Pittsburgh Penguins Fire Rick Kehoe

[Brett Ferino]

PITTSBURGH - Rick Kehoe was fired Tuesday after less than two full seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, leaving as the team's only coach since the mid-1980s to fail to make the playoffs.

Kehoe, a former Penguins player and assistant coach, had a 55-81-14-10 record since succeeding former coach Ivan Hlinka four games into the 2001-02 season. Hlinka was fired after coaching the Penguins to the Eastern Conference finals in his only full season as coach.

"Rick battled through some difficult circumstances the last two seasons and did a very good job," general manager Craig Patrick said. "However, our organization is moving in a new direction and we needed to make a change."

Owner-player Mario Lemieux recently ordered Patrick and team president Ken Sawyer to make a top-to-bottom evaluation of the organization to see what changes needed to be made.

The firing means the Penguins will be seeking their seventh coach since the 1996-97 — Lemieux's last full season before he initially retired.

Former general manager Eddie Johnston was fired as coach midway through that season and replaced on an interim basis by general manager Craig Patrick.

Kevin Constantine was hired in 1997, but was fired in December 1999 after several run-ins with star Jaromir Jagr. He was succeeded by Herb Brooks, who coached the team the rest of the season but could not be persuaded to take the job full time.

Kehoe's record is by far the worst of any Penguins coach since Bob Berry, the last Penguins coach to fail to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons. Berry had a 88-127-25 record from 1984-87, missing the playoffs each season. Pierre Creamer also missed the playoffs in his only season as coach in 1987-88.

The Penguins made the playoffs each season from 1990-91 to 2001-02 before missing the last two seasons, when they finished poorly Kehoe. They were winless in their final 10 games (0-9-1) last season, and won only twice in their final 21 games this season (2-17-2).

The Penguins quickly fell out of playoff contention after being forced to trade All-Star forward Alexei Kovalev for financial reasons in mid-February, one of a series of late-season personnel moves made largely to save money.

The Penguins finished 27-44-6-5, their worst record since Lemieux's rookie season in 1984-85. They were 20-18-3-5 and in playoff contention in January, but went 7-26-3 in their final 36 games.

Kehoe said recently that he and assistant coaches Randy Hillier and Joe Mullen shared in the blame for the Penguins' failures.

"You can give all the excuses you want, but you still have to work with the guys you have," he said. "You win as an organization and lose as an organization."

Kehoe had one year left on a contract worth about $350,000, making him one of the NHL's lowest-paid coaches.

The Penguins' new coach will take over one of the NHL's worst teams. The Penguins finished next-to-last in the NHL's overall standings, ahead of only Carolina, and are not expected to have Lemieux in the lineup next season. He has all but said he will retire for a second time.

Because the Penguins are expected to lose about $3 million this season, no major offseason player moves are expected.

The new coach will inherit a team with only a handful of skilled players — forwards Martin Straka and Aleksey Morozov — and one of the NHL's worst defensive corps. The players acquired late in the season have had little success in the league, a group that includes Rico Fata, Mikael Samuelsson, Guillame Lefebvre, Dan Focht and Richard Lintner