New coaching candidate – enter Dave Tippet

The Stars announced the axing of Dave Tippett today. The Erstwhile Dallas coach guided the Stars to a number of impressive finishes over the years before last season’s debacle.

I've never taken too much time or effort to scrutinize his coaching style, but I know two things about the Tippett:

1.) Dallas was always, ALWAYS a challenge for the Flames whenever the two teams clashed.

2.) The recent 12th place finish probably wasn't his fault. 

The stars as a club took a lot of hits last year from the cruel hand (fist?) of fate. Firstly, they were decimated by injury. Brendan Morrow, Brad Richards, Jere Lehtinen, Sergei Zubov and Steve Ott all missed huge chunks of time. Secondly, Marty Turco was awful. His overall SV% of .898 was good for 42nd in the league (marginally worse than Peter Budaj and Jose Theodore). His 5-on-5 SV% was the same (.898) according to Desjardins; several ticks below his expected SV% of .906. Put those two things together and it’s remarkable they won any games at all.

Tippett finished in Dallas with a record of 271-156-28-65. That's 115 games over .500 and it includes last year. If, for whatever reason Brent Sutter does end up behind the Flames bench, I'd have no problem with Tippett getting the job.

by Kent Wilson