After suffering consecutive shutouts, the Philadelphia Flyers have fired head coach John Stevens. Meanwhile, the team has decided to appoint former Carolina Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette as their new coach. Besides the consecutive shutouts, the team is in a 1-6 tailspin.
John Stevens has led the Phildephia Flyers since six games into the 2006-07 season when he took over for Ken Hitchcock. He led the Flyers to the Eastern Conference finals the following season. Stevens went 120-109-34. He had two 10-game losing streaks with the Flyers.
A Carolina Hurricanes spokesman said they had granted the Flyers permission to talk to Laviolette, who led the team to its only Stanley Cup title in 2006. He was fired in December 2008 and was still under contract. He was 167-130-30 in his four-plus seasons with Carolina.
With the additions of goalie Ray Emery and defenseman Chris Pronger, the Flyers were turned a playoff favorite heading into this season. However, injuries and a stagnant offense resulted in a current 13-11-1 that has them out of the top eight in their division. Hence, the firing of John Stevens, although the coach is not necessarily to blame.
As a player, John Stevens played in 53 NHL games for the Flyers and the Whalers, while scoring no goals, ten assists and recording 48 penalty minutes. In the minor league AHL, he played in 834 games, scoring 20 goals and 166 assists for 186 points.
As a player, Peter Laviolette spent most of his 10-year career playing for various minor league hockey teams. Laviolette did play twelve games in the NHL for the New York Rangers in the 1988–89 season.
Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com
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