Facing firing squad rite of passage in NHL

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This article was published 16/12/2014 (4013 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT MIGHT very well be Paul Maurice still has the odd box to unpack or picture to hang at his new place here in River City. Maybe some of his mail is still being rerouted from his old address prior to the move to Winnipeg.

In any case, the Jets head coach is coming up on an anniversary of sorts, a significant one for those who make their living coaching in the National Hockey League.

In 28 days Maurice will officially hit the one-year mark as head coach of the Jets, having replaced Claude Noel on Jan. 12, 2014.

The firing of Dallas Eakins by the Edmonton Oilers on Monday makes Maurice 22nd in the league in terms of tenure with his current club. That number says everything about the lifespan of the men who patrol the bench in the NHL,

Imagine: A man who has yet to serve a full year on the job already has more tenure than eight men working the bench in the 30-team NHL.

Eakins was the second NHL coach to be relieved of his duties in the last week, as the Ottawa Senators gave Paul MacLean the pink slip on Dec. 8 and replaced him with Dave Cameron.

Maurice, who worked with Eakins during their days together in the Toronto Maple Leafs organization, knows all too well what those days when the GM summons you to the office are all about.

“Everybody gets fired. It stings when it happens,” Maurice said Monday. “It’s a public thing. You put your soul into what you do and then it’s a real personal thing. And if that’s what you’re going to do for a living, then you deal with it and you move on to your next opportunity to get back. That’s always the way I looked at it.”

Maurice was fired twice by the Carolina Hurricanes, once by the Leafs. He resurfaced in the American Hockey League with the Toronto Marlies after his first firing, was out of work for less than eight months after being dumped by the Leafs when he returned to the Canes, and took a job with Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL after the second dismissal from Carolina.

Coaching is his life — he waxed poetic for a stretch during Monday’s presser about how much he loved practice — and so, over time, a man learns to roll with the punches. Then get up off the mat on those occasions when he is floored.

“I went to the American league after the first time I got fired,” said Maurice. “I went to the KHL after the third time I got fired. It’s what I do for a living, it’s what I want to do. So you just deal with it and move on and try to get better.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait

Only the strong survive

A list of the NHL’s longest-serving coaches, by tenure:

Coach	Team	Date Hired
Mike Babcock	Detroit	July 15, 2005
Claude Julien	Boston	June 22, 2007
Todd McLellan	San Jose	June 11, 2008
Joel Quenneville	Chicago	Oct. 16, 2008
Dave Tippett	Arizona	Sept. 24, 2009
Jack Capuano	NYI	Nov. 15, 2010
Mike Yeo	Minnesota	June 17, 2011
Peter DeBoer	New Jersey	July 19, 2011
Ken Hitchcock	St. Louis	Nov. 6, 2011
Bruce Boudreau	Anaheim	Nov. 30, 2011
Darryl Sutter	Los Angeles	Dec. 17, 2011
Randy Carlyle	Toronto	March 2, 2012
Todd Richards	Columbus	May 14, 2012
Bob Hartley	Calgary	May 31, 2012
Michel Therrien	Montreal	June 5, 2012
Jon Cooper	Tampa Bay	March 25, 2013
Patrick Roy	Colorado	May 23, 2013
Lindy Ruff	Dallas	June 21, 2013
Alain Vigneault	NYR	June 21, 2013
Craig Berube	Philadelphia	Oct. 7, 2013
Ted Nolan	Buffalo	Nov. 13, 2013
Paul Maurice	Winnipeg	Jan. 12, 2014
Peter Laviolette	Nashville	May 6, 2014
Barry Trotz	Washington	May 26, 2014
Bill Peters	Carolina	June 19, 2014
Gerard Gallant	Florida	June 21, 2014
Willie Desjardins	Vancouver	June 23, 2014
Mike Johnston	Pittsburgh	June 25, 2014
Dave Cameron	Ottawa	Dec. 8, 2014
Craig MacTavish	Edmonton	Dec. 15, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Everybody gets fired. It stings when it happens’

— Jets head coach Paul Maurice