I just wish we'd stop playing the man on man D. Hayward has mentioned it a number of times during broadcasts.
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Speculation: 2022-23 Management/Coaching/Ownership
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MMC
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I don't like to predict when this team will make the playoffs, we only know that when we do, it will come from within. We simply don't have enough impact players from within the system as it stands, but I think people seriously underestimate how close we are to getting some talent injections. People don't feel good about our defense now for example, but by next season, we could have Lacombe, Thrun, Mintyukov, and Zellweger all pushing for spots, along with a full season of Drysdale and potentially a top 3 pick in this draft. It might take some years yet for this to form a playoff nucleus, but we are not nearly as devoid as some people seem to think.
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- Sep 21, 2018
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Listened to a bit of the PDO cast this morning and got a good chuckle out of Dimitri's description of the defensive zone coverage. He said they play like they're like cats on a laser pointer. The moment someone sees the puck out of the corner of their eye, they immediately leave their assignment and go chasing after it.
Eakins back for another season or two does not sound ideal on its face, but if it were to happen I have to assume that not only the GM but other front office people would be saying hes doing the job they need him to do right now.
A good amount depends on the moves Beeker is able to make during the season, where we end up in the draft and what offseason moves are made. That and timing of said extension. This isnt Beekers final version of his team, so to hire someone new to battle that transition, I'm not sure it makes sense. But that really depends on timeline.
We're very much in an inbetween state right now. We're not as bad as our record says we are. There was an absolute dismal 10 games that swayed a lot of things like the standings and fans opinions of the team. But there has been progress. They dont look nearly as inept, they arent getting embarrassed anymore and all facets of the game have gotten better.
Remember too if you want to say that the special teams shit show that we see right now is on Eakins, that last season they were 14th in PP% and 10th in PK%.
And every coach, of every team, in any sport makes "questionable" roster decisions. You dont care when it works, give the coach a break if you like him, and dogpile on him if you hate him.
A good amount depends on the moves Beeker is able to make during the season, where we end up in the draft and what offseason moves are made. That and timing of said extension. This isnt Beekers final version of his team, so to hire someone new to battle that transition, I'm not sure it makes sense. But that really depends on timeline.
We're very much in an inbetween state right now. We're not as bad as our record says we are. There was an absolute dismal 10 games that swayed a lot of things like the standings and fans opinions of the team. But there has been progress. They dont look nearly as inept, they arent getting embarrassed anymore and all facets of the game have gotten better.
Remember too if you want to say that the special teams shit show that we see right now is on Eakins, that last season they were 14th in PP% and 10th in PK%.
And every coach, of every team, in any sport makes "questionable" roster decisions. You dont care when it works, give the coach a break if you like him, and dogpile on him if you hate him.
I think it comes down to it kinda requiring less judgment. the coaching staff may believe that we just don't have the defensive leadership/know-how on this team to make a zone scheme work.
Man on man isn't working either. My understanding is zone D is simpler. Maybe that's not true?
In the previous game's broadcast Hazy mentioned that the man-to-man system was more difficult to learn.
No, I think you're right. but I'm just hypothesizing. there must be a certain element from it that they believe benefits the team.
CrazyDuck4u
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Man on Man d is stupid.. All other teams do is Cause little picks here and there and it causes our D zone to be total cluster f***!!!
SmokeyDuck
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If DE is insisting in MoM that may explain why his goalies numbers have historically always had poor numbers.
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Found this kinda interesting and it’s also fairly recent. Richardson went back to zone after Colliton insisted on MoM. Hawks still struggling defensively but they are better than with Colliton last year
Man-on-man never made sense to me in hockey. It is too fast of a game to do that. I don’t recall every seeing a team really excel with man-on-man in recent history - I may be wrong though
Hockey Duckie
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I think Dimitri's reason is probably why the Ducks go MoM because they can't stop behaving like a pee-wee soccer team. Instead of know their zone and side, they chase after the soccer ball regardless of location - but that's expected out of the pee-wee league.
In Verbeek's recent podcast on the Beeker, he cited that both Minty and Zell looked good, but both need to work on their defensive structure because it will get exposed at the NHL level. Zegras is exploited more now because he's playing 1C instead of being sheltered at 2C, playing mostly an offensive role last year.
I've seen some players actually dictate by mouth and pointing as to who has who if they're going to switch. Shatty does this. McTavish does this too. We need more players willing to communicate to make it easier on the five on the ice plus netminder.
Another part of our problem is the influx of new players on the team as well as young players learning how to play defense.
