TML fan said:
Can you say for certain that firing Allaire immediately would have made a difference? From the time it became apparent that Allaire was a problem, to the time they hired a new coach and he implemented his coaching methods, the season likely would have been over.
A while back when I was working for a company as a supervisor, I had problems with an insubordinate employee. I couldn't send him home because the contract required that someone be there. So I left him there and he was fired the next day. The point is, as useless as that employee was, removing him would have just created another hole.
I don't think there was anything to be done. It was always going to be fixed in the off season.
I don't think the issue is so much the impact that a coaching change would have on the performance of the goaltenders, so much as the message it sends through the organization when a guy can thumb his nose at everyone and get away with it.
It's a bad working environment. If Allaire is telling his goalies to do one thing, and then someone else tries to add some input (when the team is horrifically struggling with the current system) and Allaire tells him the PK coach to screw off. It sends mixed messages to the goaltenders for one. But it also divides the lockerroom to an extent when you isolate the team.