FanHouse RandyCarlyle

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.

After some late-game fisticuffs on Tuesday, the Detroit Red Wings and Anaheim Ducks are set to take part in a one-and-done Game 7 at Joe Louis Arena, in a contest that has to be more entertaining -- from a competitive standpoint -- than what we saw on Wednesday in Washington. Depending on who you ask, the line brawl in the closing minutes of Game 6 could be a rallying cry for the Red Wings.

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Throughout their first-round series against top-seed San Jose, the Anaheim Ducks made a habit out of being badly outshot. They did a wonderful job protecting goalie Jonas Hiller, and he was awesome stopping the first shot, whether he got a good look or not.

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There has been a lot of talk about hits to the head in the NHL playoffs so far. Washington's Donald Brashear got a controversial six-game suspension for his shot high on Ranger Blair Betts during Game 6 of their series.

Friday night, Anaheim and Detroit met to open their Western Conference semifinal series. During the first period, the intensity got cranked up big-time on a late and high hit by Anaheim's Mike Brown on Red Wing forward Jiri Hudler in Detroit's 3-2 win.

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Two years ago, a much more heralded Anaheim Ducks team took out Detroit on their way to a Stanley Cup. This time, the Ducks enter a series against the Red Wings as perhaps the most-feared eighth seed in NHL playoff history. That said, they're still an eighth seed, and a decided underdog. Is this the end of "Cinderella"?

Before the Pittsburgh Penguins had Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to draw fans to the building, they had to resort to promotional giveaways advertised in cheesy commercials with what are now archaic graphics and technology. They also used superstars such as Rod Schutt and Pat Price to promote their product. I guess Rick Kehoe and Randy Carlyle weren't available.

Let's go back to March 13, 1982, when the first 5,000 adults for the Penguins vs. Colorado Rockies game received a promotional Budweiser picnic jug:

An NHL Head Coach wouldn't be doing their job if they weren't whining about the officiating, given that it's their job to help absolve their players of responsibility. Since the refs can't respond, they are a very easy target.

Still, one wonders exactly how refs must feel when a coach calls them out for 'unfair treatment'. Wouldn't you expect the refs to pay an extra bit of attention to that coach's team? Perhaps not, but it doesn't help that Ducks' coach Randy Carlyle is whining about 'unfair treatment'.

The Ducks, who lead the NHL with 654 penalty minutes, further enhanced their reputation as an undisciplined team by taking 12 more penalties in Monday night's 4-3 overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

"For whatever reason, we seem to be found guilty more often than the opposition that we play and we don't feel that we commit the same amount of crimes," Carlyle said

Yes, Randy, I'm sure the refs get together before the game and scheme, "We gotta get them Ducks and call lots of penalties against them!".

The Ducks play an extremely physical/thuggish style of game. When you have a roster that includes Brad May, Chris Pronger, Ryan Getzlaf, Travis Moen, George Parros, Shane Hnidy, Todd Bertuzzi, and Corey Perry, you should expect to be shorthanded more often than the opposition.

For Carlyle to sit there and cry about officiating indicates that he fails to see that his group of players is all about the crashing and bashing, and that the coach is responsible for the style of play the Ducks bring to the rink on a nightly basis. If you are going to play with fire, expect to get burnt once in awhile. Instead of crying like Britney Spears on a badly-shot home video, how about telling your players to smarten the hell up, huh?