Canadiens lose another good coach: Kirk Muller to coach Carolina Hurricanes

Well I can’t say I’m surprised. Most of us figured Kirk Muller was going to be a head coach in the NHL but the surprising thing is how quickly it happened. The Carolina Hurricanes announced Monday that Captain Kirk was taking over as coach of the lame-o-rama Canes, replacing Paul Maurice, who was given the heave-ho after a pathetic 8-13-4 start for his team.

You’ll recall that Kirk-is-Work Muller had left the Canadiens organization earlier this year to coach the Nashville Predators’ AHL affiliate in Milwaukee. He spent five years as an assistant coach with Montreal and is also a former Canadiens captain.

There later was talk that there was some conflict between Muller and fellow Habs assistant coach Perry Pearn, and that conflict helped push Muller out of Montreal. The irony is that Pearn is also gone – the victim of a panicky purge by GM Pierre Gauthier early in the season when the Habs were most definitely the Hab-nots.

Two things. First off, congrats to Muller. Second, am I the only guy who thinks we have just lost a second good coach here, on the heels of Guy Boucher moving to Tampa Bay from the Hamilton Bulldogs a couple of years back? But we’ve got Jacques ‘Mr. Personality’ Martin, so why am I complaining? Protect that lead boys!

 

So what happened to the Tampa Bay Lightning in game 7 vs. the dreaded Boston Bruins?

Man what a disappointment! For the second time in these playoffs, the understandably hated Boston Bruins won a game seven against a Quebec team. First it was that fright-night OT victory over the Montreal Canadiens in the first round and now they’ve done it again, this time versus Quebec’s official non-Habs team, the Tampa Bay Lightning. To add insult to injury, in both cases the winning goal came courtesy of Nathan Horton. (By the way, much as it pains me to underline it, it’s true that Horton is having a Claude Lemieux-like playoff run, with two OT goals against the Habs, including that devastating game seven marker, and last night’s series-clinching goal against Tampa.)

So what happened to the Bolts? My Twitter pal Rafael Ouellet – who also happens to be one of our more intriguing arthouse filmmakers – was at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston Friday night for the game and he tweeted to say he thought the Bolts looked nervous, also quite rightly pointing out that the B’s worked hard, shut down the neutral zone and that it was a super exciting game, with lots of good clean hits and not one penalty (Don Cherry must’ve been in ecstasy!).

Tampa had a great first period but they never looked dangerous in the next two periods and they appeared to go into a bit of a defensive shell, which led another Twitter pal, @lawyergirl77, to quip that “they wanted to take a page from Martin’s super successful playbook.” Ouch! You do have to think the game was a bit of a stumble for star rookie coach Guy Boucher who has so often looked brilliant in this post-season. You could – and actually should – also point the finger at captain Vincent Lecavalier who was, yet again, invisible Friday night. My Cousin Vinnie has to be the leader at moments like this and he wasn’t Friday night. As usual, it was Martin St. Louis and Newfoundland superstar Teddy Purcell who did the heavy lifting. The Bolt who was just friggin sensational was Dwayne Roloson – after a couple of shaky games, he just ruled for 37 of 38 shots. Rollie the Goalie – who looks like a grizzled aging rocker – delivered a stunning performance – That save late on Michael Ryder was something else!

In any case, let’s get this final going so I can happily watch the Vancouver Canucks crush and humiliate the Bruins in five games.

– Brendan

Here’s the video of Horton’s winning goal, a beauty.

P.S. For an interesting, non-hockey-fanatic take on these playoffs, click here for a neat blog post.