Hartley goes from Adams to the unemployment line

CALGARY— The Calgary Flames fired Bob Hartley on Tuesday, less than a year after he was voted the NHL’s coach of the year.

Calgary regressed by 20 points in 2015-16 after reaching the second round of playoffs the previous season, finishing with a 35-40-7 record. Only Vancouver and Edmonton posted fewer wins in the Western Conference.

Hartley navigated the Flames to a 45-30-7 record and third place in the Pacific Division in 2014-15, which earned him the Jack Adams Trophy.

But that Flames team did not resurface this season despite the talents of Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan and defencemen Marc Giordano and T.J. Brodie.

“Bob has taken this team as far as I feel he can take it,” Flames general manager Brad Treliving said during a news conference at Scotiabank Saddledome.

Letang suspended one game

The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without their best defenceman for Game 4 of their second-round series against the Washington Capitals.

Kris Letang has been suspended for one game for his elbow to the head area of Capitals winger Marcus Johansson on Monday night.

His absence is a huge blow to the Penguins defence, which played Game 3 without emerging 21-yearold Olli Maatta.

Maatta suffered an upper body injury in Game 2 following a devastating check from Capitals defenceman Brooks Orpik in Game 2. Orpik drew a three-game suspension for the incident, serving the first game of that suspension on Monday.

Rookie Derrick Pouliot stepped into the lineup for Maatta for Game 3, playing his first ever NHL playoff game. If Maatta is not available to return, the Penguins may have to turn to 25-year-old trade deadline acquisition Justin Schultz, who hasn’t played since Game 1 of the team’s first-round series with New York.

Letang, averaging more than 29 minutes in the playoffs, has seven points in eight games, and plays against the Capitals’ top line of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie.