Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared prior to Tuesday’s firing of Randy Carlyle.
What some Toronto Maple Leafs fans had been hoping wouldn’t happen, has unfortunately reared its ugly head once again.
The running three year “tradition” of an end of season collapse (regular season or playoffs) now seems possible for a fourth consecutive season.
The simplest move to make for Leafs president Brendan Shanahan and general manager Dave Nonis is to fire the coach as has happened in Edmonton, Ottawa and New Jersey already this season. It’s actually an in-season ploy the Leafs haven’t used often compared to other Original Six NHL teams. The team’s history when pulling such a move has seen some positive results, but never seems to be the instant solution fans hope for.
The most successful in-season firing goes back more than 55 years ago when Leafs GM George “Punch” Imlach fired Billy Reay on Nov. 28, 1958 and replaced him with…himself! A 5-12-3 start in 20 games under Reay was followed by a 22-20-8 run under Imlach. That was good enough to give the Leafs the fourth and final playoff spot, and upset the Boston Bruins in the first round before being eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens in the final in five games.
It wasn’t until 22 years later that Imlach, in his second stint as Leafs general manager, fired Joe Crozier on Jan. 10, 1981 and replaced him with Mike Nykoluk. It was again a positive infusion as Nykoluk’s 15-15-10 record in the final 40 games of the season was an improvement on the 13-22-5 record Crozier’s Leafs posted in the first 40 games. Those Leafs earned the 16th and final playoff spot on the last day of the season. Their reward? Toronto played the first-place New York Islanders in a best of five preliminary-round series. The predictable result? The Islanders won in three straight, outscoring the Leafs 20-4.
I was involved as general manager when John Brophy was replaced on Dec. 17, 1988 by George Armstrong. The Leafs were 11-19-2 under Brophy (3-16-1 in his last 20 games) but weren’t much better under Armstrong with a 17-27-4 record. The Leafs fell short of the playoffs that season.
The move to fire Doug Carpenter as coach on Oct. 26, 1990 was a shock. After a solid first regular season as coach in 1989-90, Carpenter’s Leafs got off to a dreadful 1-9-1 start. Again, the team wasn’t much better under his successor Tom Watt with a 22-37-10 record, not good enough to make the playoffs but enough to avoid coming in dead last and seeing Scott Niedermayer drafted third overall by the New Jersey Devils with the pick they had acquired from the Leafs.
When Cliff Fletcher fired Pat Burns on March 3, 1996, it was Burns who was more relieved than anyone. He had seen the cash-strapped ownership of the Leafs move the likes of Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk and others for little in return. The team’s runs to the conference finals in both 1993 and 1994 were distant memories to the 25-30-10 record the Leafs had on the day of Burns’ dismissal. On this occasion, Nick Beverley did a decent job as interim coach with a 9-6-2 record. It was a feisty and entertaining first-round series against the St. Louis Blues with Beverley calling the Blues “nimrods” at one point and Nick Kypreos crashing into Grant Fuhr and injuring him for the series. The only problem was that Jon Casey was outstanding filling in for Fuhr and the Leafs were eliminated.
The last such in-season move brought Randy Carlyle to his current coaching duties after Ron Wilson was replaced on March 2, 2012. Wilson’s Leafs had a 29-28-7 record and Carlyle didn’t fare any better in the final 18 games with a 6-9-3 record.
Brian Burke termed the end of the 2011-2012 season as “an 18-wheeler going right off a cliff.” The team isn’t in quite the same place as we ring in 2015, but it certainly is going down a path that isn’t pleasing anyone…especially Leafs management.
Will Carlyle get the opportunity to get the 18-wheeler back on the road, or will he become the first Leafs coach in team history to be hired during the season and also fired during the season?