Hawks Lose Weight As Offseason Begins
Mar 10, 2020 14:27:58 GMT -5
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Post by Asbjørn Nygård on Mar 10, 2020 14:27:58 GMT -5
by Asbjørn Nygård
ST. ROCH, LA — The St. Roch Hawks' dreadful second-half free-fall left general manager Doug Stolhand no choice but to fire coach Doug Weight after his third year on the job.
"Today certainly wasn't an easy day, but the results in the second half were just not there. We were very inconsistent," Stolhand said Tuesday, shortly after informing Weight he had been fired. "Our fans expect more. We expect more. In the end, I thought this decision had to be made for our organization to move forward."
Though Stolhand said the blame for St. Roch's collapse deserved to be shared among the players and himself, he added it became evident the team was not responding to Weight.
"Unfortunately, the message wasn't getting through," Stolhand said.
St. Roch went from a 4-1 start to the season and briefly sitting alone in first in the overall standings in November, to closing the season winning just three of its final 17 games and finishing 10th.
Stolhand reached his decision to fire Weight a day after a season-ending 10-2 loss to Moscow. Weight said before the game against the Red Army that he expected to return as coach.
Hawks fans were supportive of the move. "We know Duke (Stolhand) is operating in the best interests of the organization, both short- and long-term," season ticket holder Kendra Saunders said. "We are confident he will bring winning hockey to St. Roch very soon."
The Hawks now open a search to hire just their second coach since moving to St. Roch prior to the 2017-18 season. They failed to make the playoffs in each of Weight's three seasons behind the bench as the 49-year-old head coach failed to restore any semblance of success to a franchise that hasn't won a playoff round since reaching the Conference Finals in 2017. Overall, Weight finished with a 15-45-6 record in St. Roch.
Asked recently how much the string of losses was wearing on him, Weight responded: "It's frustrating. I understand the fans' frustration. Guys are frustrated. .... It's always difficult when you don't get the results."
Weight's fate was essentially sealed during a 0-6-2 skid from November to early January during which St. Roch was essentially eliminated from playoff consideration. The slump began a little over a week after Stolhand backed Weight by praising him for the progress the team had made and added: "There's not going to be a coaching change."
Stolhand acknowledged he ultimately changed his mind by watching his team commit too many familiar offensive lapses.
"At the end of the day, this is a result-driven business, and we didn't get the results," he said.
Much is still lacking in St. Roch despite the presence of three key building blocks in captain Nathan MacKinnon, center Sidney Crosby and defenseman John Carlson, the latter two just acquired at the trade deadline.
MacKinnon defended Weight before St. Roch's game against Moscow.
"He's not the one playing the games for us. He's not competing. It's tough to pin it all on him or to point the finger at him. We need to be better for this to work," MacKinnon said. "We had a lot of ups and downs. We were good early, but the last couple of months we lost our swagger a bit."
Weight's largest failure was an inability to have the Hawks find a way to score consistently. His offensive system did not produce the results expected and his development of young players such as Jack Hughes has left the team frustrated and wondering if the one-time "can't miss prospect" is now just a worthless piece of dung.
Stolhand said the search for a new head coach will begin immediately but did not put a timetable on when he wanted to have a replacement. "When you miss the playoffs there's nothing to do in this league for four months so there's no reason for me to rush out and hire someone. We'll have one before training camp starts and ideally before the draft but beyond that...I'm not worried about it."
Assistant coaches Doug MacLean and Doug Houda have been retained and Stolhand said he would leave their fate to whomever he hired as the next head coach. "A head coach has the right to pick his or her own staff and I'll support whatever decision the next head coach makes."
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ST. ROCH, LA — The St. Roch Hawks' dreadful second-half free-fall left general manager Doug Stolhand no choice but to fire coach Doug Weight after his third year on the job.
"Today certainly wasn't an easy day, but the results in the second half were just not there. We were very inconsistent," Stolhand said Tuesday, shortly after informing Weight he had been fired. "Our fans expect more. We expect more. In the end, I thought this decision had to be made for our organization to move forward."
Though Stolhand said the blame for St. Roch's collapse deserved to be shared among the players and himself, he added it became evident the team was not responding to Weight.
"Unfortunately, the message wasn't getting through," Stolhand said.
St. Roch went from a 4-1 start to the season and briefly sitting alone in first in the overall standings in November, to closing the season winning just three of its final 17 games and finishing 10th.
Stolhand reached his decision to fire Weight a day after a season-ending 10-2 loss to Moscow. Weight said before the game against the Red Army that he expected to return as coach.
Hawks fans were supportive of the move. "We know Duke (Stolhand) is operating in the best interests of the organization, both short- and long-term," season ticket holder Kendra Saunders said. "We are confident he will bring winning hockey to St. Roch very soon."
The Hawks now open a search to hire just their second coach since moving to St. Roch prior to the 2017-18 season. They failed to make the playoffs in each of Weight's three seasons behind the bench as the 49-year-old head coach failed to restore any semblance of success to a franchise that hasn't won a playoff round since reaching the Conference Finals in 2017. Overall, Weight finished with a 15-45-6 record in St. Roch.
Asked recently how much the string of losses was wearing on him, Weight responded: "It's frustrating. I understand the fans' frustration. Guys are frustrated. .... It's always difficult when you don't get the results."
Weight's fate was essentially sealed during a 0-6-2 skid from November to early January during which St. Roch was essentially eliminated from playoff consideration. The slump began a little over a week after Stolhand backed Weight by praising him for the progress the team had made and added: "There's not going to be a coaching change."
Stolhand acknowledged he ultimately changed his mind by watching his team commit too many familiar offensive lapses.
"At the end of the day, this is a result-driven business, and we didn't get the results," he said.
Much is still lacking in St. Roch despite the presence of three key building blocks in captain Nathan MacKinnon, center Sidney Crosby and defenseman John Carlson, the latter two just acquired at the trade deadline.
MacKinnon defended Weight before St. Roch's game against Moscow.
"He's not the one playing the games for us. He's not competing. It's tough to pin it all on him or to point the finger at him. We need to be better for this to work," MacKinnon said. "We had a lot of ups and downs. We were good early, but the last couple of months we lost our swagger a bit."
Weight's largest failure was an inability to have the Hawks find a way to score consistently. His offensive system did not produce the results expected and his development of young players such as Jack Hughes has left the team frustrated and wondering if the one-time "can't miss prospect" is now just a worthless piece of dung.
Stolhand said the search for a new head coach will begin immediately but did not put a timetable on when he wanted to have a replacement. "When you miss the playoffs there's nothing to do in this league for four months so there's no reason for me to rush out and hire someone. We'll have one before training camp starts and ideally before the draft but beyond that...I'm not worried about it."
Assistant coaches Doug MacLean and Doug Houda have been retained and Stolhand said he would leave their fate to whomever he hired as the next head coach. "A head coach has the right to pick his or her own staff and I'll support whatever decision the next head coach makes."
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