Here are the NHL Stories from Prime Time Sports last night (National Hour):Host: Bob McCown
Guests: Stephen Brunt from the Globe & Mail, James Deacon from the FAN590 and Gord Kirke, a sports lawyer
Main NHL Story: The roundtable discussed the situation in Phoenix again. Specifically, an interview that Cliff Fletcher had earlier in the week on the FAN. Fletcher had mentioned that Gretzky had not yet talked to him, which is very un-Gretzky-like (he usually is on the phone all the time). The roundtable talked about why Gretzky was in Phoenix in the first place - it was to grow the NHL and help out a poor market, however, now with all his friends gone and the team doing poorly, can Phoenix and the NHL afford to get rid of him? Deacon talked about how it usually the case that Great athletes usually make poor coaches, because they think some things are easily done and therefore expect too much for their players. The roundtable agreed that given his current position, and with Mike Smith now gone to Russia, Gretzky should step aside. As was talked about earlier in the week, even if the Coyotes hire a new GM, it will be very difficult to do anything to Gretzky - can a clause be put in his contract that allows him to get rid of the coach with no questions asked. But if the new GM does fire Gretzky, we come full circle and again the question of the Coyotes surviving in Phoenix returns. Overall, the roundtable agrees that, given Cliff Fletcher's past record with teams, that if he was unsuccessful the problem must have lied elsewhere (the coach) and that the only solution is to get rid of Wayne. Deacon brought up the point that given the strong Canadian dollar, the team should get rid of Wayne and move back to Winnipeg.
Canadian GM's
Kevin Lowe will not be fired in the off-season, however he will be in the 2008 off-season if he doesn't turn his team around. If any personnel moves are going to be made in Edmonton, it would be with the coach - he just didn't seem to get the team fired up when they needed to win.
Bob Gainey is 100% safe.
John Ferguson Jr., according to Richard Peddie, has a 50/50 chance of returning to the Leafs. This fact was taken out of the way he spoke during an earlier interview. However, Gordon Kirke, believed that Peddie acted this way because he was responding to the way his players talked to the media on exit interview day. Leafs Nation was quite upset with the positive interviews given by Andrew Raycroft and Darcy Tucker and Peddie was just trying to calm down the Leafs Nation by suggesting that the season wasn't what the organization had hoped for. James Deacon suggested that if a big-name GM becomes available (like with what happened to the Raptors) JFJ can pack his bags, because the Leafs have the money and the reputation that can and should attract top talent.
Bullets:
Rick DiPietro - will attempt to play Game 2- they have to play him over Dubielewicz because of the money they pay him
Mats Sundin - resign or not - everyone agreed that resigning Mats is the best for the Leafs, except for McCown...go figure.
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