FIRST FIRED POOL

So who is going to be the first coach to get piped this season?

Early frontrunners include Randy Carlyle, Andy Murray, Ron Wilson and Paul Maurice.

Carlyle's Ducks are struggling and the opening round upset of San Jose in April might have staved off a summer switch anyway. Next: Scott Arniel

Murray has a young, speedy team that is regressing and not scoring. His clamp down approach might be going sour. Next: Peter Laviolette

Wilson has that "expectations" thing working in spades with the Toronto media and fans delusional view of the rebuilding Leafs. What he also has is a good friend as his G.M and the task of coaching the U. S. Team at the Olympics in February. It's a lot for the sharp-tongued skipper. Next: Randy Carlyle

Maurice's Canes made it to the East Conf Final on goalie Cam Ward's back (And Jussi Jokinen's goal scoring heroics). They have backed that appearance up with a disastrous start to this season, at one point going winless in a franchise record 14 straight games - and considering that clubs history, that's saying something. Next: Randy Cunneyworth

I'm not trying to be cavalier about the subject of someone losing their job but it happens - a lot.

The defending Cup champion Penguins replaced their coach midstream. In fact 3 of the 4 teams to reach the Conference Finals in the spring had fired the coach they started the season with. Crazy, eh?

By this time last year, just 20 games in, Chicago and Tampa had already unloaded a bench boss.

At the root of most firings are expectations not being met. Whether those expectations are realistic or not is always debatable. And the other culprit is often simply "It was time for a new voice."

There is no doubt someone is going to get gassed. The only question is who, and when.