The RMN and DP are reporting that Joel Quenneville has been fired by the Colorado Avalanche. Francois Giguere noted Quenneville's valuable contributions to the team in his prior tenure as an assistant coach and the last few seasons as head coach.  He also acknowledged that while injuries played a role in the team's struggles this season, the inconsistency exhibited when the lineup was healthy, coupled with the feelings that Quenneville's message wasn't getting through to many of the veteran players, led to the decision to go in another direction as the team is trying to sew up a playoff birth after having missed the post-season last year.

"At the end of the day, we felt that he had lost the room," Giguere noted.  

When asked about the impact on the club's chances of winning the Stanley Cup this season, he said,

"As an organization committed to winning, we have to do everything to reach that end."

He then dropped another bombshell that nobody expected:  

"We felt that a fresh outlook on the team and a another familiar face added to the team's makeup to complement Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote would go a long way to insuring that very outcome.  With that, I'd like to introduce the new head coach of the Colorado Avalanche..."