Mike Johnston was fired by the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday morning and became the 39th coach since the 2005-06 season to be let go before the end of the year.
Mike Johnston's Penguins were underachievers in 2015-16. Mostly every player on the team has seen a drop off in their tangible offense this year.
*Numbers from November 23,2015*
While the Penguins were 15-10-3 at the time of his firing that record was mostly accomplished on the back of Marc-Andre Fleury. Pittsburgh's team even-strength save percentage in 2015-16 is an incredible .940.
Given that astronomically high save percentage I decided to go back through all the midseason coaching terminations in order to see just how rare it is to have a coach fired despite getting great goaltending.
Here are the year by year firings that includes the coach's even-strength save percentage and Score-Adjusted Fenwick data up to that point in the season:
All three of these coaches had terrible goaltending. Eddie Olczyk also did a horrendous job with the team part of things as well. Something to keep in mind is that the league average for EVSV% is ~.921 in any given year.
More awful goaltending. Ken Hitchcock's Flyers were actually playing OK hockey, but the brutal goaltending did him in.
Man those Thrasher teams were bad. All of these coaches were victims of below average goaltending.
This was not a kind year to coaches! Barry Melrose has the highest EVSV% of the 39 coaches that were fired, but that couldn't save his job. His stubbornness in making Steven Stamkos earn his ice time (yes that Steven Stamkos) ultimately did him in. That and they were a terrible possession team.
Michael Therrien had average goaltending but was holding the Pittsburgh Penguins back. They were a terrible possession team that was instantly way better under the guidance of Dan Bylsma. The coaching change led to a Stanley Cup for the Penguins.
Poor John Stevens. Great possession and goaltending and he still got the ax. His team was 13-11-2 at the time of the firing. Stevens rebounded just fine as he has two Stanley Cup rings as an assistant coach with the possession dominant Los Angeles Kings. Stevens will almost surely take over for Darryl Sutter when he steps away from the team.
More awful goaltending
Davis Payne got the John Stevens treatment in St. Louis.
The Washington Capitals made one of their biggest mistakes by getting rid of Bruce Boudreau because their goalies couldn't stop pucks. The firing directly led to an era which saw Alex Ovechkin underachieving because defensive minded coaches thought it would be a great idea to try and change him.
Bad possession and bad goaltending did both of these guys in.
Ron Rolston may have had the benefit of league average goaltending but he was a terrible NHL coach.
Randy Carlyle and Doug MacLean can't blame the goalies for their termination. Both guys failed to get their teams to control play and were rightfully let go. Dallas Eakins will probably get another shot coaching in the NHL and he will probably get a lot better play from his goalies than he did in Edmonton.
Todd Richards received the worst goaltending of anybody on this list. Mike Johnston received the second best goaltending.
Ultimately, a lion's share of these examples show that poor goaltending is a death sentence for NHL coaches. Likewise it can make a coach look excellent. There is a reason for the saying "Show me a good coach and I'll show you a good goaltender." Here are the Jack Adams award winners and their goaltending stats:
It goes to show just how poorly Mike Johnston was doing this year that he couldn't survive with the way Marc-Andre Fleury was playing.
Out of the 39 fired coaches only 10 had goaltenders performing at league average or better.
Mike Johnston was a terrible NHL coach in the 2015-16 season and unlike some of the other members of the mid season firing club he deserved his termination.
Thanks for reading!