Dennis
16. 10. 2001 21:13
Ivan, can we talk?
Ivan, can we talk?
Pens coach fired for slow start, poor English
By BRUCE GARRIOCH -- Ottawa Sun
PITTSBURGH -- Ivan Hlinka couldn't speak the language and yesterday the Penguins decided whatever voice he did have was no longer getting through.
After starting the season with four straight losses, the Penguins coach was fired yesterday by GM Craig Patrick and replaced with assistant Rick Kehoe.
Kehoe will be behind the bench when the Senators play Pittsburgh tonight.
"We're 0-4. We can't afford to be 0-6, 0-7 or 0-8," said Patrick in a hastily called news conference.
The Czech-born Hlinka, one of only two European-born coaches to get behind an NHL bench, had been unwilling to take English lessons ordered by the Pens in the summer. It was this inability to communicate with his players that ultimately sealed his fate.
"It's a change I think everybody expected," said Pittsburgh owner/captain Mario Lemieux, whose team is off to its worst start since 1983-84 (0-4, seven goals for).
"Usually when a team gets off to a bad start like we have, usually the coach is the one that takes the fall. That's nothing new."..........tady maji ti idioti co se do mne dole obouvaji uryvek z kanadskych novin. Ja jsem s tou spatnou Hlinkovou anglictinou neprisel, kazdy kdo Hlinku slysel mluvit anglicky vi ze to byla bida, a jak Hlinka dokaz, ktera se nezlepsi. Jeho neprofesionalni pristup k funkci ktera mu byla sverena byla OSTUDA!!!!