Jets Fire Coach

Coaches are hired to be fired.

Or at least that is what the old saying is.

Kevin Cheveldayoff said: "It's a great game and it's a lousy business."

Claude Noel and Perry Pearn found out what happens when an entire team gives up. It is what we saw during two games. The fans made their displeasure known.

I liked Coach Noel. He seemed like a coach that was good for teaching a young team and let's face it, Jets are second youngest team in the league. He was funny and over two seasons seemed close to being able to push the team to the next level which, fairly or unfairly, was to get to the play-offs.

The Jets talent level is still limited by what we received from Atlanta in terms of players. We decided on who managed and coached them. We also drafted, picked up on waivers and had the ability to trade for talent each year. In terms of drafts, we have done quite well. Our first years of drafts have picked up two players (Schiefele and Trouba) who are performing quite strongly on the team now. We have picked up a few players on waivers who filled large holes in our line ups due to injury or due to just needing (Clitsome, Ellerby, Tangradi). In the off season, we have picked up at least one player (Frolik) who has been more than we hoped for.

We have had a few players who have been disappointments (Jokinen and Setoguchi) that they did not do more for us. We let one get away (Santorelli).

Overall, the coaching has not been terrible given the transition to a new city in the first season and a short season last year. This year we changed divisions and it got a whole lot tougher. In the East, we might have been much more powerful this year. In the west, every game is a challenge.

We have had some injuries and some illness in the last while but what has been the most galling is turn overs, slow starts and not moving on the ice. The most recent slump has shown how confidence has been lost and how the players were as low as players could go.

In the end, management had to do something dramatic as there was nothing left in the toolbox. Two coaches lost their jobs because twenty plus players couldn't.

The new coach I know nothing about. His job for the rest of the year is secure. Some of the players now have pressures to perform or theirs are not. Management has now indicated that maybe only two players are untouchable on the team in terms of trading. I don't think the message could not be any clearer. Some on the team could be shopped around and as bad as things are for the Jets, many players don't want to be traded with the tag of: He wasn't working out.

What can we expect now? It is hard to say. It is an odd year for the Jets again with change of division, break for Olympics and now firing of a coach. One of the teams we have to beat to have any choice of getting into play-offs will be Phoenix Coyotes.

The first test of the team with the new coach: Beat the Coyotes like the mangy dog they are.