Ducks expected to hire Randy Carlyle on Tuesday, seriously: Report
According to a tweet from Darren Dreger, the Anaheim Ducks are expected to announce the hiring (or rehiring?) of Randy Carlyle as head coach on Tuesday.
When we first heard these rumors everyone kind of laughed them off, right? Conventional wisdom in life is that you don’t go back with your ex because there was a probably a good reason you broke up in the first place.
But that’s logical and in sports things don’t border on the logical.
Instead, Ducks general manager Bob Murray is going back with his good old friend Randy Carlyle. The man he begrudgingly fired the two months into the 2011-12 after his team – mainly stars Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry – quit on their coach.
The move to Bruce Boudreau was to get the team away from the hardline tactics of Carlyle, and it worked, for the most part. If it wasn’t for the psychological block the team placed on themselves in the playoffs for the past four years.
So bring in the guy who last won a high stakes series for the Ducks … 10 YEARS AGO.
Carlyle’s first season back behind the Anaheim bench will mark the 10 year point since the Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2006-07. Last time we checked though, Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger are in the Hockey Hall of Fame and not on the roster.
In his post-Boudreau firing press conference, Bob Murray was asked if he was looking for a guy that would be different than Bruce in coaching style. Murray stated:
“I know when we went from Randy to Bruce that was my thought because I knew them both personally; I knew that. Now am I thinking of going [to different style of coach]? No, we’re going to look for a guy that can deal with … You cannot do what the old guys did in the old days. I don’t think you can, and I even think some of those guys that are older that are still coaching in this league, that are good, have changed their ways somewhat to deal with the new modern athlete.”
Key line: “I even think some of those guys that are older that are still coaching in this league, that are good, have changed their ways somewhat to deal with the new modern athlete.”
This point was later echoed by former Carlyle assistant Dave Farrish in a May 2016 interview with Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register:
“[Carlyle] has softened a lot too,” Farrish said. “I noticed a change in him when he went to Toronto as far as millennial players coming along. He’s much more receptive to a lot of these players.”
He’s now receptive to millennials, but has he mastered the art of making toast? We’ll just have to wait and see.
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Jen Neale is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter! Follow @MsJenNeale_PD.
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