From The Archive: "MACLEAN KNOWS PRESSURE’S ON"

From The Archive: "MACLEAN KNOWS PRESSURE’S ON"

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"MACLEAN KNOWS PRESSURE IS ON"  - NOV 28, 2006 - VOL. 60, ISSUE 11

Gallant took the first bullet in Columbus, but without a turnaround, GM is next.

Two things can kill an NHL GM. One is not hiring the right man to coach his team and two is not having good enough goaltending.

With the firing of Gerard Gallant, the second NHL bench boss to be dismissed early in 2006-07, we know where Columbus Blue Jackets GM-president Doug MacLean stands on No. 1. He has hired two men to coach the team, other than himself when he stepped behind the bench for parts of 2001-02 and 2002-03, and neither Dave King nor Gallant was able to get the team in the playoffs.

As for No. 2, well, only time will tell if Pascal Leclaire is the right No. 1 stopper.

But with the firing of Gallant, it is now clearly MacLean’s job on the line.

Perhaps the only thing shocking about Gallant’s firing is he wasn’t the first NHL coach canned this season. That distinction went to Philadelphia’s Ken Hitchcock, a move that was somewhat shocking from the standpoint he had only recently signed a three-year extension with the Flyers.

In any case, Gallant makes two and you can bet your bottom dollar he won’t be the last NHL coach to be fired this season.

Just about everybody in hockey suspected Gallant’s days were numbered heading into this season, if the team got off to a bad start, although The Hockey News speculated Columbus would be a playoff team this season.

There are many who suspect Gallant, who had no head coaching experience, got the job in the first place because he and MacLean are old pals from Summerside, P.E.I. Regardless, the Blue Jackets were vastly underachieving at 5-9-1 at the time of his firing on Nov. 13. They were dead last in the Western Conference’s Central Division and really weren’t showing any signs of improving.

A nice, honest, hard-working man by all accounts, Gallant just never seemed to get his message through to the Columbus players, many of whom didn’t have an ounce of the passion their coach displayed in his playing days with Detroit and Tampa Bay.

Now the pressure is squarely on the shoulders of MacLean. There is no denying he has done a very nice job of assembling talent as well as selling hockey in the Columbus market. From youngsters such as Rick Nash, Nikolai Zherdev, Gilbert Brule, and David Vyborny, as well as veterans Adam Foote, Sergei Fedorov, Fredrik Modin, and Anson Carter, you would think the Blue Jackets would be battling for the division lead and not for their playoff lives.

This is the Blue Jackets sixth season (not counting the lockout year) and they have yet to make an appearance in the playoffs. There was rampant speculation that the Blue Jackets were interested in Hitchcock and hiring him would be a good first step.

The Blue Jackets played two days after Gallant was fired, so perhaps MacLean was just buying a little more time. Or was he only protecting his own hide by hiring somebody who wouldn’t be a threat to his position down the road?

For his part, Agnew has paid his dues at the junior and minor-pro level, but this is a tough initial head coaching scenario to step into for somebody who hopes to have a long and fruitful big-league bench career. That said, if the team is indeed his, the first thing he should do is sit down with Foote and Fedorov, winners of five Cups between them, and get their evaluation of the team’s flaws. He should have them grade their teammates, pointing out strengths and weaknesses.

Both Foote and Fedorov are elite athletes and leaders with nothing left to do in their careers except win more Cups. Yet they have been unable to positively influence the crowd of players assembled around them.

It didn’t help matters that Fedorov missed the early portion of the season with a shoulder injury, but even upon his return, the team continued to struggle.

Losing 1-0 to the lowly Chicago Blackhawks was obviously the final straw.

This was supposed to be the year when the Blue Jackets lit it up, especially with the arrival of Carter and Modin. But they have been offensively anemic – dead last in goals-for at 33 when Gallant was fired – as well as defensively putrid.

Modin had just three goals in 15 games while Carter, who scored 33 for the Vancouver Canucks last season, had just two and was fighting for ice time.

Three players – Nash, Vyborny, and Zherdev – were tied for the team lead in goals with…are you ready for this?…four each. Nash, meanwhile, was supposed to contend for the Rocket Richard Trophy.

It is not too late to turn things around in Columbus this season, but for that to happen, MacLean needs to get his house in order and fast.

Next Up: The Jackets are back home on Saturday to battle the Seattle Kraken at 7 p.m.

Join Jason Newland's Columbus Blue Jacket page on Bunches, a new app that connects sports fans. Also, you can watch a new YouTube game show about the Blue Jackets, Around the Fifth Line.