The Buffalo Sabres' second-half free-fall led to the firing Sunday of coach and former NHL defenseman Phil Housley after his second 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," General Manager Jason Botterill said Sunday, shortly after informing Housley 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 Botterill said the blame for Buffalo's collapse deserved to be shared among the players and himself, he added it became evident the team was not responding to Housley, who grew up in South St. Paul and was as Nashville Predators assistant before taking the Sabres' job. Housley had replaced Dan Bylsma, who was fired along with GM Tim Murray in April 2016.
Buffalo went from matching a franchise record in winning 10 in a row and briefly sitting alone in first in the overall standings in late November, to closing the season winning 16 of its final 57 games and finishing 27th. Housley finished with a 58-84-22 record in Buffalo. Botterill reached his decision to fire Housley, 55, a day after a season-ending 7-1 victory at Detroit. Housley said Saturday he expected to return.
Housley, a Hall of Famer, spent his first eight NHL seasons playing in Buffalo and finished with the most points (1,232) among U.S.-born defensemen.
No promotion for Desjardins
Willie Desjardins, who became interim coach of the Los Angeles Kings on Nov. 4 after John Stevens was fired, is not a candidate to become the next head coach, the team announced.
Los Angeles went 27-34-8 under Desjardins and finished last in the Western Conference with 71 points, the second-fewest points in the NHL. It is the Kings' lowest point total since 2007-08, when they also had 71 points.
Florida makes change
The Panthers fired coach Bob Boughner, ending his two-year tenure with the team with a year remaining on his contract. The Panthers didn't make the postseason in either of those years and now have missed the playoffs 16 times in the past 18 seasons. Assistant coach Paul McFarlane also was fired.
