'Splain This: Why Did the Stars Fire Tippett?

(Photo by Dave Sandford/Getty Images)

Article originally published to www.1033espn.com on 6/11/09 by Adam Amick.

There’s no denying the Dallas Stars had problems in 2008-2009, but was Head Coach Dave Tippett the problem?

I don’t think so, Tim.

Former Stanley Cup winning Colorado Avalanche coach Marc Crawford has been hired to replace Tippett at the helm of the Stars. I was happy to hear that Joe Nieuwendyk had been signed as the new General Manager of the team, but I have to question the wisdom of this first move.

Tippett, second-most successful coach in franchise history (after our hero Ken Hitchcock, who led the team to two Stanley Cup Finals appearances and the ’99 Cup win) has been outstanding behind the bench. During his six-year tenure the team was 271-156-59 with two Pacific Division titles. That’s a 56-percent win average and points in 68% of games.

Riddle me this, Batman: If the Stars were good enough to overachieve in 2007-2008 and make it to the Western Conference Finals, only to lose to eventual Cup winners Detroit, then who gets the credit for that?

Because if you’re going to toss Tippett after the failure of this past season, you have to ask who was responsible for the success just one year prior.

This isn’t rocket science, even though I am a rocket scientist. So for those of you whom hockey only shows up on your radar around April, and you see a vacant seat on the Stars’ bandwagon, let me break it down for you.

Man-Games lost to injury: In 2007-2008 five players were on the ice for all 82 regular-season games (Mike Modano, Brendan Morrow, Stephane Robidas, Niklas Hagman, and Trevor Daley). There were 29 names that played at least two games with the team during the campaign.

2008-2009 only two players made it through the whole season unscathed (Mike Ribeiro, Loui Eriksson). 35 skaters played in at least three games for the team.

Goaltending: In ‘07-‘08 Marty Turco started in the net for 62 games, going 32 and 21 with a 2.31 Goals-Against Average. He was backed up by Mike Smith, who was 12 and 9 in 21 appearances, but traded to Tampa Bay as part of the deal for Brad Richards.

But in ‘08-‘09 Turco was in goal for 74 of the 82 games, with a record of 33 and 31 and a 2.81 GAA. Tippett had no confidence in backup Tobias Stephan, and rightly so.

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