Red & Black Hockey
Entries with the tag: Paul+Maurice
Chairman Mo gets three more years
by David Lee on 06/15/09 at 07:06 PM ET
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On Monday, the Hurricanes finally made the announcement that we all knew was coming. Paul Maurice has officially been signed to a new three year deal to coach the Hurricanes. Ron Francis will be retained as an associate coach and will be the Director of Player Development. None of this should be a surprise to anyone.
Carolina will now get to working on getting some of those forwards re-signed. And on looking for a cheap alternative to Erik Cole. Jim Rutherford has done a good job picking up quality stuff out of the bargain bin over the last few years. He has also always worked with a limited budget well below the upper limit of the salary cap. This will naturally preclude going after a big dollar free agent. To clarify my stance from yesterday’s post, my opinion is that the Hurricanes won’t be big players in the FA market. I wish they would get a top notch winger for Staal, but I know that the reality of it is that they won’t be spending big dollars.
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Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Paul+Maurice,
Mo likely to stay in Raleigh
by David Lee on 05/22/09 at 09:15 PM ET
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Go ahead and remove the “interim” tag from Paul Maurice’s position with the Hurricanes.
According to JP Giglio in today’s N&O, Mo will most likely be signed to a new contract as head coach of the Hurricanes. It’s not a lock, but it’s about as close to certain as it could be. Jim Rutherford typically doesn’t deal with player or coach contracts while the team is still playing, but he has given his vote of confidence.
“The fact of the matter is something extraordinary would have to come up for this coaching staff not to return,” Rutherford said. “But I still want to wait and go through the process when we’re finished playing.”
Technically speaking, Maurice is still under contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Peter Laviolette is officially under contract with the Canes. Maurice’s contract expires in June, While Laviolette’s was to run through the 2010-11 season.
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Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Paul+Maurice,
Coach Mo on the Leafs
by David Lee on 01/14/09 at 10:29 PM ET
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On Thursday, the Maple Leafs will come to town and Paul Maurice will coach his first game against his former team. Mo was on 850 the Buzz this morning discussing the emotions behind playing against a team that fired him.
The full five minute radio clip is here, but here’s the money quote:
The politically correct thing that most coaches would say is that it’s just like any other game, but it’s absolutely not.... It’s absolutely personal. You get fired, you want to see that team lose every game for the next ten years.
I’m not sure whether the Leafs will know or care about that comment, but it’s an honest opinion. And I love that kind of honesty.
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Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Paul+Maurice, Toronto+Maple+Leafs,
Canes end 2008 with a bang
by David Lee on 01/01/09 at 12:46 AM ET
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On Wednesday night, the Hurricanes defeated the visiting Thrashers 3-1 to move into sole possession of the #8 spot in the East. Cam Ward had a sleepy game in net with some solid defense in front of him and a huge game from the top line. Meanwhile, Carolina’s defense did an excellent job of shutting down Atlanta’s top line. Ilya Kovalchuk was able to break a nine game goal drought, but that was it. Todd White and Bryan Little each assisted on the goal, but both were held to zero shots on goal.
Sergei Samsonov potted two hard-working goals while Eric Staal and Tuomo Ruutu each had a single assist. To finish it off, Joe Corvo scored a blistering power play goal as some third period insurance.
This closes the 2008 portion of the 08/09 season. I vowed to withhold judgment on Paul Maurice: redux until the team has played 20 or so games under him, and I intend to keep that promise. I’m beginning to think that it’s not too soon at all, but I’ll still wait.
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Tags: Atlanta+Thrashers, Carolina+Hurricanes, Paul+Maurice, Sergei+Samsonov,
Canes sneak by Habs, Staal emerging
by David Lee on 12/17/08 at 08:39 AM ET
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On Tuesday, the Hurricanes took advantage of 11 power play opportunities, cashing in on three of them to defeat the visiting Canadiens 3-2. In the process, Eric Staal potted two goals and Sergei Samsonov earned two assists.
Slowly but surely, Staal is getting back to where he should be. And so are the Canes. There’s no denying that this has been a sub-par season for the Canes in the win column and for Staal on the stats sheet. In the past six games, Carolina has earned seven standings points. For the first time all season, they’ve earned at least a point in four consecutive games. Eric Staal has a four game point streak, which is also a first this season. In those four games, #12 has seven (4/3) points, including two two-goal games.
It’s great to see Staal coming to life because thus far this season, that old saying is perfectly applicable. “As Staal goes, so go the Canes.” When he scores, the Canes are 7-0-1.
Sergei Samsonov is also coming to life. In the last six games, he has six (2/4) points. He, too, is getting to the kind of production he was giving the Canes last season.
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Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Eric+Staal, Montreal+Canadiens, Paul+Maurice, Segei+Samsonov,
The more things change, the more they stay the same
by David Lee on 12/14/08 at 12:37 AM ET
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This Hurricanes season is starting to look a lot like the Cinderella season in 2001-02. In a lot of ways, but mostly in that Paul Marice is getting his team to overtime with frightening regularity. In January of 2002, under the guidance of Chairman Mo, the Hurricanes went through a a rough winless spell. Between January 17 and January 29, they didn’t pick up any wins, but they had five ties in that seven game span. Remember ties?
This is what’s happening now. Maurice has been back at the helm for five games. A blowout loss in his first game followed by an overtime loss, a win, and now two shootout losses in a row. Five games. Five points. They have quietly fallen into third place in the Southeast division, but things could be a lot worse. This is only the second time all season that the Canes have secured standings points in three consecutive games.
Of course the Hurricanes would prefer to get the two points, and they certainly should have had two points in Philly on Thursday, but they blew a four goal lead and were honestly lucky to have escaped with the one point. Still, I’m trying to be optimistic about it and say that one point is better than no points.
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Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Paul+Maurice,
Chairman Mo in, Lavi out
by David Lee on 12/03/08 at 04:44 PM ET
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On Wednesday, the Hurricanes made a strange announcement. As a lot of people expected, Peter Laviolette was fired. The strange bit was that they hired “Ole One Eye” Paul Maurice to replace him. This move came two weeks shy of the five year anniversary of the reverse scenario. According to Luke Decock from the N&O, this move will be “for the remainder of this season only”.
I was pretty sure that Lavi wouldn’t get canned in-season, and I confidently said so in a conversation just a few days ago. Now, I should prepare myself to eat my hat. While I admit that a major change might have been necessary, I’m not really sure about the decision to bring Mo back.
Eric Staal, Rod Brind’Amour and Nic Wallin are holdovers from the Chairman Mo era. It’ll be interesting to hear their responses to the change.
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Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Paul+Maurice, Peter+Laviolette,
