I'm somewhat surprised by the Blue Jackets' decision to fire head coach Dave King. In only their third year in the league, Columbus is 14-20-4-2. I thought King was doing a pretty good job.

But two things worked against him. First, the Minnesota Wild's success has put additional pressure on everyone in their genre, including Atlanta and Columbus.

Second, president and general manager Doug MacLean has more of an attack-oriented hockey philosophy. His mentality is more aggressive. When MacLean coached in Florida, he always wanted five guys on the puck in his own end. He used to say that he loved to see five of his jersey's surrounding the puck carrier.

By nature, King has a far more patient and positional approach to coaching. So, there was room to wonder whether GM and coach were on the same page in Columbus. In that regard, that difference in mentality, did King in.

King is a quality coach, but MacLean, as the architect of the Blue Jackets, believes they're capable of achieving more.

King is the fifth head coach firing in five weeks. There's clearly been a domino effect -- with each coach let go, it makes it easier to let the next one go -- from an emotional standpoint, as well as the ability to justify and/or camouflage the decision.

Also, keep in mind that we're nearing the half-point of the season. It's a good time for general managers, like MacLean, to gauge what's going on with their team. Thus, we've seen a bunch of coaches back in line; filling out job applications.

Bill Clement is an NHL analyst for ESPN.