Holmgren fired coach Pierre McGuire after six months.
It was more than a great idea.
It was justice.
In 15 years of covering the NHL, we had never seen a coach so universally disrespected and disliked within his own organization.
McGuire fancied himself two parts Scotty Bowman and one part Bob Johnson. It turned out to be a superhuman leap of faith on his part.
At 32, McGuire was the youngest head coach in the NHL. He never had been a head coach at any level. And it showed. He is book smart and X's and O's smart, but often not people smart.
When a young man is so headstrong, so emotional, so calculating, such a control freak, so full of ambition and so full of himself, he will either rocket to the top or crash.