The Los Angeles Kings announced today that head coach Terry Murray has been relieved of his duties and that Kings assistant coach John Stevens shall act as interim head coach.

By Chris Van Deusen

It seems the Los Angeles Kings decided that it was time for a changing of the guard. On the eve of their four-game road trip, the Kings have decided to fire their head coach Terry Murray. After a disappointing homestand where the team lost five out of their previous seven games, Kings management made the call. For the time being, assistant coach John Stevens will assume the role of interim head coach.

Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi spoke to the press during a conference call shortly after the announcement of Murray’s dismissal.  ”We hadn’t been playing up to expectations. The last homestand was the end, but there wasn’t one glaring moment. It built up,” said Lombardi. The Kings’ GM also added “Last year we had some sketchy periods too…” and that Murray’s work ethic and focus never changed, that he never quit trying, but this year the expectations were higher. The expectations of this year made things more about results than the team finding “victories within losses.”

Photo Courtesy LA Times

It is unknown at this time how long Stevens will serve as interim head coach. Stevens is unlikely to keep the position for long though since he shares a very similar coaching style with Murray. Lombardi would not go into detail on his list of possible coaches, preferring not to tip his hand and simply state “it’s fair to say it’s a very short list.” Three names that seem to top the lists of speculators are Darryl Sutter, Tony Granato, and recently-fired Anaheim Ducks’ head coach Randy Carlyle. It should be noted, however, that the Kings have stated they are unlikely to go after Carlyle.

While it is never a good sign when a team fires their coach, it seems it was time to part with Murray. For a team that has expectations of being a Stanley Cup contender, ranking 30th in scoring is unacceptable. While some of the blame does need to be focused towards the players, it is also the coach’s job to right the ship, no? Things are not alright in the kingdom when there are unnamed texts stating they’re dead.

Sadly, many will forget the good that Murray did do for the Kings. He led the Kings to the playoffs the last two seasons, with that first season being their latest appearance since 2003. Top-Line centerman Anze Kopitar was molded into the great two-way player he is today under Murray’s teaching. While we haven’t seen it lately in more than just flashes, Murray is credited with establishing the great defensive structure the team is known for.

Murray began coaching with the Kings in the 2008-09 season and held a regular season record of 139-106-30. Among the Kings’ all-time coaches, his win total ranks third, fourth in games coached at 275, and first in winning percentage at .560. Murray was just one win away from his 500th career win.

Chris Van Deusen
NHLHS Los Angeles Kings Correspondent
Twitter – @TheCrazyWhls

After the mid-season All Star classic, the red-hot Calgary Flames come back to work with a new found swagger. The club has managed to turn their season around in the last month, pulling themselves within two points of a playoff spot. Coming off an exceptional 10-3-3 in their last 16 games, the Flames are starting to perform to their potential.

The next month is a critical time period for the Flames as they need to continue their stellar play in order to make a legitimate push for the playoffs. All but four of their remaining games this season are against Western Conference opponents, with many of them being those that they need to battle to make the playoffs.

Flames fans are more than overjoyed with the resurgence, the Saddledome is once again packed and the Sea of Red is alive. But the question remains, how did this team turn it around?

In the beginning of the season the Flames struggled either offensively or defensively game in and game out. However, around December they club began to sort things out on both ends of the ice, and began to work hard but were just not catching any lucky bounces. They were losing close contests, many of them being games they deserved to win. The puck just wasn’t going in, or they were on the wrong end of a bad bounce in their own end.

After Darryl Sutter stepped down after Christmas, the hockey Gods finally decided to smile upon the Flames and many of the lucky bounces began to go in, instilling a profound sense of confidence to the team. As a result, the club has been playing its best hockey of the season and is raring to go down the stretch.

The Calgary Flames need to continue their hot streak in order to have a shot at the playoffs. As a result, the next month is of the utmost critical importance for the team; if they continue to play this way expect them to be buyers at the trade deadline. Robyn Regehr is a name that comes to mind – while one would love to have him anchoring the blueline, he is an expendable and valuable commodity. If the Flames were able to acquire an admirable offensive return for the defenseman, expect a trade at the deadline.

If they are able to continue to win two out of every three games, expect this club to vault into the playoffs. Their ability to beat some of the higher ranked teams remains in question, however, if they are able to obtain a key offensive component at the trade deadline – anything is possible.

