[Carla Muller]

Last week, there was an article where Bruce Garrioch said that Stothers could be the next Kings' coach. Now, a more credible source, ESPN radio's St. Louis person, Andy Strickland, repeated that possibility.

"Former Grand Rapids Head Coach Mike Stothers name has surfaced as a possible next Head Coach of the LA Kings."

HockeyBuzz.com - Andy Strickland - Scotty Bowman To Blackhawks?/TUCKER BOUGHT OUT!

Here is an article describing the background of why Stothers is the former coach of the Griffins:

"This is a guy who coached the Owen Sound Attack in the OHL to two consecutive first round defeats, followed by a resurgence of the organization that led to a 2nd place division finish, and a second round defeat. The team was supposed to contend the next season but underacheived the whole way, to the third barely-.500 season in Stothers' tenure. They lost in the second round. Stothers was then signed by Detroit to coach the Griffins.

They liked him. It was a good idea, in theory. He was a lot like Mike Babcock. Straight shooter, same basic philosophies. That's important. The players don't experience such a shock when they're coming into the NHL, and you're grooming another potential coach for Detroit if and when they ever need a new one.

So today Detroit decided to give control of the Griffins' managment back to the Griffins and they responded by firing Stothers within hours.

The team was a disaster this season. They could have been one of the best in the league -- and they at LEAST should have made the playoffs. Coming off a few of the best years in franchise history, the team was stocked with well-establshed AHL, borderline-NHL players. Brad Ference, Carl Corazzini, Mark Cullen, Mark Hartigan, Randall Gelech, Garrett Stafford, Adam Berkhoel, etc. Then there was a group of Detroit prospects expected to be coming into their own with the team, Ryan Oulahen, Evan McGrath, Jonathan Ericsson, Jimmy Howard, Kyle Quincey. And a few of Detroit's top prospects coming in as rookies, Darren Helm, Jakub Kindl, Johan Ryno, Mattias Ritola.

And you can't say that any one of those guys had a good season. The "veterans" all had awful years, with the exception of Hartigan who played well enough to stick in the NHL. No one could score, and Berkhoel was an awful backup goalie."

WTF Holland: Mike Stothers sacked as Griffins coach

Discuss........