GDT: #56 ⋅ ANA @ DET ⋅ 3:00 PM PST

[JAHV]

The odds are that cronin is brought back, but only because firing him is a bad mark on verbeek and our owners do not typically pay coaches to sit at home. Twice in 20 years.

I do not have faith in verbeek cutting bait, though reports from Friedman earlier this season that he thought about moving on after just one year so give me hope.

I might have missed it, but I still don't think I've seen whether Cronin's contract was ever made public. Is it a two- or three-year deal?

 

[MMC]

The odds are that cronin is brought back, but only because firing him is a bad mark on verbeek and our owners do not typically pay coaches to sit at home. Twice in 20 years.

I do not have faith in verbeek cutting bait, though reports from Friedman earlier this season that he thought about moving on after just one year so give me hope.

I mean I think it's a lot easier to move on from a head coach after last season then it would be after this one.

I don't really care either way in terms of him being brought back or not, I just think that when a team improves from one year to another as much as this one will likely end up doing (20+ points) then really one of two things has to happen to justify a coaching change, either Cronin failed to meet PV's personal expectations (of which I believe the answer is no) and/or does PV have an available replacement in mind who wants to take this job (we have no way of knowing but I think it's safer to assume that's a no here as well)

 

[HanSolo]

That backhand snipe by Cutter was unreal.

 

[KaseMeOutside]

Is it possible there was some sort of meeting of the minds with the players and Cronin? There does seem to be a bit more belief with this team, I don't think they would've gotten this game to OT a few months ago

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

"just" no but for sure it will be a factor here. Ultimately the most important factor to speculate on RE whether Cronin will be brought back or not is if he met PV's expectations for the season. He said he wanted the team to be in the playoff mix and they are despite the fact that will in all likelihood not get in, and he tasked Cronin with improving the defensive play of the team and helping them become all around players. So if he's happy with the efforts on that front paired with the team being where he was expecting in the standings, I have a hard time seeing him not bringing Cronin back

If the on-ice performance has met the GM's expectations, then Verbeek needs to go as well. As DVM posted above, the team is worse in all meaningful ways from last year outside of goaltending.

I agree with both of these takes.

 

[Bergey37]

I'm personally of the belief that the eventual regression of the goaltending combined with the offense continuing to play to potential will essentially cancel each other out

It's already doing that.

 

[JonathnTaylorTavares]

Jesus Christ, never fully realized how hateable Red Wings fans are here, they should be embarrassed by this game not cocky

 

[LePerilsofPerreault]

6 points back from Vancouver, 1 game in hand. Please, please, please beat the Sabres.

 

[SmokeyDuck]

Redwings will go nowhere in the playoffs where they won't be spoon fed call after call.

 

[ScarTroy]

We could literally be right in the mix on Thursday.
Next two games for:

-Calgary: Caps and Lightning
-Canucks: Kings and Ducks
-Utah: Blackhawks and Wild
-Ducks: Sabres and Canucks

This is fun.

 

[70sSanO]

Crazy when vehemently expressing how much you hate your own team's head coach is considered perfectly normal but one guy dares to give him credit and he's "trolling"

Need to check other HF boards of losing teams.

Or just cut to the chase and start with Philly.

John

 

[SmokeyDuck]

The Cronin hate is beyond embarrassing. I wouldn't be sad to see him go but he isn't some hockey terrorist like yall love to make him out to be.

 

[duckaroosky]

The Cronin hate is beyond embarrassing. I wouldn't be sad to see him go but he isn't some hockey terrorist like yall love to make him out to be.

Watching the PPs make me feel terrorized

 

[mightyquack]

The Cronin hate is beyond embarrassing. I wouldn't be sad to see him go but he isn't some hockey terrorist like yall love to make him out to be.

The statistics would say otherwise tbh. This team would be nowhere if it wasn't for top 5 goaltending, it is below average to bad in all other areas.

But at least we are playing meaningful games this late in the season, so at least we're making use of our extreme luck.

 

[HanSolo]

The Cronin hate is beyond embarrassing. I wouldn't be sad to see him go but he isn't some hockey terrorist like yall love to make him out to be.

Terrorist is aggressive. I'm pleased that the player meetings seemed to have paid off, as did the break, but as @mightyquack said, the only reason this team can sniff a wild card spot in the distance right now is because this team, for most of the season, was carried by the goalies standing on their heads. Up until very recently, the team was near dead last or dead last in most major offensive and defensive metric categories.

But even worse than that was, until recently, most of the kids looked to be either stagnating or regressing. The imperative of this team getting out of this rebuild, as in the single most important thing, is the development of our youth core. Outside of Lacombe, no one was really taking meaningful strides from said core.

Until just recently Leo looked to be in a pit of zero confidence and despair with awful numbers supporting rough play. Zegras looked to be playing a more complete game that helped the team overall but before and after injury, he hasn't exactly been scorching the scoresheet. Mac for most of the season looked like a shade of his form last season, and it seems like he's cooled off from that heater that followed being called a third liner. Helleson came up looking surprisingly solid but has stayed at that level ever since. Mintyukov looks like his confidence is even more shattered than Leo's. Zellweger was riding the press box for weeks and not getting game reps. Dostal is starting to look a little more human. Cutter had a stretch of solid improvement from his initial start with sloppy and erratic hockey, but he hasn't shown a whole lot of growth since then and just chips in offense here and there.

It's been discussed to death, but Cronin has talked a lot about stressing defense first under the presumption that our kids' offense will just come naturally in the future. I've ranted about this before so I'm not going to word salad it again, but that's not acceptable to me. We shouldn't ignore the kids' strengths to focus on defense exclusively. This is the time that offensive talent needs to be honed for long term effectiveness. If anything, defense can be taught further down the line. Cassidy and Maurice (just to name two) have shown that the right coach can get a team to buy into a proper 5 man defensive system even with players that weren't previously known for defensive aptitude. Even if this team somehow manages to sneak into the last WC spot, I still think we need a new coach. We need coaches and a dev staff who can maximize development of all aspects of these kids' game. Not a guy who focuses on just one and crosses his fingers that the offense will "come naturally." We need at least some of these kids to hit on their high offensive potential or we end up with a bunch of middle 6 and middle pair lifers when we need offensive firepower in today's NHL. As I said, the development of the youth core is more important than anything, and the results haven't been good after a year and a half of Cronin's tenure.

 

[ohcomeonref]

The Cronin hate is beyond embarrassing. I wouldn't be sad to see him go but he isn't some hockey terrorist like yall love to make him out to be.

Your continued defense of him is embarrassing. The stats don't bear out Cronin doing almost anything well. Unless you consider neutering offensive prowess as a positive, which he's been amazing at.