By RICK SADOWSKI
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Great players rarely make great head coaches, and Wayne Gretzky is discovering that standing behind a bench and barking out instructions to lesser talents is a lot more difficult than performing his own feats of magic on the ice.
Gretzky's Phoenix Coyotes took are saddled with a 3-8 record heading into the weekend, and the NHL's all-time leading scorer already has joked that he could become the first owner to fire himself as coach.
But Gretzky told The Arizona Republic he intends to stay on, and he and general manager Mike Barnett have gotten public votes of confidence from CEO Jeff Shumway, even though the Coyotes had lost eight of nine, had been shut out twice and outscored 44-19 before beating Edmonton, 6-2, on Thursday night.
"I'll do anything that will help us win," Gretzky said. "At this point in time, I don't think (resigning) is the issue for me to even address. We just need a good, solid effort out of everybody. If we do that, then winning will take care of itself."
After missing the playoffs last season, Gretzky's first as coach _ with a 38-39-5 record _ the Coyotes signed several free agents during the summer.
The most notable were defensemen Ed Jovanovski (five years, $32.5 million) and Nick Boynton (three years, $8.85 million) and center Jeremy Roenick (one year, $1.2 million).
Jovanovski has played decent hockey while averaging about 24 minutes of ice time, but _ through the Oilers game _ Boynton is a minus-5 with two assists and 51 penalty minutes and Roenick has one goal and is a minus-6.
It doesn't help that goalies Curtis Joseph and Mike Morrison have played poorly, or that the power- play and penalty-killing units are ranked among the bottom four teams in the league.
"I think it's just way too early to be looking to blame one person or another person," Shumway said, adding he still believes in Gretzky's ability to get the job done. "The more I've gotten to know Wayne, the more I appreciate his great knowledge and his ability to handle the players and his ability to communicate with them."
Gretzky said he wouldn't rule out personnel moves, and there is speculation the Coyotes are interested in an unsigned free agent centers such as Jason Allison or Yanic Perreault to fill in for injured Steve Reinprecht. Reinprecht will miss the next several weeks because of a broken clavicle.
