Mighty Ducks Fire Coach Page

Pierre Page, hired as Anaheim Mighty Ducks coach just 10 months ago, was fired Monday.

"This decision is something I really agonized over," said Mighty Ducks general manager Jack Ferreira, who as recently as three weeks ago said he expected Page to be back. "I thought there'd be a big improvement with the team during the season and there was not."

The Ducks were 26-43-13 and failed to make the playoffs under Page, who was hired Aug. 9, 1997, to replace the fired Ron Wilson, who guided the Washington Capitals to this year's Stanley Cup finals.

Ferreira said he would immediately begin searching for a replacement, but he declined to name possible candidates.

Page, 50, did not attend a news conference at Anaheim Arena, where Ferreira said he told his old friend of the dismissal.

"I know he was down and emotional about it," Ferreira said.

Page and Ferreira first met in 1980 when the two worked for the Calgary Flames, Ferreira as a scout and Page as an assistant coach.

In 1988, Ferreira, as general manager of the Minnesota North Stars, hired Page as head.

"We'd always gotten along great," Ferreira said. "Believe me, this was a tough decision. This was not something that I did within the last 24 hours."

Ferreira said differences about the team's direction arose, including player personnel who would be traded and what roles specific players would fill next season.

"I thought we were together on that, but we weren't," Ferreira said, adding that Page "had changed his mind and thought we should go in a different direction."

The Ducks finished next-to-last in the Western Conference and 23rd out of 26 NHL teams overall. They were hampered by injuries to stars Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne, and forwards Steve Rucchin, Travis Green and Scott Young.

Kariya sustained a concussion when he was cross-checked by Chicago's Gary Suter on Feb. 1 and he missed the final 28 games. Prior to getting injured, Kariya was a holdout at the start of the season in a contract squabble and missed 32 games.

Selanne, who missed nine games due to injury, recovered and went on to tie Washington's Peter Bondra as the NHL's leading goal scorer with 52.

Page found himself coaching an inexperienced group, including nine rookies who helped make Anaheim the second-youngest team in the NHL at 25.8 years.

"Obviously, things didn't go well last season and Pierre is paying a price for that right now," Ducks president Tony Tavares said. "The Pierre thing three weeks ago was a non-issue. Jack decided Pierre was coming back."

But, Tavares said, Page changed his mind about the team's direction, and "it was disconcerting for Jack. It wasn't an issue of not getting along."

Page's firing comes two weeks after assistants Don Hay and Walt Kyle were tolthey would not return behind the bench next season. Both were offered other jobs in the Anaheim organization.

In another move, Ferreira said Ducks assistant GM David McNab will take over responsibility for contract negotiations and potential arbitration cases, freeing Ferreira to spend more time with the team and do more scouting.

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