All of this however, hinges upon the Flames continuing their stellar play, because if they once again begin to struggle, the word ‘rebuild’ will become a new buzzword around town. Therefore, Flames fans everywhere are collectively hoping that the hockey Gods continue to smile upon the Flaming C in the weeks to come.

Shahbaz Syed
Twitter: DDxDino

This summer Jay Feaster was brought into the Calgary Flames organization to provide backup for the inevitable removal of Darryl Sutter from the helm of the franchise.

Feaster is best known for winning the AHL’s executive of the year award in 1997 with the Hersey Bears, and again at the NHL level in 2004 with the Tampa Bay Lightning — after winning the Calder and Stanley Cup’s respectively. There is no doubting these accomplishments, but some would argue that these accolades are merely the result of being in the right place at the right time.

As a general manager, Feaster has a dismal draft record, with first round selections of Andy Rogers, Vladimir Mihalik and Riku Helenius, who played a combined 16 games in the NHL. Further examination of his draft record suggests that none of his draft picks have gone on to overly successful NHL careers.

On the trade front, Feaster is best known for trading Alex Svitov to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Darryl Sydor; who became a pivotal addition to their club for their subsequent Cup run. In 2002, Ruslan Fedotenko and two 2nd round selections in 2002 were acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers in return for a 1st round draft pick (Joni Pitkanen). Which, in hindsight is regarded as a fairly successful trade as Fedotenko provided important goal scoring during the ’04 championship.

How about the ugly? Trading a 1st draft pick (and Gerald Coleman) to the Anaheim Ducks for Shane O’Brien (and a 3rd draft pick). Ditto for trading away Brad Richards and Johan Holmqvist to Dallas for Mike Smith, Jeff Halpern and Jussi Jokinen and a 4th round selection.

However, despite the poor moves and dismal draft history Feaster’s greatest move was one that he never made. In 2002 there was speculation that the team’s franchise player Vincent Lecavalier was going to be traded due to ongoing conflict with head coach John Tortorella. Feaster remained steadfast in his stance that he was “not going to trade away the face of the franchise”. The decision made dividends, as Lecavalier led the team to a Stanley Cup Championship in 2004.

What does all this mean for the Flames? Despite the club assigning him the title of ‘interim’ general manager, many assume that he will be given full responsibility within the next season, as he has already been groomed under Sutter and has the experience to back.

However, given his poor draft history, Feaster will be working very closely with Flames head scout Michel Goulet in order to maximize potential talent (because who are we kidding, the Flames farm team looks more like a petting zoo these days).

On the trade front, Feaster has once again adamantly stated that he plans on building around the core of the franchise — this means not trading Jarome Iginla, Miikka Kipprusoff, Robyn Regehr, Jay Bouwmeester or Mark Giordano.

Feaster has suggested that “I want to make the playoffs this year but I don’t want to make the playoffs and go out in the first round. Once you have won a Stanley Cup, you learn that is all that matters”. This is a tune that Flames fans are more than glad to hear — after narrowly missing the playoffs last year, and being knocked out in the first round for four straight years prior, Flames fans know it is time to go big or go home. That means either building a strong playoff contender – or rebuilding for the future.

If it comes down to the trade deadline and the Flames are looking to rebuild for the future – options on the trade front are limited. Few clubs would be willing to take the risk of taking the hit-and-miss Olli Jokinen, while fewer teams would be interested in Ales Kotalik, Matt Stajan or Niklas Hagman at their salaries. This leaves mostly (good) young talent to be traded away – the type of players that one would want to build around (Rene Bourque, Mikael Backlund, Giordano). Perhaps the only worthy trade piece is Alex Tanguay, who is having a comeback season this year. This raises the question as to whether Fester’s beloved ‘core’ will actually remain intact if future success is the ultimate goal.

Safe to say that Feaster will have his work cut out for him, as the Flames are dangerously close to becoming a rebuilding team and are far from having the pieces to do so graciously.

One can only hope that Flames fans will be patient, as the winds of change have finally arrived and future success is going to take grand sacrifices at this point. Feaster isn’t going to change the Calgary Flames fate overnight, but he brings a welcome change from the hard minded ways of the Sutter era, and will hopefully build for a successful hockey future in Calgary.

