GDT: 11/25/17 - 7:00PM EDT - Tampa Bay @ Pittsburgh

[MattM92]

Dude you were one of many people calling for Cooper's head after TWO games. And I'm the hyperbolic one?

We wanted him fired because he didn't bench Vasy in favor of an AHL goalie when the team was in shambles mentally

We wanted him fired because he couldn't singlehandedly right said locker room that was without it's captains. Yet that fixed right up as soon as Stamkos and Callahan traveled with the team.

We wanted him fired for playing .500 hockey with Vasy while the team was healthy around January

We wanted him fired because we iced an AHL team by Thanksgiving and proceeded to play at least half of last year under such circumstances

What issues are we seeing, Matt? We don't have zone exit problems. We don't have zone entry problems. We consistently outplay the opposition even strength shorthanded and on the power play. THOSE were issues and on occasion we have entire periods with problems in these areas. But we consistently right the ship and win.

The biggest problem is that the team (especially Kucherov) is over thinking and forgetting the fundamentals. It's nothing we haven't seen before that the team itself or coaching staff cannot correct. We made about 20 games before this started in.

It's a long season. There's gonna be a few bumps. There's gonna be blown coverage. There's gonna be bad bounces.

This isn't blind homerism. It's about the fact that people spent TWO YEARS saying the sky was falling and then we marched out to the best record in the NHL the second we used some addition by subtraction, a few trades, the full time inclusion of Point and NOT icing an AHL team.

Matt I don't disagree with your observations.

I'm trying to keep the board off suicide watch. Another bad game and suddenly the system is gonna magically break again, Coop will have lost the locker room and it'll time for change again.

Meanwhile the Lightning locker room would laugh themselves to tears if they could see way we act here.

Did I say "fire Cooper" last night? I don't think I did. About half of those things you posted above just aren't true and saying I wanted Cooper fired after "two games" is completely disingenuous. It's more like 2 years, not 2 games.

Blown coverage and bad games are fine. I wasn't in here raising hell after every loss. Go back to the Isles GDT when I said the loss wasn't the end of the world. You even quoted me and questioned why I said the Chicago game was a must win. It's because trends like this are very bad. We are not getting good breakouts lately. We aren't getting clean zone entries. Our special teams are looking very pedestrian. We are giving up a lot of odd man breaks. It's ok to admit that things aren't going well. It's not just bad bounces, it's the team not playing good hockey. Stop claiming that you "will be the first" to criticize the team and then jump down the throat of everyone who actually does.

I fully expect them to start scoring goals again eventually because we are just too talented not to, but these slumps are worrying. We see how weak this team is without Stamkos and Kucherov scoring two points a game each. Thankfully it is happening now and not in April.

 

[These Are The Days]

Did I say "fire Cooper" last night? I don't think I did. About half of those things you posted above just aren't true and saying I wanted Cooper fired after "two games" is completely disingenuous. It's more like 2 years, not 2 games.

Blown coverage and bad games are fine. I wasn't in here raising hell after every loss. Go back to the Isles GDT when I said the loss wasn't the end of the world. You even quoted me and questioned why I said the Chicago game was a must win. It's because trends like this are very bad. We are not getting good breakouts lately. We aren't getting clean zone entries. Our special teams are looking very pedestrian. We are giving up a lot of odd man breaks. It's ok to admit that things aren't going well. It's not just bad bounces, it's the team not playing good hockey. Stop claiming that you "will be the first" to criticize the team and then jump down the throat of everyone who actually does.

I fully expect them to start scoring goals again eventually because we are just too talented not to, but these slumps are worrying. We see how weak this team is without Stamkos and Kucherov scoring two points a game each. Thankfully it is happening now and not in April.

This isn't about firing Cooper. He was basically the whipping boy. I'm gonna start off by changing gears here.

In respect to you the thing I'm most guilty of is being a complete asshole to you when you were trying to have a rational conversation and I basically threw the baby out the bathwater. I've got no problem apologizing to you for that and I'll probably do it again in the next game's GDT so I'm not doing in a room that's basically just the two of us right now. You always make your points rationally, calmly and intelligently and I basically popped off on the first person who opened up. So in essence this is my apology for being an asshole. I'm sorry.

The rest is about the fact that half this board has acted like the sky was falling for 2 years. If I say it isn't and give a reason why then it's "Oh well Sunny is just being a blind homer" "Sunny is using unfounded generalization again" "Oh GOD there he goes with hyperbole" Let's face it, 2 years of needing to change up the roster, needing to stay healthy, needing not having star player drama and needing an effective captain in the room isn't a measurable fact. But I didn't spend 2 years knowingly going out of my way to make myself look like the village idiot because I didn't think those were the problems. I went out of my way to explain every fathomable detail to the point of "shut up already" so people could realize what I was driving at. So people could see roster change and say, "Point is way better than Filppula what a difference he makes!" so we can get our captain back and say "Oh wow... Stamkos made a statement and the team did exactly that!" So Coop could make ONE adjustment (not playing a 1-3-1 formation with a lead) and people can say "Wow he's not as bad as I thought"

And you know what? It didn't work.

Remaining positive when I have every reason to do so is still met with the same eye rolling as 2 years ago. I've now reached the point where I no longer care if I am an asshole and I no longer care who I do it to and (I guess for a lack of a better word) last night I wrongly "picked on you"

 

[These Are The Days]

People forget why I became Polly Positive in the first place.

It was January 2016 and I was demanding Cooper's blood to be put in my leftover Christmas gravy. I was sick of how he was utilizing prospects, I was sick of the chemistry issues and I was sick of losing.

Then the boys twice had a team meeting and rattled off 7 and 9 game win streaks. Then I realized our lack of effort and complacency spanned the entire locker room and that Stamkos had been doing a poor job keeping the troops in line. Go figure he was distracted in his own right by the contract issues.

Jonathan Drouin came back like the second coming of Jesus Christ and suddenly our top 6 was no longer plagued with chemistry issues because any of Callahan, Killorn and Filppula were finally getting bumped off.

Above all we stayed healthy and we continued to win.

It was by March that I realized I had severely overreacted to what I had been seeing and realized that the team had its hand on the STAMMERGEDDON panic button as much as we did and that the roster just needed some more skill (Drouin) and that the whole time I was expecting a lazy full of muckers and grinders to play like the globetrotters minus the TKO line but wouldn't do it because they were still high on their Cup run. I realized even then we still needed a lot of work done but that things were not as dire as I had thought.

When we went to the ECF I was thrilled to tears. Last year was just a case of "Murphy's Law" rearing its ugly head at us. So I called last year a wash and didn't worry about what we had seen.

Only when we traded Drouin did I think we would not improve because I didn't realize how great Point was. All I can say is it was the right choice and I love me some Sergachev