SUNRISE, Fla. -- Preparing for the team's possible sale, the
struggling Florida Panthers cleaned house Thursday, firing their
coach and general manager and trading a veteran center who never
lived up to a fat free-agent contract.
|  | | Terry Murray's Panthers had won just one of their past 15 games. |
Coach Terry Murray and his brother, vice president and general
manager Bryan Murray, were dismissed by team president Bill Torrey
after the Panthers won just six of their first 36 games.
Terry Murray was the fifth NHL coach fired this season, which is
less than half over.
Duane Sutter, a scout for Florida the past three seasons, became
the fifth head coach in team history. Torrey took over as GM.
The Panthers also traded center Igor Larionov to Detroit for
defenseman Yan Golubovsky, who will report to their Louisville
affiliate.
Founding owner Wayne Huizenga has had the struggling franchise
on the market for months.
"There are interested parties," Torrey said at a news
conference. "This clears the deck for a new owner to come in and
make his own personnel decisions."
Torrey made the moves just hours after the Panthers' latest
defeat, a 5-2 loss to Philadelphia. As has become customary at the
National Car Rental Center, where the Panthers have won just twice,
fans chanted "Fire Murray! Fire Murray!"
"Obviously this is a difficult time for our franchise, a time
when some good, dedicated people have been relieved of their
duties," Torrey said. "It's only the record that counts. A heart
beats in both of them, just like a heart beats in a team.
Unfortunately our team's heart this year hasn't been good enough."
Even with Pavel Bure, the NHL's leading scorer last season,
Florida is 6-18-7-5 and has just one victory in the last 14 games.
Attendance has sagged in the team's two-year-old arena.
"We will do whatever we feel we have to do to turn this thing
around and give our fans something to cheer about," Torrey said.
Torrey will become interim general manager. Assistant coaches
Billy Smith and Slavomir Lener were retained.
The Murrays didn't attend the news conference and couldn't be
immediately reached for comment.
"It's tough when you see your coach let go," said center Rob
Niedermayer, echoing sentiments voiced by several teammates. "You
never want to see that. But when you lose, there are always going
to be changes. We've got to get this turned around. We have to take
responsibility. We're the ones out there."
Bryan Murray was in his seventh season with the Panthers. He
hired Terry Murray in 1998.
"When I hired my brother as a coach, nobody would let that
go," Bryan Murray said. "It seemed to me from that point on, the
shots we took -- and we took lots of them -- even in a couple of good
years, it was always 'the Murrays."'
Terry Murray was 79-85-31-11 with Florida and has a record of
360-283-89-11 in 12 NHL seasons.
Last year, the Panthers finished second in the Southeast Division
with the best record in franchise history, but they were swept in
the first round of the playoffs by New Jersey.
The team began this season with more talent than a year ago,
Torrey said.
"There's far more skill and ability in that locker room than we
have seen displayed," he said. "Our will, our determination, our
energy and our discipline can improve significantly."
Sutter, one of six brothers to play in the NHL, has experience
as an assistant coach and as a minor-league head coach. He was in
Edmonton on a scouting trip when he learned that he had gotten the
coaching job.
"It's now to the end of the year. Then it will be reassessed,"
he said. "Anytime you get an opportunity to coach in the NHL, you
take advantage of it."
Larionov, 40, helped the Red Wings win two Stanley Cups, then
signed a $1.8 million free-agent contract with the Panthers in
July. But he proved a poor fit with Bure and took only 15 shots,
scoring five goals.
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AUDIO VIDEO
 Panthers President Bill Torrey reports on the dismissal of head coach Terry Murray and GM Bryan Murray.
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