Avalanche Fires Hartley; Granato Takes Over

Bob Hartley led the Colorado Avalanche to four straight Western Conference finals and a Stanley Cup championship in 2001.

It wasn’t enough to save his job.

Citing a slow start and a lack of passion in his team, Colorado General Manager Pierre Lacroix fired Hartley on Wednesday after 4 1/2 seasons.

“We are an organization with very, very high expectations,” Lacroix said. “We’ve done it every year that we’ve been in Denver and it’s no different this season. It was obvious that the team is not showing any emotion, the team is not doing what it needs to do to fulfill these expectations, so I am convinced it was the right time.”

Lacroix said assistant coach Tony Granato will take over as Colorado’s permanent coach.

Hartley, who was promoted from Hershey in 1998, is Colorado’s wins leader at 193-109-48. He was 49-31 in the playoffs and was the first coach since Chicago’s Billy Reay in 1967 to take his team to the conference finals his first four years.

“That’s part of the business,” Hartley said. “Everyone has different opinions and that’s the way Pierre feels.”

Colorado finished within a game of reaching the Stanley Cup finals last season, but wasn’t able to break out of an early-season funk this year.

The Avalanche traded Chris Drury and Stephane Yelle to Calgary for Derek Morris, Dean McAmmond and Jeff Shantz just before the season in an effort to give the team a boost. It hasn’t worked.

Colorado, which is vying for an NHL-record ninth straight division title, is 10-8-9-4 this season. The Avalanche has 33 points, 10 behind Northwest Division leader Minnesota, and has struggled at home, winning only three of 15 games.

Granato, who retired in 2001 after 13 NHL seasons, including seven with the Kings, got the job despite having no prior NHL coaching experience before this year. He joined the Avalanche as an assistant this season.

“Any time someone loses their job, it’s tough on all of us, but when asked to step in the experience is no problem at all,” Granato said. “I am very experienced.”