From The Branches - Maurice Fired

Thanks to Eyebeleaf for the heads up on the news that Paul Maurice has been canned. It is certainly no surprise to Leaf fans as the new GM will want to name his own coach. However, beyond that there were his struggles with timeouts, his poorly planned matchups, his hatred of backup goalies, his irrational use of the Wizard of Woz, and his lack of coaching ability.

Not that any of these were not mentioned in January. Better late than never I guess. Dave Feschuk is probably popping champagne right now.

Update: Via Jes at Hockey Rants here are the Acid Queen's thoughts.

He’s a decent coach ... in the AHL. Nice guy, too–but as an NHL coach I really don’t think he’s up to snuff. Coaches have to be developed too, just like players, and Mo’s development as a coach was severely hampered by his being thrown right into the fire all those years ago in Hartford after a whopping six weeks and change as an assistant coach under Paul Holmgren (who now GMs the Pflyers). If he wants to salvage any kind of career at all, he needs to go back to the AHL or just be an assistant somewhere for a few years and learn how to do more than the same old crap he did for 8 years in Carolina and 2 years in Toronto.

• Sean's optimism week is a trick! Those were all thinly veiled swipes at the team. Plus, he forgot JFJ's generosity in leaving for TSN in February so that the Leafs could have a few more months in which to do nothing about their vacant GM position. What a guy.
  
  
• Loser Domi documents Sean Avery's internship at Vogue.
  
  
• No agent for Tavares? Considering that Ovechkin did pretty well by himself and that most of the rookie contracts are standard for future Wayne Gretzkys I don't see why he would need one. Oh and his mom is going to be his agent? That's a great move because the last Oshawa General superstar that had his family handle his affairs ended up with a smooth career.
  
  
• The Brunnstrom Sweepstakes end tomorrow. Then we can begin the long process of hearing about this move for decades as one of the stupidest moves in franchise history regardless of what happens.
  
  
• Dr. Mirtle looks at the ref's inconsistencies in the playoffs. The next awesome step would be to highlight it by referee so that we could quantify just how terrible Koharski, Devorski, McGeough, et al really are at their jobs. No need to do Kerry Fraser of course.
  
  
• Steve takes a look at some interesting free agents that might interest the Leafs. Hagman and Vrbata are two that should draw serious consideration from the team. Perry would cost picks, Malone is overrated, and Avery is the devil.