Hockey Night in Canada's Scott Morrison delivers his insights into the world of hockey, on and off the ice.
Stars make shocking move
Comments (2)
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 | 05:22 PM ET
By Scott Morrison
It isn't often that a general manager gets fired during the regular season.
That is why the news Tuesday of the Dallas Stars dismissing GM Doug Armstrong, a longtime employee of the club, came as something of a shock.
That the Stars, who have been mediocre and inconsistent this season, had a shake up isn't surprising, but generally it is the coach who walks the plank first, not the manager.
In the case of Armstrong, whose teams have lost in the first round of their last three playoffs, he either resisted the temptation to make major changes to his team in the off-season after losing to Vancouver last spring, or couldn't.
Either way, he wasn't able to upgrade the offence, which was dreadfully anemic, and he didn't make a change, obviously, behind the bench with Dave Tippett, not that he necessarily should have.
It seems clear, based on his firing, that owner Tom Hicks didn't think Armstrong was the guy to fix the problem now and he might be paying the price for not being more active in the summer, whether that was intentional or not.
"As an owner I have to be responsible for one person in hockey operations and that is the general manager of the team," said Hicks. "I thought that the team needed a change in direction. I know that change can be healthy and it was my determination that this move needed to be made. I want the Dallas Stars to return to being one of the elite teams in the league."
Sources say the move caught Armstrong, who was in his sixth season as GM after succeeding Bob Gainey, off guard Tuesday. He has, including this season, four years remaining on his deal.
The Stars, of course, were coming off a devastating loss Saturday night, in which they led 4-0 with eight minutes to go and wound up losing 6-5 in overtime to the Los Angeles Kings.
It's known that Armstrong had been trying to make a significant deal, but without success.
Ironically, the other day Armstrong was quoted in Dallas as saying about the loss to the Kings: "It's disappointing and it's eye-opening, but you're certainly not going to base major decisions on one game."
Guess Hicks didn't entirely agree, although a change of that magnitude is based on more than one bad loss.
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About the Author
Scott Morrison, the recipient of the Hockey Hall of Fameís 2006 Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award, has been covering hockey for 25 years. The Toronto native began his career at the Toronto Sun in 1979. After spending more than 11 years as a hockey writer and columnist at the paper, Morrison became Sports Editor in 1991 and led the section to being named one of North America's top-ten sports sections in 1999 - the first sports section in Canada to receive the AP Sports Editors North American Award. Scott, a former two-term president of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, joined Rogers Sportsnet in 2001 as Managing Editor, Hockey, and is currently both a commentator on Hockey Night in Canada and a columnist for CBC.ca.
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Comments (2)
clay h 3
pittsburgh
i think alot of it comes down to the stars atendance is horrible this year. every game on tv i see the lower bowl is empty.
Posted November 14, 2007 09:49 PM
Corey McCutcheon
Ottawa
As you said Scott, Armstrong should have been more proactive in the offseason, whether through trades or free agents signings. The only offensive upgrades of note over the last two seasons in Dallas: Eric Lindros and Mike Ribeiro. Not exactly cornerstones of the franchise (granted Ribeiro is having a good season so far, but historically does not maintain his level of play). I do find it odd that Dallas did not clean house completely and fire Tippett as well, but I think the real shock here is that they hired Brett Hull as Co-GM!
Posted November 14, 2007 09:49 AM