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What about Bob? Hartley loses his job after team loses passionPosted: Thursday December 19, 2002 1:35 PM
Colorado general Pierre Lacroix fired Bob Hartley on Wednesday and promoted Avs assistant coach, and former NHL player, Tony Granato to head coach. CNNSI.com spoke to Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy, who cautioned Granato against the temptation to play wide-open hockey. CNNSI.com: Did you get the sense that Hartley was on borrowed time as soon as he was hired? Kennedy: That's what a lot of people felt. He had a good record in the minors, but he hadn't done anything extraordinary in Hershey, so that was the thinking, particularly after Marc Crawford had so much success. The conventional wisdom wasn't so much that Hartley was in over his head, but that he might have trouble getting a handle on the team. There was a lot of skepticism in the locker room, but he won the players over. And he won the fans over. He was passionate, which makes some of the comments coming out now seem strange. So, there was definitely skepticism that he could run a team like the Avalanche. In the beginning, there was that sense that it was only a matter of time. But he was successful and, at least for me, the idea that his firing was inevitable had passed. CNNSI.com: You mention Hartley's passion, did that message eventually wear off? It's not as though they started well and hit a slump this season; they just can't seem to win games. Kennedy: They came out not well, playing in a ton of overtime games, which takes a mental and physical toll. While it isn't a case of a Cup hangover, they did have a long playoff season. There's an effect there, and this is also a team that still has to get itself together for a regular-season games. They're not playing with a lot of passion, getting rid of Chris Drury was, if you ask me, a flat-out a mistake, even to bring in a talent such as Derek Morris. You also lose Stephane Yelle, another emotional guy. And a couple years ago, they traded Adam Deadmarsh, which helped them win a Cup, but that's three emotional guys right there. There are a lot of professionals on the Avalanche, Joe Sakic, for instance, but not a lot of emotional guys. Yeah, they get into it, especially when something's on the line, but for the most part they play on reason and skill, as opposed to pure passion. Drury, Yelle and Deadmarsh played with that passion. You don't necessarily wind a guy like Sakic up and go, but a lot of guys know they don’t need to play with that overabundance of emotion. CNNSI.com: When Hartley came into the league, his successes weren't generally known to the public. What was it that he brought to Colorado? Kennedy: There was the idea that he was a bit of an empty suit, and he dispelled that. He was tactically sound, and he didn't back down from teams. Instead, he'd joust with the media and he could infuse controversy to deflect that perception. He was honest and he had a blue-collar background. And he brought passion. He could be really tight and intense, but he did bring that element. The team has played without passion this season, but I have a hard time attributing that to Hartley. There's kind of a shelf life for coaches and even some Mike Keenan teams have played without passion. CNNSI.com: Was there a thought that his Cup was a situation at all similar to George Seifert taking over Bill Walsh's 49ersteam in San Francisco? Kennedy: Maybe there was a bit of thinking that he was the inheritor. But Crawford was never Walsh, nothing against Crawford, but he was not seen as an innovator that transformed a franchise. Hartley came to work for a great organization, but he wasn’t following in the steps of a legend. CNNSI.com: Will we see Hartley coaching again in the NHL? Soon? Kennedy: Absolutely. I don't know about soon. Probably not this year, but I'd be surprised if he didn't get another shot. I mean, what else do you have to do? CNNSI.com: Would we be having this conversation if Patrick Roy was covering some of the scoring woes we began to see last season? Kennedy: A coach's reputation so often can come down to: Is the goalie stopping the puck? My sense is that Granato wants to open things up, to get the pizzazz back in the offense. And if you give guys like Morris, Rob Blake and Martin Skoula the opportunity, they will open it up, and some will really sacrifice their defensive responsibilities. But they have to be careful, or this thing could really get away from them. You don't want to rely that much on Roy, maybe he's sliding, but how many times have we said that? Either way, even if you have a Dominik Hasek, nobody wants to rely completely on their goaltending. CNNSI.com: With an unproven coach taking over, what kind of reaction do you think we'll see from the Avalanche. Kennedy: He is untested, but he'll be helped by the fact that he scored 250 goals in the league. Granato a sign of the new wave of coaching here, either they're really old or they're young. He'll have the players' respect because of his abilities as a player. I don't think players care about a track record, they're not crunching the numbers. It's hard for us to read, of course, but we'll find out. In that room, the players have such a track record, they don't need that from a coach. The Avalanche need good leadership that will let them excel. Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy covers the NHL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. |
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