The short lifespan of an NHL coach

So, now it has started. The season is one quarter out and coaches are getting the boot. St. Louis Blues already got rid of their starting coach and went back to old timer Hitchcock. In retrospect that looks like a brilliant move. At the time, it seemed just a bit too trigger-happy. The Blues were doing ok, not great, but I believe what was expected from them by the general public.

Now it was time for a change in struggling Carolina. Well expected and maybe their last chance to turn this season around. I can't see them clawing back to playoffs anymore, but the ownership seems to.

On the same day the biggest bomb was dropped in Washington, where Bruce Boudreau was let go after taking the Capitals from bottom dwellers to the top of the league in just a few seasons. The modern day quarter economy equivalent in the game of hockey does not look at the past results or give much of a chance of failure. All over the media the explanations from Capitals' ownership were rather dodgy. And the sheer amount of interviews claiming that Boudreau had no bad blood with Ovechkin or vice versa, actually prove the opposite point. The team, lead by its celebrity captain, just couldn't work for this guy anymore. Some new system, huh?

It's a some sort of a miracle that Columbus Blue Jackets haven't fired their coach yet. They're actually already at the point where the ownership has given up on the season and seem to have decided to save some money instead of having to pay salaries for two coaches. If the fans start some sort of a mutiny, maybe they'll comply and claim that they're building for the next season with the move.

Anaheim Ducks have slipped down to the bottom of the league. They're running out of the seasons where they can keep their star lineup together and it must be just a matter of getting the papers out of their printer, before they have a new coach. They need to push for the Cup run now or face the return to rebuilding mode in the coming seasons.

After rather disappointing start of a season, coaching changes may arise in Tampa Bay or even Montreal. Colorado's brilliant start may have taken the expectations up a notch too to jeopardize the current leadership now that they've actually just fallen to the expected levels.

The rest of the struggling teams are either young and expected still to have growth pains, like Edmonton, Winnipeg and New York Islanders or just plain clueless like Calgary and New Jersey and cannot seem to see what good could another coaching change do.

The fun of getting fired from the NHL head coach position doesn't end in the heavy paychecks that usually follow through the original contract. It also seems to be a commonly agreed fact that failed coaches instantly regain the trust on their competence by all the teams in need of a new guy behind the bench. Fail as miserably as you can and it's still likely that you get hired before the season is over. Pick up two paychecks for the rest of the year as a bonus.

Now it's going to be very interesting to see how the chips fall with the teams with the most pressure to act. I wouldn't be surprised to see Mr. Boudreau moving down to sunny California before the end of this week..