Hurricanes owner Karmanos had issues with Laviolette

RALEIGH -- The decision by the Carolina Hurricanes to fire coach Peter Laviolette this season came with the blessing of team owner Peter Karmanos.

No surprise there. He always has a say in such matters. But what Karmanos had to say Thursday about Laviolette may come as a surprise.

"I didn't like our coach," he said. "His public persona and his private persona were two different things."

Karmanos didn't mean he disliked Laviolette personally, calling him a "very nice person." But he found issue with Laviolette's handling of the team, his style of play and a tendency, he said, to make snap judgments on players that later hurt the Canes.

Saying the Hurricanes are a playoff-caliber team this season, Karmanos said he did not believe they could reach the playoffs -- for the first time since winning the Stanley Cup in 2006 -- had Laviolette stayed on.

"That's one reason Peter is gone," Karmanos said. "I don't think we had it together enough."

Karmanos said he talked with general manager Jim Rutherford about the coaching change, stressing it was Rutherford's ultimate decision. Laviolette was fired Dec. 3 and replaced by Paul Maurice, the former Hurricanes coach.

"I'm happy Paul is back, but he's going to be judged the same way as any other coach," Karmanos said. "We need to win more consistently."

The Canes won consistently in 2006, thrilling their fans -- and Karmanos -- with the stirring run to the Cup. But even during the championship season, Karmanos said, some problems were becoming apparent.

"We had the perfect storm in the year we won the Stanley Cup," Karmanos said. "We played this all-over-the-ice kind of style of hockey. It took about three-quarters of the season for people to catch on.

"If everybody remembers, the last part of the season, even the Stanley Cup year, we had a pretty tough go of it. We had a goalie who stood on his head. Martin Gerber had a career season with us and kept us in games, but pretty soon, as the other coaches got used to the new rules and they figured out ways of defending us, we didn't change much."

Karmanos said he also disapproved of Laviolette's personnel decisions, notably in dealing with new players.

"Peter would make, I think, too quick an evaluation of players," Karmanos said. "From time to time we had players Peter would, when they first came into our organization, would say, 'Oh, this guy is a fourth-line center.' "

As an example, Karmanos noted forward Eric Belanger, who was a part of the September 2006 trade with the Los Angeles Kings that brought Belanger and defenseman Tim Gleason to the Canes. Belanger played 56 games for the Canes before being dealt to the Nashville Predators and now is with the Minnesota Wild.

"He's now a key part of the Minnesota team," Karmanos said. "And that happened with quite a few players and you just can't afford to lose those kind of assets."

Laviolette, who has kept a low public profile since December, was unavailable for comment.

Karmanos said if this year's team reached the playoffs they could do well, noting, "If we're fortunate enough to make the playoffs we could go pretty deep into it."

"You've got all the ingredients you should need. I think we have an outstanding defense. We have a really good goalie [Cam Ward]. We're having some trouble scoring goals right now, but we've got some players who all have showed tremendous capability in the past and hopefully will get on fire and score some goals."

In 2006, the Canes picked up veterans such as Mark Recchi and Doug Weight during the season, and both were instrumental in the Stanley Cup success. Would the Hurricanes be willing to make such a move again and add a key player or two, given tougher financial times?

"It depends where you're at and what part of the season," Karmanos said. "But if it looks like we're in the playoffs and we have a chance to improve ourselves, I wouldn't hesitate."

Karmanos, who addressed the Greater Raleigh Sports Council, said he recently spoke with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and that the 2012 All-Star Game could be played in Raleigh.