Sacco Sacked!

 When the Florida Panthers leave Edmonton for New Jersey, there will be one less person on the plane trip. The Panthers announced that they have fired head coach Joe Sacco after an embarrassing 7-1 loss to the Oilers. He will be replaced by former Panthers coach, Marc Crawford, who will join the team in New Jersey.

 The firing may come as a bit of a shock, as Sacco did fairly well in his time with the Panthers. He has coached the team over the past two and a half years, sporting a 97-76-23 record, and guiding them to their first playoff berth under GM Dylan Wilson. The Season started out good in Florida, but after a recent poor stretch, they have dropped to 7^th in the East, which was just not good enough for Dylan. “We want to wish the best of luck to Joe, and we believe he will end up somewhere. But it was time for a change. With the team we have, we didn’t feel like we were headed in the right direction, so we decided to make a move now.  We have a lot of offensive weapons that were just really underutilized under Joe, (Rick) Nash should have more points than 12, 30 games in, and we feel a new style will help give us a more consistent offensive approach from everyone.”

 Bringing in Marc Crawford, may be even more of a surprise. When Dylan took over the Panthers back in January of 2008, his first act was hiring Crawford as head coach. After gunning for the playoffs back in 2008-09 and failing miserably, Crawford was cut after just a year and a half with the team. Crawford has been jobless since the Senators let him walk after last season, when he guided them to the 2^nd round of the playoffs (where he was eliminated by the Panthers). “We’ve kept a close eye on Marc since we let him go, and when he was last here, he just didn’t have the talent that we do now. We’re hoping now that a fresh look can change our direction and be able to bring out the dominance we feel this team has.”

 This is the 4^th coach that has been brought in under GM Wilson. Crawford from 2008 to 2009, Ron Wilson from 2009 to 2010, and Sacco from 2010 to 2012. Many may feel that Dallas Eakins should have been promoted from San Antonio, but Dylan said it was just not the right time for the rookie coach.