The Toronto Maple Leafs announced head coach Randy Carlyle had been relieved of his coaching duties on Tuesday morning. On Wednesday, Carlyle spoke to two Toronto newspapers about the circumstances of his dismissal.
Toronto Sun columnist Steve Buffery visited Carlyle at his home in Etobicoke, where he revealed that after the 5-1 loss to Winnipeg on Saturday, he had a feeling he’d be fired.
“When I walked off the ice in Winnipeg, in my mind, I thought this could be my last game,” Carlyle told Buffery.
Carlyle said he received a text from Leafs GM Dave Nonis on Monday night asking to meet Tuesday at 8 a.m. He was in Sudbury with his ailing brother-in-law at the time (Carlyle also revealed in the interview that his brother-in-law who had ALS died on Wednesday) and wouldn’t be able to make that meeting.
Carlyle then asked Nonis to call him instead, which is when he was fired.
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“So there was a red flag automatically, a light went on in my mind … well, if he wants to meet me at 8 o’clock, obviously it’s pretty important,” Carlyle said. “So I just said, ‘Call me.” And we had a conversation. And I said, ‘I’m not going to drive five hours back and through a snowstorm to get fired. You might as well do it now.’”
Following his firing, Carlyle’s predecessor Ron Wilson appeared on a Toronto radio station and called the Leafs core players “uncoachable” and said star winger Phil Kessel is “two weeks on, and two weeks off.”
However, Carlyle told Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno that he does not believe the Leafs players “tuned out.”
“I don’t think they stopped listening. Things just didn’t work out — didn’t win enough hockey games,” he said.
Carlyle also told the Sun that he feels disappointed, rather than bitter or frustrated, about losing his job and hopes the Leafs do succeed.
“But I hope they win,” Carlyle said. “I hope they play like they can.”
And he has ultimately accepted his fate.
“I’m really at peace with it, to tell you the truth. I don’t think I left anything on the table or in the drawer,” Carlyle told DiManno.
Toronto plays their first game without Carlyle behind the bench on Wednesday against the Washington Capitals. The Leafs named Horachek as their interim head coach.
Source:: National Post
