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Firing Quenneville just isn't enough; Pleau must go, too
Bernie Miklasz
Published: Tuesday, Feb. 24 2004
Joel Quenneville lost the players. He should have been fired. Quenneville is a
smart hockey man and he will thrive in his next head-coaching opportunity, but
that's irrelevant. Coaching IQ means little unless the boss can get his team
motivated to play, and Quenneville's overpaid bunch of phonies quit on him. In
that situation, the coach must go. Once you lose the locker room, you lose your
job.
That said, why does general manager Larry Pleau still have his gig? With the
Blues trying to mop up a puddle of a mess at Savvis Center, Quenneville was
pushed aside, but Pleau should be right with him. As the GM, Pleau has
supervised a program that is regressing instead of advancing. Pleau has had
nearly seven seasons and a top 10 NHL payroll to build a Stanley Cup contender,
but the Blues are going in the wrong direction. And Pleau is every bit as
responsible as Quenneville.
Pleau hasn't found a solution in goal. His big-gun acquisitions (Keith Tkachuk,
Doug Weight) haven't made a profound impact in the Blues' eternal quest for a
Stanley Cup. In more recent months, Pleau gave away a good young defenseman
(Mike Van Ryn) in a silly trade for wimpy, non-factor winger Valeri Bure. Pleau
inexplicably bestowed a $400,000 raise on head-case goaltender Brent Johnson.
Pleau never found a scoring winger to take advantage of Weight's slick passing
ability. Pleau has failed to seriously address the voids created by the loss of
injured defensemen Al MacInnis and Barret Jackman.
I realize that Pleau is restricted in what he can spend, but that
shouldn't excuse his lack of aggressiveness and creativity. Once again Pleau
took the easy and safe way out in his choice of a new head coach by elevating
Mike Kitchen, a career assistant. More on that later.
Clearly, Blues management has double standards. Pleau and Quenneville have been
at their posts for roughly the same period of time; Quenneville arrived six
months sooner than Pleau in 1997. But team president Mark Sauer gave Pleau a
contract extension after last season. And Quenneville got extinguished.
"We take a long-term look at performance," Sauer said. "Joel was here for parts
of eight seasons. Larry is judged on various sets of criteria as a general
manager. And Joel as a head coach was judged on others. So as connected as they
may have appeared, there's still separate jobs and separate criteria."
By declining to give Quenneville a contract extension after last season, Pleau
let Quenneville enter 2003-2004 on precariously thin ice. The frauds in the
locker room had no reason to fear or respect Quenneville. The players publicly
pledged their support for the coach in their carefully crafted speeches to the
media. But the boys skated through the motions in a half-hearted effort to save
Quenneville.
What did Pleau expect? He should have fired Quenneville after the Blues coughed
up a 3-1 series lead to Vancouver in the opening playoff round last season. And
Pleau should consider submitting his resignation in recognition that he's a
major reason the organization has gone stale.
As Pleau acknowledged, "The coach gets the blame, but that's not fair." I asked
Pleau if his job should be on the line. "I always feel my job should be on the
line," he said. "I accept that. (Management) should be looking at me."
I asked Sauer: Is Pleau's job in jeopardy?
"No," Sauer said before amending that to add that all jobs are on the line.
Sorry, but there's no evidence to suggest that Sauer or Pleau is at risk of
being fired. But they are quick to hold others accountable. Tuesday, Pleau,
Sauer and Kitchen bashed the players, all but accusing them of stealing payroll
money with their lethargic work ethic in recent weeks. Well, who put this team
together? Pleau. OK, who signed off on all of these high-priced stars who
haven't met expectations? Sauer. Who slashed payroll this season to diminish
the team's depth? Sauer and Pleau.
And yet: Sauer and Pleau stay; Quenneville goes.
That makes about as much sense as NHL officiating. And where was Blues owner
Bill Laurie through all of this? In Columbia. Typically, Laurie was watching
Missouri's basketball game vs. Oklahoma State on Tuesday when Quenneville got
whacked.
Sauer and Pleau have a sweet deal, eh? They continue to be paid handsomely to
assemble a consistently underachieving hockey franchise, but they don't have to
worry about catching heat from their distracted, basketball-loving boss.
Instead, they dump the coach and rip the players. Will Laurie ever hold Sauer
and Pleau responsible for this team's reversal of fortunes?
For now, the buddy system continues, as demonstrated by Kitchen's hiring with a
contract that runs through 2006. Kitchen is an unproven head coach, so why not
wait - at least until the end of this season - to see how he does in what will
be a challenging but fair trial run? If Kitchen doesn't distinguish himself,
the Blues could have searched for a proven, or at least more established, head
coach. But now the Blues are stuck paying Kitchen if he fails to live up to the
promotion.
Sauer and Pleau both said that they know Kitchen and like him personally. So
what we have here is another cozy arrangement at Savvis Center. Why bring in a
head coach who will challenge the organization and possibly pose a threat to
Pleau and Sauer when it's more comfortable to give an in-house assistant a
long-term deal?
The Blues have loyal fans. They have a wealthy owner. They have secure
executives who protect each other. They have rich players. But where is the
leadership?
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