I am not one to celebrate or rejoice when a coach is let go. Paul Maurice is a decent guy and a decent coach, so I take no joy in his recent tough stretch or today's firing. But hockey is a business and getting hired and fired is part of his line of work.

And for the Carolina Hurricanes, it was just time:

1) The fans (many who were happy to see him gone the first time) were getting restless. While fans should not be the GMs, especially for a small market franchise, keeping them positively engaged is significant.

2) Inability to put the puzzle together. I look all the way back to training camp. The Canes started the preseason a bit sluggish offensively but playing okay hockey. Ponikarovsky and a couple other players were off to okay preseason starts. Others had slow starts through a few preseason games. The team rode mostly the same lineup through most of camp and then suddenly in the layoff between the last preseason game and the first regular season game, Maurice completely shook up everything up and juggled the lines/combinations completely. Isn't sorting this stuff out exactly what camp is for? Fast forward to today and I fear that the team still has made minimal if any combination figuring out how the pieces fit together. Tomas Kaberle who was signed to be a top 4 defenseman continues to look completely lost in terms of role, partner and about everything else. The team's best forward (Eric Staal) has scored a bit more of late and stemmed the bleeding on his plus/minus, but he is still far short of the level he needs to play at for this team to win. Even with the veterans playing horribly and losing regularly, Maurice was unable to use the decent young depth he has to spark things. Dalpe, Bowman and Boychuk were all playing well in the AHL and upon jumping to the big club hit a big thud mostly because they were buried in limited minutes/role/linemates on the 4th line. Maurice's unwillingness to shake things up despite the poor results from the vets, gave the youth absolutely no chance to produce, thrive and make a difference. Would it have worked? I don't know - and that's exactly the point - you have to find out at some point. And the top end of the forwards have become mostly a random moving target.

I am optimistic about what Kirk Muller can do. I continue to think that the 2011-12 season is not a story completely about the talent level. This team is comparable and arguably better than the 2010-11 team that was on the cusp of the playoffs. Here is hoping that the coaching change sparks a fire that can buy us a couple wins while he sorts out personnel and system to get the team back on the track longer term.

For a quick heads up when I post a blog, follow me on Twitter at CarolinaMatt63.

Go Canes!

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