Shahbaz Syed
Twitter @DDxDino

Yesterday, Calgary Flames president Ken King asked longtime GM Darryl Sutter to step down from his position as the team desperately needed a change in direction. In his place will be former Tampa Bay Lightning architect, or the man who put on the finishing touches on their Cup run, Jay Feaster.

Kristian Huselius is just one of the players to come and go under Sutter

While we are unsure whether Feaster will hold a fire sale come February or just keep the seat warm for another perspective general manager at this point, which leaves the door open for a plethora of speculation.  Will the team trade Iginla to the Penguins or another contender in the East? Would the Flyers or Capitals want Kiprusoff?

Flames fans see this move as an excuse to make tons of moves and fully replicate their NHL 11 fantasies, and honestly, who can blame them? They watched their team trade for a number of fine players like Michael Cammalleri, Kristian Huselius, Jay Bouwmeester and more recently Alex Tanguay and Olli Jokinen and watched all of them either fail to meet expectations or leave for better surroundings.

While the team struggles with consistency offensively and defensively they can look around the League and see plenty of their former players like Toni Lydman, Eric Nystrom, Chuck Kobasew, Brandon Prust, Jordan Leopold, Steve Montador, Matthew Lombardi and Dion Phaneuf provide serviceable play for opposing teams.  At one point they all played for the burning C and now they bring that same level of play to another team as Sutter and company failed to see what they had in front of them.

Even worse is their farm system.  Take one look at the Washington Capitals, as they have the most players in the World Juniors this year and still manage to win.  Aside from trading away Stephan Della Rovere, they have kept all of their top prospects, not forcing themselves to make moves that put the team over the top.

Where do the Flames rank? Dead last according to Hockey’s Future. Even though they have made some decent draft choices with Greg Nemisz, Tim Erixon and Mitch Wahl, their poor choices with Matt Pelech, Leland Irving and mishandling of Mikael Backlund have forced their system to look simply weak.  As Flames Nation so cleverly discovered, trading of draft picks and choices were similarly done in Tampa Bay under Feaster and the trades of core players were even worse, unsurprisingly.

Trading Jarome Iginla for the same prize as the team received for Brad Richards would surely be foolish.  At this point the team needs to make small moves and smart moves.

Re-signing Mark Giordano proved to be a very smart move as he effectively does everything Robyn Regehr used to do and should do. After realizing this fact, however, they should have traded Regehr. Their rival Colorado Avalanche got a nice offensive player in Tomas Fleischmann for a similar player in Scott Hannan, the Flames should have jumped on a similar deal and added some much needed skill.

Of course, my hindsight is crystal clear there.

The team has addressed their weakness on the depth chart by signing their selection Ryan Howse of the Chilliwack Bruins of the Western Hockey League.  They would be even better served by trading some of their better players like a Niclas Hagman, Alex Tanguay and Cory Sarich for some additional draft picks or a nice depth prospect or two.  Not many teams have the cap space to afford either Miikka Kiprusoff or Jarome Iginla while it probably would be difficult to find a buyer for Jay Bouwmeester.

If they want to get back on the right track and once again be a contending franchise, the Flames simply need to stay the course of this season and just continue to add and hold on to their bright spots while shedding their dead weight.  They started the latter process yesterday, now Feaster just needs to keep on going.

Alexander Monaghan
NHL Managing Editor
amonaghan@nhlhotstove.com
@nhlhotstove

Central

• Antti Niemi got the hook just twelve shots into the game.  Of course, the score was already 3-0.  ”Lot of (tough) bounces,” Niemi said.
• Speaking of bad bounces, Steve Mason delivered another mediocre performance giving up an early and soft goal as the Jackets lost 4-2.  Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch notes Mason has not won consecutive starts since October 17th.
• The Wings squandered a two goal lead eventually falling to the Kings 3-2.  ”We stopped skating; we got outworked,” said captain Nicklas Lidstrom.  Good to see that type of honesty from the veteran.
• Coach Barry Trotz would like to stop rotating his goaltenders and use Pekka Rinne as his starter.  Makes sense as Dan Ellis makes more than the young Finnish netminder.  However, Trotz would not rule out Ellis winning the job. “They dictate who plays, not me. A lot of decisions that coaches make are based on players’ performance. If someone starts taking the ball and running with it, then we’ll go with them.”
• For the third time this year the Blues lost a 3-0 lead on home ice.  ”It’s a terrible third period,” said goalie Chris Mason. “We got caught without a third guy high against the Getzlaf-Perry unit, they scored a goal to get back in the game and had the momentum for the rest of the game.”

