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“Whose fault was it?”
The Fate of Coach Q
By Jim Gromer
You never want to hear the coach in a professional sport has been fired. After all, the guy probably has a family, his kids are in school, and he might not ever get paid to coach again. We all know that it is a bittersweet effort by the owners to win a championship and not much else. Champions usually don’t get canned.
Last week in the locker room, a few of the men I regularly have the honor of playing hockey with expressed their frustration with the firing (I mean mutual parting of ways) of Avalanche Head Coach Joel Quenneville. An email update came out and they weren’t very happy about it. I didn’t even know you could get emails like that, but I want to be on that list.
Anyway, it is official. Even the Colorado Avalanche Web site no longer lists him on the team staff and Wikipedia has him as the “former head coach of the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues”. I honestly hope he does get another chance to coach and I’m pretty sure he will, but I can’t say I’ve been too impressed with Coach Q in his time here.
There will be those who disagree, but I found some disappointing stats:
- In 11 years as a head coach, he has never even won a Conference Championship (let alone a Stanley Cup). His teams lost in the second round five times, lost in the first round three times, and missed the playoffs once.
- Unfortunately, he missed the playoffs last year ending a 10-season streak of appearances by the Avalanche. I know we still won 44 games and only missed by a point, but I couldn’t care less. I want to see the Avs in the playoffs every year!
- He posted a pathetic 0-8 record against Detroit this year, including three shutouts. The Avs even lost to the Wings while they were in the midst of a serious losing streak that they snapped against our boys.
- The Avalanche gave up more goals to one Red Wing, Johan Franzen, than our entire team scored in the whole Avs/Detroit series (9 goals).
- The Avalanche power play was an embarrassing 14.6 percent, putting them No. 28 overall in the NHL.
- In his very first year of coaching the Avalanche, there was a lock-out and no hockey for a whole year (this had nothing to do with Coach Q, but I was bummed none-the-less).
I’ve heard the argument that NHL players are professionals and make so much money that the coach really doesn’t matter. Really? Tell that to Bill Belichick of the almost perfect New England Patriots and Phil Jackson with his nine NBA titles. How about Scotty Bowman with nine Stanley Cups to his credit?
Still think the coach doesn’t matter?
Coaches make a huge difference in a team’s success or failure. That’s why they get paid the big bucks and that’s why I had such a problem with Coach Quenneville.
I was consistently disappointed with the effort, the discipline, the power play, the scoring, killing the power play, the lack of toughness from the entire team and the complete lack of heart displayed.
I was mad at Arnason in game 4 (you know what I’m talking about real hockey fans) and that there wasn’t a goalie change after game 2. I know Theodore got us there, but the guy gave up four goals per game for four games and got pulled three times. At some point, you have to sit him down. I just hope Theodore’s confidence isn’t shot for life.
I am even more upset that the rivalry really is dead right along with the Avs’ Stanley Cup dreams for the year.
Why couldn’t the Avs dig deep and overcome adversity (like Dallas did in their game 4) despite all the injuries and Detroit’s apparent dominance over us? I wanted the Avs to at least be a speed bump on the Red Wings’ road to another Stanley Cup. Unfortunately, they weren’t even a pebble in their skates. I hate to say it, but the Colorado Avalanche could be part of the reason they can’t sell out Joe Lewis Arena this year. It was the worst hockey I’ve seen in a long time and yes, I blame the coach.
It is true that the Avs were decimated by injuries this year, but so what!?! We lost when we had Smyth, Stastny and Forsberg on the ice. We didn’t get swept by Detroit just because of the injuries – we lost because we didn’t have a body in front of Osgood (ever), we didn’t send a message while being embarrassed in game 2, the veteran players didn’t lead, the younger players didn’t step up, Theodore played poorly and the Red Wings were in rare form.
It’s the coach’s job to get the best from all the players on the team in key situations and give them a chance to win through strategy and inspiration. We didn’t even come close to seeing the best from our beloved Avalanche.
I wanted to see Franzen get hit or at least nudged while he was setting a playoff record for goals in a single series. I wanted to see some anger in game 2 instead of a quiet skate into destiny. I wanted to see some fire in game 4 instead of a shameful 8-2 loss at home. I wanted the coach to coach and the players to play… neither of which happened.
Don’t worry too much about Coach Q though. His name is already being tossed around for the Toronto head coaching job. I hope he has better success up north than he did at the base of the Rocky Mountains.
Now Avalanche fans can look forward to a new era of hockey in Colorado.
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