FanHouse John Stevens

In the NHL, coach firings are as common as parking tickets in New York City. Throughout the NHL season I'll be taking a bi-weekly look at five coaches who are the most likely to get fired. Be advised your local coach may be axed at any moment. Consider this fair warning.

Things have changed quite a bit since our last look at coaches with warm cushions. For one, the Lightning are making me look bad at 3-1-3 since the last installment. The Leafs have won a few games and things have gone from bad to an Alexander Daigle brand of awful for the Hurricanes. We'll take a look at all of that and more after the jump.

The NHL season is almost upon us. That means the weather is getting colder, leaves are falling off trees and coaches are ever closer to getting the proverbial axe. Last year, it took only four games for the Chicago Blackhawks to fire Dennis Savard. The Penguins let Michel Therrien go with 25 games left in the season and it was just what the doctor ordered. The team went 18-3-4 under Dan Bylsma the rest of the season on their way to a Stanley Cup victory. Here, I'll be taking a look at the coaches most likely to end up like Savard -- coaches who are starting the season on the hot seat.

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On Thursday, the NHL suspended Flyers forward Daniel Carcillo for his actions in the closing seconds of Pittsburgh's 4-1 win on Wednesday night. It was part of a somewhat embarrassing end to the game, as the Flyers racked up 23 penalty minutes in just 19 seconds.

Carcillo admitted that the official dropping the puck warned him not to try anything.

The Flyers and Rangers split a home-and-home series over the weekend with a pair of physical games between the two divisional rivals. During Sunday's game, Philadelphia defenseman Braydon Coburn was ejected (and issued a five-minute major) for cross-checking Nik Antropov away from the action.

After the Penguins cruised to a 4-2 win in game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, mostly everyone agreed that the Flyers were nowhere near physical enough and that trying to score with the Penguins, as they did in the first period of the game, was going to lead with a short series. The Flyers must agree because word out of Pittsburgh today is that John Stevens is going to dress Steve Downie tonight. Downie, for his part, seems ready to go:

"I'll play my usual, simple, physical game," he said. Downie, who has played in four of the team's 13 postseason games, said he already has learned something about the Penguins.

"Discipline. That seems to be the key to Pittsburgh," he said. "You don't want to give them too many power plays."

If Downie does indeed play (and Stevens hasn't confirmed it yet), then discipline will definitely be the key for a player that only played in 32 games, averaged less than 10 minutes on the ice in those games, and still racked up 73 penalty minutes. The Flyers do need to be more physical tonight, but the last thing they need to do is take stupid penalties that give the Penguins a chance to take an early lead in front of the home crowd.

The Jack Adams Trophy, awarded for the coach "adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success," might as well be called "Coach of the Most Improved Team Award", since the winners of the award tend to be exclusively coaches who turn a bad-mediocre team into a playoff-bound club.

Like Eric Cartman over at The Puck Stops Here, I agree that the Jack Adams seems to be a 'right place at the right time' award more than rewarding the league's best. Just look at the fact that there have been 28 different winners for the 33 times the trophy has been given out, and that Scotty Bowman only ever won it twice! How can the league's most legendary coach win just twice? Would there have been any other coach you'd want for your team during his era? Probably not.

Therefore, poor Mike Babcock of Detroit probably won't win when the real votes are tallied, despite the fact that he's coached the Wings to an amazing 33-8-3 record thus far, and the Wings are top 4 in both Power Play in Penalty Kill. The Wings are also #1 in Goals For and Goals Against. *gulp* Yes, the Red Wings are truly a well-coached team, but the voters will simply say that the Wings were already good, and Babcock has the most talent to work with out of his peers. Babcock definitely deserves to win, but I doubt he'll get the award.

So, who are the other contenders?

We've still got another 12 days before the Penguins and the Sabres take to the ice in Buffalo for the inaugural NHL Winter Classic, and we're already hearing talk that the league is looking to replicate the event elsewhere. In this case, the Flyers are taking a serious look at hosting the Penguins (again) outdoors on the campus of Penn State University at Beaver Stadium:

"I've been up to Penn State for some football games," coach John Stevens told the Philadelphia Daily News. "The atmosphere up there is just unbelievable. It's a great town. It's halfway between Pittsburgh and here. It's an ideal situation. You'd get fans from both teams."

Philadelphia center R.J. Umberger, who is from Plum, agreed.

"Just imagine how intense and fun that would be in an outdoor game," he said. "To play at Penn State there, the fans from Pittsburgh and Philly, it would be insane, probably one of the best games in NHL history."

An NHL spokesman said the league has not discussed the possibility with the Flyers or Penguins. Penn State officials could not be reached.

I guess it only makes sense to bring an event like this to a college campus, as it was two college hockey programs that kick-started the outdoor stadium hockey craze in the first place. I'm talking about Michigan and Michigan State, who played to a 3-3 tie outdoors at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing in October 2001 before almost 75,000 fans. To get a better idea of what it all looked like, take a gander at the video after the jump that includes interviews with future NHL players Ryan Miller and Mike Camalleri.