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In NHL, many coaches, like Predators' Peter Laviolette, have a short shelf life | Sam Donnellon

The former Flyers coach is in the Stanley Cup Finals for the third time with his third team, which isn't unusual for an NHL coach.

DON'T LOOK now, but Peter Laviolette is back in the Stanley Cup Finals for the third time, with a third team.

This can mean only one thing:

He'll be looking for another job in about three years.

Don't look now, but Ken Hitchcock isn't retiring after all. He's back in Dallas, after being fired midseason by St. Louis. And before that Columbus and before that . . .

Um . . . Here.

He's back coaching the NHL team he won a Stanley Cup with, coaching the team that Lindy Ruff couldn't get to play in four seasons the way he got so many of those Buffalo teams to play over his 15 seasons as the Sabres coach.

You want to know why most hockey coaches, even accomplished ones, come with expiration dates? It's because in this sport, it's not only about the system, or the culture or even the talent acquired or inherited. It's not even about the goalie, which Lavvy proved just by getting the Flyers to the Finals in 2010.

It's about the voice. The whip, the prodding, and the mental toll it takes in a sport where maximum effort and concentration is more of an equalizer than any other major sport. Like Laviolette, and Hitch, you can ride the boys high in the saddle, using the cane liberally, extracting every ounce of energy at the risk of a quick burnout. You can play it tight the way Hitch likes or you can play loose and free, the way the Hurricanes did for Lavvy in Carolina and the way the Flyers did under Lavvy here, and the way the Preds have in rolling over Chicago, St. Louis and now, Anaheim, even as their captain and leading scorer were felled in the process.

You can show a lot of emotion, empty the bench of sticks every now and then if you like. Or you can be like their predecessors in Dallas and Nashville, Ruff and Barry Trotz, whose more stoic and professorial tone is the approach currently favored by Flyers general manager Ron Hextall.

You can have a full-proof system, like the Devils did for all those Lou Lamoriello years, when New Jersey won three Stanley Cups over a span of nine years - and used five head coaches in the process.

That's right, five.

You try preaching the trap for more than 12 months and see where it gets you.

Hell, Lou even replaced himself.

Twice.

That's a tad over the top, but not an outlier. The outliers are people like Trotz and Ruff, who managed to keep their jobs for more than a decade without a Cup to their credit.

Ruff at least reached a Finals, losing to Hitch on a disputed goal back in 1999. Hired by GM David Poile as the franchise's first coach, Trotz lasted 15 seasons with Nashville despite never finishing first in his division, or advancing past the Conference semifinals. That frustration has followed him to Washington, where the Capitals, after great regular-season success, have failed to advance past the second round in his three seasons on the job.

Playing the snake-in-the-grass Penguins over the last two fails has a lot to do with that, just as the existence of those Cup-contending Detroit teams got in his way in Nashville. In both places, the stars have enjoyed playing for him. That's not always the case with Lavvy and Hitch, who have butted heads with some of their teams' biggest stars, and not always with a great result.

Lavvy had a hard time with Rod Brind'Amour in Carolina at first and his failed attempt to reign in the partying of his young stars here hastened their exit, and likely his as well.

And Hitch? Well, where do you want to start?

"It is a hard way to play,'' Mike Modano, the face of those Hitch-coached Dallas teams said about his old coach recently.

"The personnel, the players have changed,'' he told the Dallas Morning News. "The common athlete today is a little sensitive. They liked to be talked to a little more gentler. They don't like to be yelled at. They think they can play better if they're just patted on the shoulder and sweet talked a little bit rather than yelled at.''

That sounds familiar. That sounds very much like the words the Flyers leadership group used to describe Dave Hakstol, who replaced the more intense Craig Berube. There are no emotional ups and downs with Hakstol players have said repeatedly, especially during those stretches when the group appeared to be turning a corner. But there have been much longer stretches, including much of this season's second half, where the Flyers seemed to need Hitch's whip, or Lavy's intimidating glare and growl.

Something, anything, to jolt them.

It will be interesting to see if there are any changes to the Series 3 version of Hakstol, especially with the Flyers youth movement in full surge. In Los Angeles, Hextall was part of a front office that made the well-traveled and measured Terry Murray the head coach, then replaced him with the fiery in-your-face style of Darryl Sutter.

Sutter delivered two Cups, the last in 2014.

He's looking for a job these days.

A new expiration date, if you will.

donnels@phillynews.com

@samdonnellon

Columns: ph.ly/Donnellon