Greyhounds fire Abrams

The Soo Greyhounds are looking for a new leader behind the bench.

The team announced on Monday at a press conference at Memorial Gardens that Marty Abrams had been relieved of his duties as head coach.

"This is a difficult day for us as an organization," said Hounds GM Dave Torrie in making the announcement. "The search (for a new coach) will begin immediately but there's no timetable (to make a decision)."

Torrie also announced that assistant coach Denny Lambert will remain in his position with the team while Torrie takes over as interim coach until a replacement can be found.

Abrams was in his second season behind the bench of the Greyhounds and in the second year of a three-year contract. Last season Abrams led the Hounds to a 30-34-3-1 record and came within one point of a playoff spot.

The Hounds, coming off a weekend road trip that saw them beat Kitchener 5-4 on Friday before dropping an 8-3 decision to London on Saturday, opened this season with a 2-6-1 record through their first nine games.

"It didn't happen overnight," said Hounds chairman Dr. Lou Lukenda. "I think we had a feeling at the end last year. We didn't want to wait until it was too late (to make the move). This has been brewing for some time. There were a lot of things that we took into consideration in making the move."

Torrie echoed the sentiment and added that the players, who had yet to find out about the firing and were going to be told the news prior to Monday afternoon's practice, did not approach him about Abrams.

"There's various reasons (why the move was made)," added Torrie. "We had not achieved all the goals we set. All the goals need to be reached and they were not being reached. I brought concerns to our meetings and as a board they assessed those concerns. There were issues unrelated to on-ice performance."

"The players have nothing to do with this," Torrie went on to say. "This was an organizational decision."

When asked about his relationship with Abrams, Torrie said that it was a typical one between a coach and his general manager.

"Any time a coach and GM work together, there's going to be days where you have differences of opinion," Torrie said. "Our relationship was normal for a coach and GM."

Torrie also said that his stepping behind the bench was a "short-term solution until we hire a coach."

"We haven't started the process, but that will begin immediately," said Torrie.

Lambert, who is also in hid second season behind the Hounds bench, said that the focus now shifts to preparing for two critical games this weekend as two division rivals, Windsor on Friday and Saginaw on Sunday, pay a visit to Memorial Gardens. Torrie said that Abrams was notified of the decision earlier on Monday morning and handled the news well.

"He was very good in the handling of the news," Torrie said of his former coach. "He handled it as well as anybody could handle it."

Abrams was the ninth Greyhounds coach since Ted Nolan left following the 1993-94 season.

Following Nolan was his long-time assistant Dan Flynn, who lasted just short of one season before Billy Hughes took over on an interim basis near the end of the 1994-95 season.

Joe Patterson coached the team for two seasons in 1995-96 and 1996-97. Dave Cameron, currently the coach of the American Hockey League's Binghamton Senators, coached the Hounds in 1997-97 and 1998-99.

Paul Theriault coached the team from 1999-2001, Craig Hartsburg coached the team in 2001-02 while John Vanbiesbrouck and Steve Harrison both spent time behind the bench in 2002-03 prior to Abrams joining the team.