San Jose made the wrong coaching move
by THE PUCK STOPS HERE, Special to FOXSports.com
Wilson got the ax because San Jose is yet to have significant postseason success in his tenure — at least that's the commonly held excuse. In 2004, he led San Jose to the semifinals. Since then, the team has lost in the second round three years in a row.
The Puck Stops Here
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That's right, San Jose has gone two or three rounds into the playoffs in each full season he has coached them.
That should be considered successful. The problem is that because San Jose has this success, people expect further growth. They expect the team to make it to the finals.
But I'm not sure why they expected that. I can't think of any season where I thought San Jose was the best team in the league or the best team in the Western Conference. There were a few seasons where I thought they were one of the better teams in their conference and with some luck, might be able to make a deep playoff run. That luck wasn't there. Was it Ron Wilson's fault? I don't see any convincing argument for that, but nevertheless he is blamed for coaching a team that was so good that it only made the final eight in the last three years.
San Jose is going to have to find a better coach than Ron Wilson, which isn't an easy task. Once again, it looks like the usual suspects on the NHL coaching merry-go-round are available — Joel Quenneville, Barry Melrose, Bob Hartley, Paul Maurice or some equivalent. In many of those cases, it's a significant step down.
Meanwhile, Ron Wilson is a top candidate to fill other coaching vacancies in the NHL and a team will do well if it hires him.
The coach you fired should not be the best unemployed coaching prospect out there.
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