| | Associated Press
CHICAGO -- The Chicago Blackhawks fired coach Lorne Molleken
on Tuesday following another poor season in which the team failed to
make the playoffs.
Mike Smith, the team's manager of hockey operations, made the
announcement after meeting with Molleken.
"I met with Lorne Molleken this morning and informed Lorne he
would not be the head coach next year," Smith said.
The Blackhawks finished 33-39-10 with 78 points, 11th out of 13
teams in the Western Conference.
Smith said he had a "short list" of candidates to replace
Molleken and hinted that more changes were in the works.
"Coaching is part of it but it's not the only part of it,"
Smith said. "Things really do in fact need to be operated
differently here."
Molleken, who was popular with the players, bounced around with
the Blackhawks. He was named interim coach during the 1998-99
season, and then was given full duties en route to compiling a
13-6-4 record.
He started the past season as head coach, but was demoted to
associate head coach in a shakeup in December.
When general manager Bob Murray was fired on Dec. 2, Bob
Pulford, the team's senior vice president and former GM, filled
Murray's spot. Pulford also took over as head coach, as Molleken
was demoted to an associate.
Despite the title change, however, Molleken remained the team's
main operator on the bench, for practices and most other day-to-day
coaching duties. Pulford was more of a senior consultant.
It got more confusing on Dec. 12, when Smith was hired as
manager of hockey operations. Although Pulford retained the GM
title for the balance of the season, Smith was anointed de facto
head architect for rebuilding the team.
The team did enjoy some positives last season. Tony Amonte had
43 goals and 41 assists for his second-straight 40-goal year;
center Steve Sullivan finished with a career-high 22 goals and 43
assists; and Michael Nylander finished with a career-high 24 goals
and had 30 assists.
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