Another end for Iron Mike

Mike Keenan's firing shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. He spent two years as the head coach of the Calgary Flames - his teams qualified for the playoffs twice but never won a playoff round. When he was hired, everyone was afraid that his coaching style will lead to conflicts with the team's forwards - fortunately for the Flames this wasn't the case. He did not limit the offensive production of Jarome Iginla and Mike Cammalleri reached 80 points for the second time in his career.

The surprise of Keenan's tenure was that the Flames, an elite defensive team, were the playoff team that allowed the most goals in the regular season - both the goalie and the defense failed. Keenan didn't fin a way to stabilize Miikka Kiprusoff's stats (regular season GAA from 05-06 till 08-09: 2.07, 2.46, 2.69, 2.84; sv%: .923, .917, .906, .903) and appeared to overwork him. Furthermore Dion Phaneuf, Calgary's young defensive star, had his worst season this year - not only offensively, but also on D. his willingness to get out of position to make a hit was often the reason the Flames lost a goal. The coach had a lot of chances to try and correct Phaenuf's and Kiprusoff's mistakes but wasn't able to do it. Thus Keenan's firing was expected.

Keenan is an interesting case - despite failing as a coach in seven cities (he won a Cup in his only season in New York, but it's argued that his influence on the team was marginal), he will probably be hired soon to "lead his new team to the Stanley Cup".