OPINION

By Chuck Gormley

updated 10:29 p.m. ET March 25, 2008

New Jersey Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello replaced coach Claude Julien with a week to go in the regular season last spring and saw his team knocked out of the playoffs in the second round.

Atlanta Thrashers general manager Don Waddell replaced coach Bob Hartley after the Thrashers got off to a 0-6 start this season and failed to get his team into the playoffs.

Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray replaced coach John Paddock last month with the Senators leading the Eastern Conference standings. He's managed to get the Sens to play .500 hockey (4-4-1).

So which coach's head is the next to be placed on the NHL's chopping block?

Step right up, John Stevens.

Since climbing to within three points of the Eastern Conference lead back on Feb. 5 with a 30-17-5 record, Stevens has witnessed the Philadelphia Flyers' great collapse. Entering last Friday's huge game against the New York Rangers, the Flyers had won just six of their previous 22 games (6-11-5), falling to eighth place in the standings and placing their coach in a cauldron of speculation.

If the Flyers cannot win five of their final eight games and get into the playoffs, Stevens almost certainly will be gone, right?

"I don't comment on questions like that," Flyers chairman Ed Snider told the South Jersey Courier-Post last week. "The bottom line is that Paul (Holmgren) is totally in charge and I am 100 percent behind whatever decision he makes."

Ultimately, it will not be Holmgren who decides whether or not Stevens is the head coach of the Flyers after this season. And it won't be team Snider, either.

So the only people responsible for Stevens' future in Philadelphia are the 20 players who put on Flyers uniforms over the final eight games.

So far, the players have responded. They came through to beat the Rangers on Friday, 4-3, and followed it with a more impressive home win over the New York Islanders last night. Two down, a half dozen to go. "John Stevens was the coach of this team when we were at the top of the division," Snider said, "and I don't think he's gotten dumber in the past six weeks."

Has Stevens made some coaching mistakes during that monumental collapse?

Absolutely.

He probably should have benched Scottie Upshall sooner for taking careless and costly penalties.

He probably should have found a way to get Steve Downie, one of the grittiest players on his roster, enough ice time to make a difference in games.

He probably should have thought twice about putting rookie defenseman Ryan Parent on the ice with less than a minute remaining in one-goal games.

Oh, yes. And he should have purchased a blow torch and put it to the behinds of his players before every shift.

See, in the NHL it's always the coach and never the players.

Players don't want a coach to be too hot or too cold. They want them to be just right. And guess what? They never are.

Stevens seemed just right after the Flyers axed the too-demanding Ken Hitchcock -- at least until the Flyers fell off a cliff six weeks ago, bouncing off tree limbs and rocks ever since.

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