Mired in 4th place with a 7-12-2 record, the Chicago Blackhawks have fired coach Trent Yawney and promoted assistant Dennis Savard (above) as his replacement reports TSN.
Sources say the firing of Yawney was attributable to his cautious, defence-first approach and that Hawks’ management is looking for a more aggressive, offensive mindset in terms of how the team plays.
“The bottom line is wins and losses and we needed to win more,” said Blackhawks General Manager Dale Tallon. œWe’ve had some injuries, but in spite of that we’re a better team than our record shows. We’ve won three of our last 15 games and we decided to go in a different direction. We want to play a more up-tempo style game.”
An OT goal by Buffalo’s Chris Drury put a halt to the Rangers’ 3 game winning streak last night, but without the intervention of the Elias Koteas Sports Bureau, I cannot tell you if this is the first or merely the last time a contest at MSG was ended by a former Little League World Series MVP.
(UPDATE : Mr. Koteas has telephoned. Though Pierre Turgeon and Stephane Matteau-Matteau-Matteau were each LLWS participants, of NHL players, only Drury was the tournament’s most valuable player.)