New to team blue line
Klingberg
Kulikov
White
Beaulieu
Youth on blue line
Drysdale
Benoit
Vaaks
Vets who have played under Eakins
Fowler
Shatt
We just recently found Fowler and Klingberg cohesive partners.
New to team Forwards
Strome
Vatrano
McTavish (rookie)
Regenda (rookie)
Leason (36 NHL games last year)
Youth still learning to play defense
Zegras
Jones (missed last season)
Comtois
The team needs the new veterans to be able to catch on and lead. Only Kulikov and White have recently been good examples of stepping up. Slowly, the Ducks have improved. That's the metric that Verbeek cares about this season.
Hockey Duckie
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People who expect to make the playoffs next year expect to find talent outside of the org. The team did have talent it could have retained last season if Verbeek didn't want to reset the team. Some fans have yet to accept Verbeek did the Verbeekening.
Here's a quote from Verbeek, 4 games into the new season:
Verbeek inherited youths Terry, Zegras, Drysdale, McTavish, and a top-5 farm team. Everyone knows it's going to take time for those youths to develop and hopefully develop into NHL regulars. The problem is some fans don't want to wait for the youths to develop, not that they don't believe there's a lack of injection of talent. Those same fans just can't accept the reset to year 2/3 of the rebuild, especially after being in three years of a rebuild and into year four this season. I can't really blame them. Also, you said it yourself, "It might take some years yet for this to form a playoff nucleus."
Whenever a fan starts accepting Verbeek reset the team back to year 2/3 of the rebuild is when talks of playoff urgency dies. I accepted it at last year's TDL.
Frosted Tips
Fire everyone!
I'm not hockey-smart enough to really understand the differences in the big picture between D-zone coverage options. But I would imagine this really goes with Eakins' philosophy of aggressive defending or that's what I've understood. If I remember right his swarm tactics in Edmonton were made a lot of fun of and while it might not be exactly the same in his game plan 10 years after, I think it's still part of his philosophy and the way he wants to play the game, be aggressive. Right or wrong.
I understand giving Eakins some runway but we are nearing the point that by keeping him on board, Verbeek is signaling that he’s okay with this level of compete.
I’m not talking about physicality, either, because I know there will be people jumping in about how our team is soft or something. I’m talking about compete. There are probably 5-6 guys who look like they’re giving it their all every night and 4 of them are fringe 4th liners.
I’m not talking about physicality, either, because I know there will be people jumping in about how our team is soft or something. I’m talking about compete. There are probably 5-6 guys who look like they’re giving it their all every night and 4 of them are fringe 4th liners.
Sadly I'm pretty sure as long as PV sees what he consideres improvement from the young players than Eakins is safe.
MMC
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This is the 32nd ranked team in the league. The moment a GM makes their first coaching change is when their plan really comes under scrutiny as their vision now fully defines the organization. There is no reason to expect PV to want to start that clock before this team looks like it has an internally built core than can make the playoffs. If Eakins weren’t steering the team in that direction, then maybe he’d look elsewhere but for as bad as this season had been the team is still taking massive steps in that direction (Drysdale was looking great, McTavish is becoming a productive NHL center)
Deuce22
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Watching a team have 1 regulation win in 26 games and crediting the coach with positively developing his young players doesn’t make sense to me.
Hamilton Bulldogs
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As I said when PV extended Eakins in the off season...
Hes a GM whos only here to get as much money as possible. The longer he can sell people on the "aww shucks, we're just so young and happy to be here" the longer he sticks around.
- Apr 9, 2012
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Verbeek was fully endorsed not only by ownership, but icons of the franchise in Niedermayer, Kariya, and Selanne. So unless you think he promised to do one thing and then did the exact opposite, this, for better or worse, is the plan and what all those guys plus the owners are on board with.
And to be clear, I didn't think this was going to be the plan either. I thought we would pick up more established talent this offseason to insulate the young players, as opposed to keeping every pick. So it surprised me to some degree also.
And to be clear, I didn't think this was going to be the plan either. I thought we would pick up more established talent this offseason to insulate the young players, as opposed to keeping every pick. So it surprised me to some degree also.
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goonsaredumb
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lmao the absolutely absurd things people say/believe about Verbeek based on not even a full calendar year as GM are truly outrageous
Goose of Reason
El Zilcho
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People spent 4 years bitching about Murray not selling everyone off to rebuild and now Verbeek does it and is the worst GM in the league because of it. He has absolutely not done enough to judge him in either direction yet.
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