sacked. They are capable of serving as NHL coaches for a very long time.”
Pennal is correct in pointing out that out of the seven teams who sacked their coach, four of them did so with a former NHL head coach. There are presently 15 head coaches in the NHL that have led another team in the past.
NHL 2024 Positional Rankings
The best 10 players at each position were determined by surveying a group of players, coaches, and executives. Who is selected?
• Centers; Wingers; Goalies; Defensemen; Become an ESPN+ member
Bylsma, who is currently the head coach of the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds, suggested that one reason why teams change coaches so frequently could be related to the NHL’s current playoff structure. According to him, half of the NHL, or 16 clubs, make it to the playoffs, giving enough teams hope that they would advance.
“So, there’s an added pressure on the coach and the manager when you don’t meet those expectations but 16 other teams do,” Bylsma explained. “You may observe what the Sabres, Red Wings, Blue Jackets, Senators, and many other teams were saying about their expectations for the playoffs by traveling around the league.
