Hartsburg's Out; Are Therrien, Vigneault Next?

To the surprise of no one, or at least no one who was paying any attention, the Ottawa Senators fired head coach Craig Hartsburg earlier this week. Currently in last place in the Northeast Division and a whopping 41 points behind first place Boston, some might find Ottawa's predicament a bit puzzling, coming as it does a little less than two seasons after a rousing run to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Then again, perhaps it shouldn't be that puzzling at all. As my friend John Keeley of On Frozen Blog and I discussed last Saturday while watching the Capitals easily handle the defending Stanley Cup champion Red Wings in Washington, that run to the Finals in 2007 was more a culmination of a long string of success for Ottawa after a number of disappointing playoffs results, rather than an emphatic announcement that the franchise had arrived as an NHL powerhouse.

Before they even made that run to the Finals, the Senators had already said goodbye to man-mountain defenseman Zdeno Chara thanks to free agency. In the meantime, valuable puck-moving defensemen like Joe Corvo, Tom Preissing, Wade Redden and Andrej Meszaros were never adequately replaced, something that ruined the team's transition game. Up front, the Senators atrophied into a one-line team, and one that in two cases -- Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley -- wasn't especially interested in playing a total team game. Stir in some instability in goal and voila', disaster ensued. And like it or not, it was a disaster that was authored in large part by Bryan Murray, who will now insert a third coach behind the Ottawa bench in less than two seasons.

Whatever happens next in Ottawa -- I'd bet a sputter to the finish supplemented by a trade deadline firesale -- one thing ought to be for certain: now that the Senators have shown their head coach the door, it won't be long before a number of other franchises decide its time to do the same. One man who should not be getting terribly comfortable is Pittsburgh Penguins head coach, Michel Therrien.

Treading water in 10th place in the East with just 55 points, there are all sorts of excuses why the Penguins aren't comfortably ensconced in the top eight: Marc-Andre Fleury has yet to find his form; early-season injuries decimated the blue line; and free agency robbed the team of much of the depth that helped power it to the Finals against Detroit last spring. Still, when your team boasts the top two point-getters in all of hockey, missing the playoffs is not an option. At 5-4-1 in their last ten games, the Penguins are treading water, and Therrien may very well have temporarily saved his skin with last night's come from behind win over Tampa Bay on home ice.

The bottom line: If the Pens fall too many points out of eighth place -- say six off the pace -- Therrien gets the hook.

Out West, the perfect storm of continued frustration and increased expectations might just be the combination that drives Alain Vigneault out of Vancouver. Sure, if the season ended today, the eighth-place Canucks would be in the playoffs. Unfortunately, they still have 31 games to go and a slim one-point lead over Edmonton, Columbus and Phoenix.

But while some folks might be breathing a little easier after the team snapped an eight-game losing streak on Tuesday night with a 4-3 win over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes, there are still way too many warning signs to ignore, starting with how Mats Sundin's slow start has some of the locals comparing his arrival in Vancouver to Mark Messier's -- and not in a good way. Meanwhile, there are only so many years left on goalie Roberto Luongo's skates, and every year you don't make the playoffs is another year you forgo the possibility he could get hot in April and May and make an honest run for the Finals. The West is so tight that I don't see the Canucks falling out of the race entirely. But if they continue to spin their wheels, I could completely see management deciding that a coaching change might just provide the sort of spark they need to make the playoffs.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.