Doomed by defensive deficiencies

Fraser knew what he was getting into with expansion team

Curt Fraser likely saw it coming.

After a 5-1 loss to the Maple Leafs on Monday, it was pretty obvious that there would be coal in his stocking for Christmas. The Thrashers were kind enough to wait until after the holiday to do the deed.

Too many two-goals leads had been squandered and too often his team had looked disinterested on the ice.

After blowing a two-goal lead in the third period last Friday against the Hurricanes en route to a 3-2 overtime loss, Fraser sounded exasperated, saying: "We played terrific hockey all game and that's the result we get. I just can't explain it."

Unfortunately, the grim news had to be delivered at 9:30 a.m. Thursday by one of his best friends. Fraser had worked alongside general manager Don Waddell since 1995 with IHL Orlando and then the Thrashers. The two competed against each other as coaches in the IHL for several years prior to that, and have grown close over the past decade. Waddell met with Fraser for about a half hour and said his coach pretty much knew what was coming.

"He understood it," Waddell said. "It's part of the business. He wishes he could have done more. He’s hoping only for the best for all of us that are involved here. I thought he handled it very well, but it was very emotional for him."

Things usually don't end well for the first coach of an expansion team, so Fraser can take some pride that he lasted so long.

"I told him that 3 1/2 years with one franchise is pretty good in today's world," Waddell said. "Coaches tend to get fired as soon as teams lose a few games."

Fraser knew what he was getting into when he took his first NHL coaching job. He often said, "You don't get into this business for job security."

The Thrashers had one great month in December 2000, when the Donald Audette-Ray Ferraro-Andrew Brunette line was clicking. Atlanta went 10-5 in December, but followed that with a disatrous 1-10-3-1 January to begin 2001.

Other than that one winning month and a 1-2 finish in the 2002 Calder Trophy voting by Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk, there have been few highlights for the franchise.

Defense may win championships, but it can also get coaches canned. Atlanta's 124 goals allowed this season is the worst in the league, a big reason why the Thrashers have the third-worst winning percentage in their first four seasons in league history.

The 2002-03 regular season started with a thud. A 0-8-1-1 start was followed by a 6-6 record in November, during which time it looked like the team had turned the corner and was playing the high-energy style that Fraser preached. But a 2-6-0-3 mark in December -- including a slew of bad losses -- was enough to convince Waddell that a change was needed.

"I know we are better than eight wins," Waddell said. "There's no doubt about it. We easily could have won four or five of those games where we were up by two late. You look at the standings right now; if we win those games, instead of having 21 points, you have 31 and you are five points out of a playoff spot. We wouldn’t be sitting here today."

Assistant coach Tim Bothwell took the fall along with Fraser, the victim of the porous defense played by Chris Tamer, Daniel Tjarnqvist and Yannick Tremblay. Frantisek Kaberle, Richard Smehlik and Andy Sutton haven't exactly been Norris-worthy on the blueline, but the three Ts have been especially turnover-prone and irresponsbile in their own end. Waddell plans to crank up the defensive intensity and possibly bring a fourth man back into the defensive zone to help outnumber the offensive attack down low.

Waddell last coached with San Diego of the IHL in 1992. While he doesn't want to lead the team long-term, he could end up finishing the season at the helm if he can't get the guy he wants to be the full-time head coach.

"It was the right thing to do at this time," Waddell said. "I'm not nervous about it because I'm around our team so much and I know our team very well. I've seen every game this year and I haven't missed anything, so I feel like short-term I'm best prepared to run the bench."

He said the Thrashers have a short list of three candidates already, and that they had contacted the teams those people are currently associated with in an attempt to gain permission to speak with them about their vacancy.

Waiting until the offseason might increase his chances of landing someone currently under contract with an NHL team. He will have to coach the rest of the season with a sense of urgency, knowing that Thrashers president Stan Kasten could relieve him of his duties, too, if the team doesn't turn it around.

