Late to the issue on this one, but I'm just recycling my own material anyways, so...
Anyways, this is what I had to say about the Blues when they faced the Flames a couple weeks ago:
Andy Murray was considered a Jack Adams finalist after his underdog Blues made a run at the end of the season to make the play-offs. This year, he's a favorite to get fired. The funny thing is, the team is marginally better this season at spending time in the offensive zone, but the bounces are going the other way. The PP has added Paul Kariya, Erik Johnson and Andy McDonald...and sunk to 23rd after placing 3rd last year. I noted Patrik Berglund still had good underlying numbers last time these teams met, but his on-ice SH% had sunk well below the league mean. That's a micro-cosm of the entire team, with all the kids and players who overachieved last year now struggling to score. And that's typically the issue with riding the percentages: if they love you now, they'll hate you later. Rather Faustian, actually.
After John Stevens got fired for what was basically a 10 game cold streak earlier this year, it makes me wonder how many coaches are canned because of variance (read: out of their control).
