Change is good
New bench bosses breathe new life into teams
Five teams have improved after firing their coach
Change the coach, get a boost. It’s worked almost without exception in the NHL so far this season. Five teams have fired their coach and all, to some degree, have seen an improvement.
The Montreal Canadiens were the latest to make the move, replacing Michel Therrien with Claude Julien in mid-February.
They’ve since reeled off eight wins in 11 games while maintaining their tenuous hold on the Atlantic Division. Perhaps the brightest star since the change: Carey Price, who has a sizzling .952 save percentage.
Julien’s former team in Boston, meanwhile, has fared excellently under Bruce Cassidy, boasting 10 wins in 13 games ahead of a Monday night clash in Vancouver.
The Bruins’ special teams have remained superb since the change, goaltender Tuukka Rask has found his game again and the club is scoring a whole bunch more than before.
The New York Islanders have found similar success under Doug Weight (15-7-3). John Tavares has been humming at a point per-game with his former teammate in charge, buoyed by Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price makes the save on Edmonton Oilers centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as Shea Weber defends during action in Edmonton, Alta.
improved contributions from Anders Lee, Josh Bailey, Ryan Strome and Andrew Ladd, who has 11 goals in 22 since Jack Capuano was dismissed in midJanuary.
St. Louis has gotten a decent (if somewhat misleading) bump
since Mike Yeo got started as their head coach, going 11-6-0 before facing the Kings last night.
The club has dropped off substantially in terms of puck possession, though – from just outside the top 10 to 24th overall. The biggest difference for the Blues is suddenly great goaltending from Jake Allen and Carter Hutton, the worst tandem in the league when Ken Hitchcock was fired on Feb. 1.
Florida made the earliest change, dropping Gerard Gallant for general manager Tom Rowe after just 22 games in November. As was Rowe’s hope, special teams have gotten a boost, but otherwise the switch hasn’t provided a big lift for the Panthers, who are falling fast out of the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Holtby’s many wins Braden Holtby finally lost a game in regulation last week.
It was the first such defeat for the reigning Vezina trophy winner since Dec. 27 – a stretch of more than two months. Holtby went 19-0-2 during the 21-game point streak with a .946 evenstrength save percentage and five shutouts.
Holtby is one of only two goalies in NHL history to post two single-season streaks of 20 or more decisions, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, joining Pete Peeters who accomplished the feat with both Philadelphia and Boston.