Waddell's background in Detroit would make Red Wings associate coach Barry Smith an intriguing choice as a permanent coach. Smith's primary responsibilities in Detroit are working with the Wings' forwards, so Heatley and Kovalchuk could benefit from his expertise. He also has coached in Sweden and Norway, so his tendency is wide-open passing hockey, a style that would suit the Thrashers' young guns well. And Atlanta could do worse than hope that a little Scotty Bowman magic rubs off on the players.

Terry Murray is another name mentioned prominently for the opening. Murray is currently a scout for the Flyers, whom he coached for three seasons and led to the Stanley Cup finals in 1997 before being dismissed. Murray most recently led the Panthers to 98 points in 1999-2000, but was fired on Dec. 28, 2000, after Florida won just six of its first 36 games.

He wasn't contacted by the Sharks or Flames when they made their recent coaching moves, but was in the mix for jobs with the Blackhawks and Stars in recent years. Murray had run-ins with Pavel Bure and Eric Lindros, so dealing with a mercurial young star like Kovalchuk could challenge his patience.

"I want to get back into coaching," Murray told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I know Atlanta has lots of young players and talent. What I'm not familiar with is how things unfolded for them in the early part of this season."

Waddell said Thursday his team was "young and fragile," making former Avalanche coach Bob Hartley an extremely unlikely choice. His "bull in a china shop" personality wouldn't click with the Thrashers' fragile young egos, nor would his tendency to use a short bench and rely on superstars. Hartley almost ruined talented young left wing Alex Tanguay, so Atlanta would be foolish to let him be responsible for the development of Heatley and Kovalchuk. Hartley is also regarded as egotistical and wouldn't be a good fit in the buttoned-up corporate world of an AOL Time Warner team.

Darryl Sutter just doesn't make sense in Atlanta. If he's going to try to turn around a bad team, he might as well do it in his home province of Alberta with the Calgary Flames. The word is that he is emerging as the front-runner in the Flames' sordid search for a new bench boss, which could take him off Atlanta's wish list unless the Thrashers move quickly.

Larry Robinson is a defensive-oriented coach who excelled while coaching a big, trapping team in New Jersey, but struggled in a rebuilding situation in Los Angeles in his first stint behind the bench.

Other possibilities for the job include Kevin Constantine, Craig Hartsburg or John Paddock.

A complicating factor could be the looming possibility of labor trouble in 2004, which might make signing a coach to a multiyear deal difficult. Someone like Ted Nolan, who has been out of work for so long, would likely jump at any offer just to get back behind a bench. Waddell said he wasn't worried about the 2004 labor trouble in regards to his coaching search, and says the team will sign a coach past that date if that's what it takes to get the right guy.

As always, the coach is the scapegoat for the poor play on the ice, but Waddell must get some of the blame, too.

He gave away Andrew Brunette -- who could've still been a productive and relatively inexpensive player in their lineup -- and missed on such mid-level free agents as Yanic Perreault and Andrew Cassels, who could've helped as two-way centers.

Damian Rhodes was a glaring free-agent bust, and Byron Dafoe has been disappointing so far behind the aforementioned lousy defense. Going after older defensemen like Uwe Krupp and Smehlik hasn't yielded dividends, either.

Waddell also avoided the temptation to fill a need by drafting a "now" player like Jay Bouwmeester in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. His selection of Finnish goaltender Kari Lehtonen shows he realizes that even he may not be around when Heatley, Kovalchuk and Lehtonen turn into stars.

"Certainly we are all accountable for what we are responsible for," Waddel said. "And right now we feel like we have a better team than our eight wins indicate. And I'm responsible for the player personnel end of this."

But it was his good buddy Fraser who took the fall for the present problems. Then again, maybe he was the lucky one for being spared the aggravation of watching bad defense every night.

Jon A. Dolezar covers the NHL for CNNSI.com.

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