Randy Carlyle Fired by Maple Leafs: Latest Details, Comments and Reaction

After parts of four seasons at the helm, Randy Carlyle was relieved of his head coaching duties by the Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday.

Carlyle's firing was officially announced by Leafs PR on Twitter:

The team announced that Peter Horachek will be their interim coach on Wednesday:

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David Nonis, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs announced Wednesday that Peter Horachek has been named the club’s interim head coach while Steve Staios, the Leafs’ Manager of Player Development, will also support the coaching staff on the bench and in practice

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On Wednesday, Horachek commented on his role and the team's outlook moving forward, via Paul Hendrick of the team's official website and Chris Johnston of Sportsnet:

Despite the fact that Toronto currently occupies the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, Leafs general manager David Nonis believes the organization needed to shake things up, per the Maple Leafs' website.

"I want to thank Randy for all of his hard work and dedication," Nonis said. "It's never an easy decision to make when changing your leadership but our team was not trending in the right direction and we felt an immediate change was necessary."  

Sportsnet and David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period add more from Nonis:

The Leafs are just 3-7 over their past 10 games, and their once comfortable stranglehold on a postseason berth has been slipping away in recent weeks. With Carlyle now out of the picture, assistant coaches Peter Horachek and Steve Spott will lead the team until a more permanent solution is found, per MapleLeafs.com.

The 58-year-old Carlyle departs Toronto with a 91-78-19 record. He steered the team to just one playoff berth, which saw the Leafs get eliminated in the first round by the Boston Bruins in 2013.

Carlyle had a wealth of previous playoff experience with the Anaheim Ducks, and he even led them to a Stanley Cup championship in 2006-07.

His long track record of success suggests that he will eventually catch on elsewhere as a head coach. Also, Steve Simmons of The Toronto Sun points out that Carlyle didn't wilt under the pressure of playing in such an intense hockey market:

It remains to be seen if this change will spur the Leafs to a turnaround, but it is difficult to argue with the decision considering the fact that the team has largely under-performed over the past couple seasons.

Toronto has a great deal of talent including Phil Kessel, James Van Riemsdyk and Jonathan Bernier, and perhaps all those players need is a new voice in the locker room.

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