Well, the coaching cycle is now complete, all three of my favorite teams, the Dodgers, Green Bay Packers, and now the Los Angeles Kings have changed coaches. The Kings' Andy Murray was fired today after a terrible loss to the Colorado Avalanche last night 5-0 (frankly, I wonder if it hadn't been Adam Deadmarsh night last night, if Dave Taylor might not have fired Murray last week). Since they already have somewhat from outside the organization, John Torchetti, ready to become the interim coach, Taylor obviously had known what he was going to do for a few days.
I can't say I'm all that surprised, although I'm sort of sad. I feel like I did when the Dodger's fired Jim Tracy. I liked Andy Murray, he seemed a good sort and clearly was a great X's and O's guy. It seemed every year the Kings got out of the gate really well and up to about Christmas were maybe one of the top five hockey teams going. But, every year it was always the same. The team simply could not finish strong. It seems difficult to blame the coaching for this, but every year under Murray's leadership the Kings led or nearly led the NHL in man games lost to injuries, this season is not exception. Injuries have killed the Kings every year since Murray came in. Did he work them too hard, wear them out too much? It's hard to say.
Murray's system was sound, except I think in two areas: (1) his team always seemed smaller than their opponents, that is while they played physical, it seemed that it was a middleweight fighting a heavy weight all the time; (2) his system seemed to eschew a "star" the one or two guys who would score 40 or 50 goals. In fact without loooking at the record books I'm not sure the Kings had a 50 goal scorer in Murray's tenure. For the last few weeks the Kings simply have looked exhausted.
The injuries to Demetra and Frolov have been killers. Without the presence of the two guys who could really score on any shot, defenses could collapse on the other guys. One writer thought it looked like the Kings had quit on Murray last night, I'm not sure; but one interesting thing I remember from the intermission updates on the injuries. It was reported that Frolov was at about 80%, but no date was given for his coming back. Well, that spoke volumes to me. The team is fighting for a playoff spot, Frolov at 80% is better than most guys at 100% so what is the deal why isn't he in the lineup?
There were other things this year. I'm glad Luc Robitalle got his goals to set the LA record, he deserved the chance to do that, but except for short sputs, he can't carry a team like he used to and this really should be his last year. I thought Jeremy Roneick had something left but he has really been a bust this season or he could just never could work in Murray's system (we'll see the last 12 games). The Kings have some great young players and with the new NHL, some money room to sign some people, they should be better than they are and when that happens the coach is usually the one to go.
Murray will end up with another job. He really is a good coach and maybe there were things going on beyond his control. But a season that started off so well was going south really fast and it wasn't getting better. If they missed the playoffs he would have been fired in the off-season anyway. Might as well roll the dice and see if this lights a fire under a team that really is a lot better than they have been playing for about a month.
After all of the talk about The Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI) and their warnings about Global Warming, here is a little note from our friends at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that a La Nina effect was developing off of the South American Coast. A La Nina is the cooling of the water in the Pacific Ocean beginning off of South America and slowly moving northwards. It has been noted that the ocean water is about 1-2 degrees (f) cooler than normal since the beginning of the year.
For those who are unfamiliar with this phenomena, it is the opposite of the well-known El Nino. An El Nino is marked by an increase in the water temperature in the ocean. Both of these phenomena change rain patterns from the normal. An El Nino for instance will generally bring an increase in rain to the Southwest of the United States, while a La Nina will typically result in drier weather.
The WMO news release admits that both, "El Nino and La Nina are naturally occurring cycles." Of course, the story has to go on to state that, "there is much speculation among climate scientists that man-made global warming may make them more frequent and more vicious and that this trend may have already started." What is not mentioned is that both phenomena, while known to local fishermen in South America, was not mentioned in scientific literature until 1892 when Captain Camilo Carrilo discussed the phenomena at the Geographical Society Congress in Lima, Peru. It as further identified in 1924 by Gilbert Walker. However, it was thought to be a "local phenomena" until the major El Nino of 1982-83 and the resulting devastating weather (particularly on the West Coast of California) initiated more intense study. So, in effect, this is a weather phenomena that only has significant study going back about 25 years. So when the WMO claims that this emerging La Nina is "unprecedented in the historical record for a La Nina of substantial intensity or duration to develop so early in the year," one must remember that the "historical record" is not all that impressive.
The WMO is a United Nations agency. You can see the United States agency, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) and the National Weather Service's February 9th notice here.
The fact is God has created a massively intricate weather system on this planet (Job 38:2-38), a system that even to this day we have very little precise knowledge of the "how and why" questions.
The annual Shepherds' Conference got underway today at Grace Community Church (which also provides campus facilities for The Master's Seminary). There are over 3000 pastors and church leaders here attending sessions designed to encourage them to pursue a Biblical ministry. John MacArthur is doing regular general sessions and individual workshops are being done by the staff of Grace Community Church and the faculty of The Master's Seminary. Additionally, Dr. Al Mohler, Dr. R. C. Sproul, Dr. Mark Dever, and Dr. Ligon Duncan will be speaking in general sessions. Tim Challies is providing a great service to those who cannot attend by "love blogging" the sessions he attends.
One another issue, the papers and wire services were widely reporting a story in the Jerusalem Post yesterday that Dr. Jerry Falwell had made a statement that he now agreed that Jews could be saved apart from conversion to Christianity. The idea is that of a "dual covenant." This is the idea that Jews are saved by one covenant with God (apart from Christ and the Gospel) and that everyone else is responsible to respond to the Gospel and salvation through Christ. In his blog today, Dr. Mohler discusses the facts and demonstrates this story to be entirely false. It will be interesting to see if the Post prints a correction and discusses the actual source of their report, since according to Dr. Falwell, he has never met or spoken to the Rabbi (Aryeh Scheinberg) whom the Post quoted as the source of this information.
Well, for those at the Shepherds' Conference, stop by my office in the library and say hi. In normal conference tradition it rained during the set-up the last two days, great weather today, OK weather tomorrow and probably rain on Friday.