Laviolette Axed!

1) In a move that is a surprise to few, the Carolina Hurricanes have apparently dismissed their head coach Peter Laviolette. The surprise is that apparently they are replacing him with former coach Paul Maurice. As you all probably know Maurice was let go from the Maple Leafs last season after failing to make the playoffs, again in Toronto. He was the Canes head coach before Laviolette, taking the team to the Cup Finals in 2002, losing to Detroit in 5 games

2) Laviolette was hired by the Hurricanes in December of 2003 after Maurice was fired just 30 games in to that season. He led them to their first/only Cup in 2006 and earlier this season Laviolette, surpassed John Tortorella to become the winningest American born coach in NHL history with his 240th victory.http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2008/11/congratulations-peter.html Carolina has won just 4 of its last 10 games and sits second in the Southeast and eighth in the Eastern Conference. They also missed the post season by a sliver the last 2 seasons

3) As we postulated just recently http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2008/11/se-division-continues-to-suck.html there will likely be quite a bit of turn over among front office personnel in the crappy SE division. This is probably not the last casualty for this division who is still the door mat of the league. Here's wishing good luck to Peter, who probably needs a change of scenery. he n doubt, like his replacement Maurice, won't be out of work long. His resume is a good one, and a team looking to make a change in coaches would be wise to consider Laviolette. Good luck also to Maurice.