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Sunday, December 29, 2002

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

A few days ago, when the Penguins were in the midst of a 10-game losing streak, Craig Patrick was asked about Rick Kehoe's job security as head coach. He laughed and replied, "I don't know if my job is safe."

It was an unsolicited display of accountability on Patrick's part, a concept which seems to be lost on many of his NHL brethren these days.

Only four of the league's 30 head coaches have been in place as long as five years, none longer than the Hurricanes' Paul Maurice at seven. Only nine were in their current positions before Jan. 1, 2000. Only 17 were in their current positions at the start of last season.

By contrast, 13 general managers have been in place as long as five years, highlighted by the Devils' Lou Lamoriello at 16 and Patrick at 12. Only six teams have changed general managers in the past two seasons. Even the Islanders' much-maligned Mike Milbury has been with his current employer a month longer than Maurice.

Is it all really the coaches' fault?

No coach was fired in the first two months of this season, but four were felled in December: Darryl Sutter in San Jose, Greg Gilbert in Calgary, Bob Hartley in Colorado and now Curt Fraser in Atlanta. And in each instance except possibly that of the Flames, a case could be made that it was the general manager who made the greatest contribution to his team's lackluster performance.

Start with the Sharks.

Many viewed them as a Stanley Cup contender this season, and that was a credit to Dean Lombardi, who built a roster as complete as any in the NHL. But his only task this past summer -- to make sure all his players showed up -- was botched. Evgeni Nabokov and Brad Stuart were contract holdouts until well after the Sharks were off to a poor start, forcing Lombardi to ultimately give them the money they wanted, anyway. Upon San Jose's visit to Mellon Arena a month ago, more than one player pointed to the absences of Nabokov and Stuart as a reason for the team's disappointing production.

Colorado always is viewed as a contender, and that's what led Pierre Lacroix to stun the hockey world and replace Hartley after a similarly flat start.

Here again, though, the pivotal difference between this year's Avalanche and last year's was a major trade Lacroix made with the Flames this past summer to ship away clutch scorer Chris Drury and grinder Stephane Yelle for a skilled but soft defenseman in Derek Morris. Losing core players such as Drury, Yelle and, previously, Shjon Podein and Jon Klemm, is what has caused the Avalanche to lose the teeth it always could show in the most important games. Same goes with forfeiting Ville Nieminen and Rick Berry to the Penguins to rent Darius Kasparaitis.

Atlanta's firing is the most questionable of all of these.

When Don Waddell stood at a podium Thursday to field questions from the media about firing Fraser, among his quotes was this: "We're going to be a little more aggressive defensively."

Fraser couldn't have kept a straight face when he read it.

In his three-plus seasons as Atlanta's coach, Fraser never was given one defenseman who could skate well enough to employ an aggressive style to any degree. Even this past summer, when ownership gave Waddell the green light to spend money, his blue-line acquisitions were Uwe Krupp and Richard Smehlik, both of whom have reputations for being hurt and for being painfully slow. This season, both have been hurt and have remained painfully slow.

Now, Waddell is coaching the team himself, and that could be fun. Perhaps he'll get a taste of what it's like to send Chris Tamer over the boards 24 times a game.