For the second time in his NHL head coaching career, Randy Carlyle has been fired by the Anaheim Ducks and general manager Bob Murray. With just two victories in the last 21 outings since December 18th and riding a seven-game losing skid, the move was inevitable. However, many fans and experts believe the axe should have fell long before it got to this point. The team is 2-15-4 over that time after they won 11 of their 13 previous games and occupied second place in the Pacific Division.
Despite the Ducks’ woeful record over the last 21 contests they are still somehow in the playoff race in the Western Conference. They have 51 points on the season and share last place in the conference with the Los Angeles Kings, but as of Feb. 10th they were only half a dozen points out of the final playoff position. Murray has announced that he’ll be taking over Carlyle’s coaching duties even though he has no experience behind the bench. He added that a new head coach will be hired in the offseason. One potential candidate is Dallas Eakins, who’s currently the bench boss with the Ducks’ AHL farm team the San Diego Gulls.
Carlyle becomes the sixth NHL head coach to lose his job this season after no coaches were let go in 2017/18. The 62-year-old Sudbury, Ontario native first took over behind the Anaheim bench in 2005 and led the team to a Stanley Cup triumph in 2006/07. He was fired from the Ducks the first time during the 2010/11 campaign and was replaced by Bruce Boudreau. Carlyle was then hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs and led the team to the playoffs once in three-and-a-half years before being dismissed from his job in January, 2015.
He returned to the Ducks in 2016/17 after Boudreau was let go. As for Murray, he’s been with the Ducks organization since 2005 in various capacities. He pulled the trigger on several trades earlier in the season in an attempt to change the team’s struggling fortunes, but they failed to make a positive impact. Anaheim missed the playoffs just once previously under Carlyle and he posted a record of 384-256-96 with the club in 736 regular-season games, going 46-37 in the playoffs. He is ranked number one all-time for franchise coaching wins in Anaheim, but was just 21-26-9 this season.
Carlyle was relieved of his duties on Feb. 10th after the Ducks were beaten 6-2 in Philadelphia. It was their seventh consecutive defeat and they had been outscored 29-7 in the past five games as well as 14-0 during the first periods of that stretch. The Ducks endured a 12-game losing skid in January, but at the time Murray announced to the press that he wasn’t going to change head coaches. The Ducks then won a pair of games, but entered another extended losing streak immediately after.
The Ducks lost several key players to injuries at times during the current season and that definitely didn’t help their cause. However, some of them have returned, including high-scoring-winger Corey Perry, but they still haven’t been to snap their losing streak. Goaltender John Gibson has also been struggling and a coaching move certainly made sense. Murray may decide to shake up the roster with more moves between now and the February 25th NHL trade deadline, but the Ducks still have to pass seven teams in the standings to reach the last wild card playoff spot.