Fraser and Trotz in jeopardy

By JON COOK -- SLAM! Sports

 When the season began Barry Trotz and Curt Fraser were neck-and-neck in the race to become the NHL's first coaching casualty.

 After the first two weeks of the 2002-03 season it's still anyone's game.

 While John Tortorella has dropped out of the coaching 'death pool' with a perfect start in Tampa Bay, Trotz and Fraser remain in a virtual stalemate as both the Predators and Thrashers remain winless.

 On Tuesday Fraser received the infamous vote of confidence from Atlanta general manager Don Waddell, prompting his counterpart in Nashville, David Poile, to publicly reaffirm his support for Trotz 24 hours later.

 "Our players haven't quit on Curt or on themselves," Waddell told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution after an 0-5-0-1 start. "We need to get a win, and then we'll go from there. This certainly isn't the start we wanted, but we still have some time to turn things around."

 The Thrashers continued their skid Wednesday night, as the Devils beat them 2-1. Five of Atlanta's seven losses have been by a goal - the other two were by 5-3 and 8-5 margins to the Hurricanes and Lightning.

 All five of Trotz's losses have been by a goal, including three straight in overtime.

 After Tuesday's 2-1 regulation loss to Phoenix, Poile told The Tennessean: "We're a team, and the coaches are part of that team. Right now, we're disappointed with our start. Having said that, I think we're very close to being successful. We're not panicking. But we're all focused in and we've got to get some wins soon -- like [tonight vs. San Jose]."

 Poile is unlikely to replace Trotz, as the two men enjoy a friendship that extends back some 15 years. However Poile may be forced to fire his friend if the losing continues and owner Craig Leipold's promise to refund the increase in season ticket prices if the team doesn't reach the playoffs, starts looking like a reality.

 Waddell has said he won't be making any moves, coaching or otherwise, until after the 10-game mark, at which point he will reassess the team. In a poll on the Atlanta-Journal Constitution's web site (ajc.com/sports), two thirds of voters believe the Thrashers' problems lie more on the ice than behind the bench. Of the 747 who responded to the question - "After 10 games, what should Don Waddell address first?" - 285 singled out Milan Hnilicka's goaltending as the most urgent issue. Another 216 said the defence is to blame, while just 185 laid the blame at Fraser's feet.

 While the CNN/Time Warner owned Thrashers never made any preseason promises to ticket holders, there are quiet rumours that the franchise is on the block and nothing devalues a team faster than a lengthy losing streak. The Thrashers are almost halfway to the NHL's longest winless skid of 15 games, set by the 1943-44 New York Rangers.

 The Thrashers next eight games are against Boston, Los Angeles (home), Toronto, Florida, Chicago, Buffalo, Calgary (H) and San Jose (H). While they will likely end the streak in there somewhere - possibly in Toronto where they had success last year - it's likely that Waddell's 10-game barometer will come around without a victory.

 At that point he will have to see if there are enough funds to go out and get some free-agent help in the form of goalie Byron Dafoe, or if firing Fraser is the easiest solution.

 With a game in hand on Atlanta, it will be easier for the Predators to avoid becoming the NHL's modern-day Rangers, although Nashville's schedule is tougher with a pair of games each against the Sharks and Red Wings over their next nine. They also play seven of those games on the road, including dates with the Blues in St. Louis, the Kings in Los Angeles and the Avs in Colorado.

 Trotz had his contract extended prior to last season and is signed through 2003-04 and is the sixth-most tenured coach in the NHL, but that won't matter if Leipold continues to look like a fool.

 Fraser and Trotz aren't terrible coaches. If the Devils weren't 4-1, everyone in New Jersey would be questioning why the team has scored just 11 goals in five games and would be calling for Pat Burns to be fired. The same scenario would exist for Jacques Martin in Ottawa, where the Sens are 3-1, despite scoring just nine times.

 In pro sports today you're judged on your last game and if that was a loss, you're judged a loser. However you'd think there would be more room for error in smaller markets, like Atlanta and Nashville, where losing is the rule and not the exception. Yet while the countdown is on for Fraser and Trotz, no one in Toronto is calling for Pat Quinn's job, because the Leafs are 2-5-1 and last in the Northeast.

 Fraser can't play nets or defence and neither can Trotz. Fraser wasn't the one coughing up the puck twice in the third period on Tuesday against the Panthers, leading both times to breakaway goals by Kristian Huselius that erased a 2-1 lead. Trotz wasn't the one letting two softies slip by him, like Mike Dunham did against Phoenix the same night.

 "As a player, I've always believed players have much more to do with winning and losing," Brent Gilchrist told the Tennessean. "As an athlete, you look somewhere else to see what's going wrong at first, but when you run out of those places, you look at yourself. We just haven't been good enough."

 The Thrashers and Predators players better start taking a longer look in the mirror, before it's too late for their coaches.