What Should Happen April 7th!

1) That date of course is the first day of the off season for 14 non playoff teams. In our opinion here are what we feel are the moves that should be done the instant the season is completed. Of course all the options below are entirely our subjective (albeit an educated one) ) opinion.

2) Here are the No-Brainer moves that SHOULD occur:

• John Tortorella- Fired! Recent player uprisings(Vaclev Prospal) and Andre Roy are just symptoms of the disease that IS the John Tortorella coaching style. Ask about 80% or more of his players and they're likely to say Torts is an asshole, or worse. Where once he commanded respect, now he commands disdain. His type of style wears thin quickly. Jay Feaster was in error retaining the abrasive coach beyond last season when it was clear he lost the team. The only unknown this year was IF Tortorella's head would explode during a game or one of his players would actually try to murder him. We feel there is no need to push the envelope beyond this season and its time for the Lightning to cut ties with the man who guided them to a Cup 4 years ago.




• Jacques Martin- Fired! After 3 seasons of missing the playoffs and significantly underachieving this year its time to replace Martin. His GM grade is still incomplete, but if we were the owners we'd cut ties entirely with the underachieving coach and find a replacement GM who can the hire Martin's replacement and get this team back in the posts season for the first time in 8 years! Their roster (Largely assembled by Martin's predecessors) should be good enough to make the playoffs in the weak East. The combination of his ineptitude here and his significant underachieving in Ottawa should indicate that Jacques is NOT the answer.




• Don Waddell- Fired! This amazingly incompetent GM became the team's amazingly incompetent coach after 6 games this year. Initially they turned things around, but now are finishing up the season just as it started; with total futility. It would be a slap to the fans (are there any left?) to allow Waddell to hire (his replacement) a new coach. The owners, like in Florida, need to make a clean sweep to give their fans any hope that things will be different going forward.




• Mark Crawford- Fired! One poor season we would have excused, especially when Crawford has had previous success in Colorado and to a lesser extent in Vancouver. However two consecutive very bad seasons can not be allowed to go unanswered. A change behind the bench (along with an actual NHL goalie) would go a long way toward getting the Kings back into the post season. Like Florida,they have a very good nucleus of young players, and with the right guidance they could be the comeback team of 08-09, but we don't believe Crawford should be given another chance to lead them there.




• Andy Murray - Fired! We didn't initially feel this necessary, BUT With the melt down in the stretch run the Blues have been the worst team over the last month or so. Things looked promising up until the All-Star break, but with only 1 win in their last 10 the Blues seem to be playing out the string. Not what a team that's supposed to be turning it around can be allowed to do. Time for a new coach in St. Louis.



• Garth Snow- Fired! This probably won't happen, but it should. He makes the perfect tool for a manipulative owner. Knowing Snow wouldn't even be given an asst GM's position with any other team, Wang knows he can pretty much have Garth do what is asked. The problem is that the moves he has made haven't improved the Isles. Last summer's acquisitions, as we expected, proved to be a mere shuffling of the Titanic deck chairs and scoring would be a problem. (They are last in the entire NHL!) Perhaps their improbable 8th finish last spring gave the team cover for its actual ineptitude. Its unlikely that will happen again this time around. With THN rating Isles prospects 24th, a quick turn around is unlikely, but the first step would be to find a REAL GM to reconstruct this franchise floundering without a rudder!
  

3) These are 6 moves that should NOT wait any longer than the day after the last game. Teams like these owe it to their fans to show that they 'get it' and are trying to improve their clubs so they can compete next season. In reality probably only 1-2 of these will occur, with the firing or Tortorella Martin and Crawford as the most possible.