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My final verdict on Kirk Muller

April 20, 2014, 11:01 PM ET [6 Comments]
Matt Karash
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
There are many parts to building the 2014-15 Carolina Hurricanes and many possibilities for change, but it all starts with a decision on what to do with Coach Kirk Muller. With decisions like this, I usually work my way through the facts and then definitively form an opinion. I have admittedly been more on the fence on this one, but when I sort it out, a couple key things put me in the “Kirk must go” camp.

To be clear, in no way do I think he should get all of the blame for the 2013-14 failure nor the 2012-13 late season implosion and playoff miss. The 2012-13 season had so many oddities it was nearly impossible to get a read on whether the team was headed in the right direction or not. The lockout-shortened season was minus a training camp and saw a number of players parachuting straight into the NHL regular season from their couches and whatever training they were doing to stay in shape. The shortened season left a slim margin for error. And the Canes were actually on track to make the playoffs before losing 2 goalies to injury and imploding down the stretch.

The 2013-14 season has all kinds of story lines that could be used to make a case for either keeping or firing Kirk Muller. Again, the Canes were beset by a pair of nearly simultaneous goalie injuries. Justin Peters actually settled in nicely after a slow start, and the team’s demise came much later in the season, so I do not think you can rightfully hang the season on that. Many of the team’s top players struggled. Almost to a man, anyone making over $4M underperformed. Tuomo Ruutu and Tim Gleason were ultimately traded due to decreasing roles at a high price. Leading scorers Eric Staal and Alexander Semin came up short. Beginning of season starting goalie Cam Ward never found a rhythm and finished near the bottom of the league in save percentage and goals against average. Only Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner from the 7 players who make up 2/3 of the Canes’ total salary came even close to living up to expectations. And therein lies the biggest question for me in terms of deciding whether to keep or fire Kirk Muller? Do you defend him by saying that if top veteran players would have had even mediocre seasons that the Canes would have easily made the playoffs? Or do you blame Kirk Muller for having more than enough talent but failing to do his job as a coach to get the most out of it?

I do not think this is a 100% / 0% split by any means, but I lean strong enough toward saying that Kirk Muller did not get enough out of a roster with enough talent to justify keeping him another season.

Consider a couple things:

1) Inability to help guys refind it. Over the course of a long 82-game season, slumps and dry spells are going to happen even for good players who have good seasons. The key is keeping them fairly short and finding your way out of it and back to a higher level of productivity. In Kirk Muller’s tenure as the Carolina Hurricanes coach, I have seen too many good veteran players fall into a rut and never (and when I say never, I literally mean never and am not just using it for effect) climb out of it in a Canes uniform. Jussi Jokinen was the 1st player to meet this fate. Then this year, we saw the same happen to Tim Gleason and Tuomo Ruutu. If Cam Ward is not already there, he is showing all of the symptoms of being the next victim.

I will detail some other things below, but this is the thing I just cannot get past. When you look at the names on this list, all of these players are veterans with multiple productive years on their resume. None of them are that old. And each and every one of them is a player of solid character who cares, plays the game the right way for the right reasons and would do whatever they could to get back to a higher level.

I realize that there are different circumstances around each of these players and also that the players themselves need to take their share of responsibility for not playing great. And while it is hard to definitively place the blame for these swoons on Kirk Muller, I have seen enough circumstantial evidence that I just would not risk even the possibility that these performance dives with no rebound are not at least partially due to the coach.

2) The power play. I think this story is a different version of the same problem. I just do not see how you can argue that there is not enough talent on the power play to be at least league average, but yet the team has been unable to climb from the bottom now in a shortened 48-game season and a full 82-game season. The power play, more than any other part of the game, is about systems and coaching. And again, the Canes seemed to significantly underperform the talent level available.

3) Inability to make adjustments. This is the most subjective of my problems with Kirk Muller, so I will be curious to hear if people agree or disagree with me in this respect. I do not think Muller is there yet at the NHL coaching level in terms of being able to make adjustments to find things that work and win even if it is just for a few games to get players going or make a patchwork lineup win in times of injury. Everything with Muller is about “sticking with the system” and forging forward through bad times and good. I get the need to play to a core foundation, but good NHL coaches also seem to be masters at tinkering in just the right way to make things work. Muller, in my opinion, leans too stubborn in that he and his coaching staff seem to come up with what should work and then stick to it. The power play is again the best example. Despite lack of success, the changes in terms of personnel and strategy always seemed similar.

If the Canes were a team rebuilding with young players that could be molded to fit Muller’s system/style of play, maybe you could make an argument for keeping him. But with the goal to take mostly the current collection of players, make a couple additions and mold it into a playoff team, I think the chances increase with a new coach with a new way of putting the puzzle pieces together to find a winning combination.

I do not track the available list of coaches as closely as some, but ideally I would love to get a veteran coach whose approach leans toward understanding what he has and how to best utilize it. A couple pretty good options in Ken Hitchcock and Lindy Ruff went by the wayside during Muller’s tenure and are employed elsewhere. I am not sure who else is out there in this vein. Alternatively, I would not mind seeing a younger coach with a bit of fire and brimstone capability to at least boost effort level and consistency, but then I think that is how I pictured Muller about 2 years ago. Kevin Dineen is 1 option in this vein. He led an undermanned Florida Panthers team to a division title and playoff appearance. He also has 6 full years of minor league head coaching experience with reasonable regular season and playoff success. Only time will tell, but part of me thinks that Kirk Muller might have benefitted from a few more years as a head coach in the AHL instead of relying solely on assistant coaching experience before his 1st NHL head coaching job.

What say you Canes fans? Stay or go on Muller?

Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63

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