Top Five NHL Coaches that could be shown the door next -NHL Special Feature Part 1
The 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season has proven to be heavy for those teams that have not been able to change around themselves in terms of performance, in comparison with the previous year, forcing the top management of various organisations to take firm action for the improvement of their clubs.
Up until now, five members of the coaching staff have been shown the door by their general managers like Bruce Bourdreau of the Washington Capitals, Randy Carlyle of Anaheim Ducks, Paul Maurice of Carolina Hurricanes, Davis Payne of the St. Louis Blues, and most recently, Terry Murray of Los Angeles Kings.
Looking at other teams around the league, it is easy to say and observe that these coaches, most probably, will not be the last to go because when a trend starts off in the NHL, it goes a long way before it dies out.
Now the top management of various teams will not be afraid to kick out their slacking coaches, seeing how other clubs have been able to do so easily, even hours after speculations arose in the case of Terry Murray, who ignored such rumours in the morning and was sacked later on the very same day.
We will now be talking about the top five most likely coaches that could be shown the door in the upcoming days or even months, if their teams continue to perform the same way they are at the moment.
Joe Sacco (Head Coach, Colorado Avalanche)
Joe Sacco kicked off his career with the Colorado franchise when he was promoted to the rank of head coach of their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Lake Erie Monsters, in May of 2007, after serving as the assistant coach for nearly two years.
A day after the then head coach, Tony Granato was fired in 2009, Sacco was brought up into the major league and given his position to fill on the Avalanche.
Since then, Sacco has still not managed to do any good for the Avalanche, which has finally put his career in jeopardy.
Colorado made some big changes over the offseason by signing on their second top pick of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, Gabriel Landeskog, who was termed by NHL scouts at the time as the most major league ready player amongst the other prospects.
Being a team that has a veteran player like Milan Hejduk as its captain, Colorado has not been able to see any noticeable success these past few weeks despite having a strong start to the season in October, winning six of its initial eight games.
Now Colorado stands at one of the lowest ranks in the league, 13th in the Western Conference, above the struggling Anaheim Ducks and below Los Angeles Kings, whose coach faced the music recently.
With a 13-16-1 record and a difference of -13, Joe Sacco will have to pick up the pace sooner than later, if he wishes to stay on the Colorado staff past this month because such action has been coming without prior notice nowadays.
Having made the playoffs only once in his past four seasons as the team's coach, it is difficult imagining Sacco working in the same position for much longer, unless Colorado’s management is willing to give him more time.
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