Northwest

• Darryl Sutter will not shake up his team despite the outcry from fans and the media.  ”The last 10 we haven’t played very well, and we need to play better,” Sutter explained.
• Ryan Stoa continues to ride the shuttle from Lake Erie to Colorado.  The former University of Minnesota player knows this transition comes with making the team.  ”It’s still my first year. Hopefully, there are many more to come. But I realize the situation I’m in,” said Stoa.
• The Oilers demoted Taylor Chorney after one game.  All signs point to Steve Staios and Ladislav Smid recovering from head trauma, Joanne Ireland of The Edmonton Journal reports.
• The troika of Antti Miettinen, Mikko Koivu and Andrew Brunette regained their scoring touch as the Wild defeated the Blue Jackets 4-2. “When you’re struggling, you look to those guys,” coach Todd Richards said.
• Roberto Luongo stole in the show in the Canucks 5-1 victory over the Blackhawks.  ”You can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We have to keep winning,” said the Canucks captain.

Pacific

• James Wisniewski used baby powder to loosen his hands and eventually deliver the shootout winner last night.  ”My gloves get real sticky when they start getting wet so they don’t slide on my stick,” Wisniewski said.
• Mike Heika of The Dallas Morning News analyzes impending UFA Marty Turco.
• The PA at Joe Louis Arena mistakenly called Brad Richardson a different but similar name: Brad Richards.  ”They’re both good players,” linemate Anze Kopitar offered. “Richie’s been huge for us with his intensity and his energy every night. He’s been playing a really solid game.”
• Alexander Semin led the Capitals past his Olympic teammate Ilya Bryzgalov with a 4-2 victory. “He’s got some of the best vision in the league,” said teammate Eric Fehr.
• The Sharks win streak grew to five games as Russian starter Evgeni Nabokov defeated United States starter Ryan Miller.  ”He’s a good goalie,” said Joe Pavelski about his future netminder.

Hat tip to the now defunct Illegal Curve for their permission in taking over this daily series.

Alexander Monaghan
NHLHS Editor
amonaghan@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @NHLHotStove

With the Flames now on the outside looking in, their playoff chances seem dwindling. At this point numerous Dion Phaneuf rumors continue to swirl around the NHL, the latest coming from the kid who probably got beat up waiting for the bus, Larry Brooks of The New York Post.

Despite the fact you can find numerous errors in said article, Brooks does indeed mention GM Darryl Sutter as desperate to find a suitor for Phaneuf. In order to gage his trade value, first we must determine how a pursuing team sees the enigmatic 24-year-old.

With the Flames dying offense, their immediate need would be skill. Brooks mentions the Rangers but the two simply do not seem to be a match. The Rangers only hold so many skilled players on their roster, most of them young and signed cheaply. GM Glen Sather cannot afford another big name contract and acquiring Michal Rozsival or Wade Redden would be a lateral move if not a downgrade.

Sutter also visited GM Paul Holmgren of the Flyers but do not expect a Phaneuf for Jeff Carter swap as Dustin Leed of The Hockey Guys mentions seemingly every week.

Phaneuf currently ties Mark Giordano for the most points by a Flames defenseman, meaning he should be their goto offensive player but could be replaced. Couple that with the struggles of Jay Bouwmeester, who in his first season in Calgary seems to need more minutes in order to play a more effective game.

As of this writing only Brad Richards exchanged teams with a contract exceeding 6 million dollars and one year remaining since the lockout. Richards in his own right plays a top line center position and already won the Conn Smythe Trophy. The players moved for him seem minimal to what he could fetch without a salary cap, which should be a similar predicament for Phaneuf. The latter holds a 6.5 million dollar cap hit through 2014.

At this point there is no possible way to gage what Phaneuf will go for. His presence signifies a constant distraction which urges Sutter to move the player. I could see a team like Toronto, with cap space and budget space, able to swing a deal if they possessed the correct pieces.

The team acquiring him would have to believe this defender will be a cornerstone of their franchise, opposed to a 40 point player with defensive lapses and attitude problems. If they believe the former, the Flames will move him for the value their deem fair and everybody wins. Still in this cap era, nobody really wins.

Alexander Monaghan
NHLHS Editor
amonaghan@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @NHLHotStove