The Villanovan

Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: Sports

Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby leads the NHL in points and assists, but the Penguins find themselves stuck in last place in the Atlantic Division.

Now that we are almost two months into the NHL regular season, let's take a look around the league to see who's hot, who's not and who has already been shown the door.



Benched Bosses

The young NHL season has already seen the firing of two head coaches, and they have come from the same division. The first coaching departure occurred when the Atlanta Thrashers' Bob Hartley was fired on October 17. After losing the first six games of the season, Hartley was relieved of his coaching duties and was replaced by General Manager Don Waddell for what was originally a short-term assignment. However, the Thrashers responded immediately to the change, and after climbing from the bottom of the Southeast division to third place, Waddell has secured his position behind the bench for the time being.

While Atlanta went from the basement to the middle of the hunt, the Washington Capitals' season so far has had the opposite result. The Caps came out of the gate with a 3-0 record and finally appeared to be showing the positive effects of their stellar combination of young talent and veteran offseason acquisitions. Things quickly took a turn for the worse, however, and the Caps found themselves off to their worst start in 26 years and in the bottom of the standings, collecting only 13 points in 21 games. Washington sought a solution in the same way as Atlanta and fired Head Coach Glen Hanlon on Thanksgiving Day. Replacing Hanlon on an interim basis is Bruce Boudreau, head coach of the Caps' AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears. The seasoned and successful minor league coach was deserving of the call up and won his first two games with the Capitals.

Staffing-change rumors have also begun to surface around another struggling Eastern Conference team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Although the Leafs denied the Monday afternoon reports that Leafs GM John Ferguson Jr. unsuccessfully tried to fire Head Coach Paul Maurice, talk has surfaced throughout the league that a change must come in Toronto. The Leafs are in the bottom of the Northeast Division and are struggling mightily for yet another season. Keep your eyes on the news because heads are surely soon to roll in Toronto.

Continued...

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