Tim Murray DBOTW nominee?

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/12676 ... olan-coach

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Two last-place finishes and an imperfect working relationship led Sabres general manager Tim Murray to the conclusion to fire coach Ted Nolan on Sunday.

The decision was made after a lengthy evaluation which ended with Murray's exit interviews with Sabres players, a day after Buffalo (23-51-8) closed its season with a 2-0 loss to Pittsburgh.

"I don't think it was a bad fit. I don't think it was a great fit," Murray said. "Maybe it's just chemistry. Maybe it's just two different personalities."

Murray also felt the move to fire Nolan, a little more than a year after the coach signed a three-year contract, was needed to improve a team in the midst of a rebuilding process.

"I know this isn't a popular thing," Murray said. "To me, it's about getting better. I feel this was an opportunity for us to improve and keep improving. And that's certainly no disrespect to Ted."

Nolan was in good spirits but declined comment when reached by The Associated Press. "I'm just going to reflect on it and come out with a statement in the next couple of days," Nolan said.

Nolan is out for a second time in Buffalo, after he spent two seasons coaching the team in the mid-1990s. Nolan's first tenure ended after winning NHL coach of the year honors in 1997. He left while feeling disrespected by then-GM Darcy Regier, who offered Nolan a one-year contract extension.

Nolan returned to Buffalo on an interim basis in November 2013 when Ron Rolston was fired as part of a front-office shakeup. Regier was fired at the same time, and former Sabres captain Pat LaFontaine was brought in as president of hockey operations.

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Not a mult.

Not at all. Nolan is a good guy, but an x-and-o guy roughly on par with Vinny Del Negro. He was there to keep everyone hungry and steady after the Ron Rolston disaster, and he did that well, but now it's time to get serious. People love Nolan because they think he got a raw deal in Buffalo: Hasek willed a crappy roster to a division title (and celebrated by fucking Nolan's wife, apparently), and then Nolan was replaced because he clashed with management (who, for better or worse, sided with Hasek). Turns out he was clashing with management again. Nolan wasn't Murray's hire; he was Pat LaFontaine's during that week or two when Pat LaFontaine ran the Sabres. Gotta have everyone on the same page. Maybe that'll be Mike Babcock, Dan Bylsma, or, pending our outcome here, even Joel Quenneville.

There's a very peculiar vendetta against the Sabres right now from the rest of the hockey world. They didn't invent stripping a dead-end team for assets and finishing low to draft high. We did it right here.

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isn't this just like what happened with denis savard?

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Precisely! The team was in a terrible rut and needed to get some goodwill any way they could get it, so they went to the last resort of pro sports' damned: Come On Down To See The Coach.

They also earned goodwill by spending shit tons of money to rebuild downtown Buffalo and then, for good measure, buying the fucking Bills so they wouldn't move to Toronto.

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Understood, but then why not cut to the chase after that season was over, and just get "his guy" from the get-go, instead of signing Nolan to a 3-year deal, knowing that he would shitcan him at the end of Year 1?

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Not a mult.

I think Murray tried to work with Nolan but couldn't get on the same page. Reading more about this, it sounds like Nolan not only didn't believe in analytics but didn't even believe in reviewing game film. What are you supposed to do with a coach like that? I know everyone loves the guy because he overachieved twenty years ago, is a visible minority excelling in the NHL, and is a sympathetic figure with the whole Hasek thing, but he's not cut out for this league anymore.

People need to cool their jets on this. I remember before the lockout, you'd fire a coach for losing three games in a row or "losing the dressing room" no matter how much term was on the contract. Now Nolan gets to enjoy two years of free fracking money and maybe take a job in juniors, where he doesn't have to do anything more than run hard practices.

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