Hartley and Sutter hardly to blame for slow starts - Faceoff

Hockey Digest, March, 2003 by Alex Gordon

SOME NEWS ITEMS BARELY raise an eyebrow anymore. A politician says something stupid. So what? It happens every day.

A celebrity couple gets divorced. Yawn. I really thought Nicholas Cage had found his soulmate in Lisa Marie Presley.

An NHL coach gets fired. Big deal. Chances are, there are at least a half-dozen guys with Stanley Cups rings itching to get back behind the bench.

Yet every now and then a politician says something really stupid (Trent Lott), a celebrity divorce does shock you from and Nicole), and an NHL coaching change takes you by surprise.

The recent firings of the San Jose Sharks' Darryl Sutter and the Colorado Avalanche's Bob Hartley really did seem to come like a bolt out of the blue line. Sure, both teams, predicted to be legitimate threats to the Detroit Red Wings' reign, were off to disappointing starts, but bad coaching hardly seemed to blame.

San Jose started the season without Evgeni Nabokov, its No. 1 goalie, and defenseman Brad Stuart, who both were holding out for more money. Add to that the lingering effects of injuries, and the defending Pacific champion looked sluggish and uninterested. It seemed Sutter's blue-collar magic had run out.

Colorado's horrid start can be traced to its inept special-teams play. During training camp, GM Pierre LaCroix, sensing his team lacked depth on the blue line, traded Chris Drury, a standout on the power play, and Stephane Yelle, an expert penalty-killer, to Calgary for defenseman Derek Morris. While LaCroix's trades have worked in the past, he seems to have been guilty of pulling the trigger too early in this instance, and it cost Hartley his job.

Both San Jose and Colorado responded to the regime changes by picking up their play, but whether they can maintain that pace and climb back up the standings into contention remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, with a Cup to his name and four first-place finishes, Hartley shouldn't be out of work too long. Just look at Sutter, who less than a month later was back behind the bench, trying to re-ignite the Calgary Flames.