Thought this might go here better.
coaching sucks. leadership sucks. system sucks. no motivation. too much pressure.
THIS IS A BAD HOCKEY CLUB
our management likes acquiring manic depressives. can be happy with a game, still play like they just got dumped by sarah, their 5th grade girlfriend the next
def is not a depth issue as much as a performance one. miller is fine at center. boyle is fine in a 4th role. richards is the only MAJOR issue right now. when you're #1 plays like a #3 there's a problem on any team in this league minus maybe pitts
Philly has so many issues that they can't plug all the hole with just one move so they stand pat for now to let the muddy water settle.
In the NYR pond, the water is clear. The sediments are clean and rested at the bottom and the fresh water supply is abundant. All is picture perfect like one of many rocky mountain spring water beer commercial that I despise with all my heart except for one giant turd blocking up the stream. Regardless of how fresh the water is, how clear the the water is and how self sustaining the water system is, none of it matters when it's turd water.
The lack of faith and frustration the players have toward Torts and his ways is really unhealthy. We speculate that the players condemn Torts' ways secretly and whether this is true or not, what would we rather have? A dysfunctional system that the players believe in or at least blindly follows to their demise or a team with no confidence in the hockey club and identity they represent?
Everyone asks what's wrong with the team and I can tell you that there's nothing wrong with our line up and in fact, Gaborik, Richards and all of our line ups they way they were, the way they are now and however they might change are all legitimate winning lineups.
As a poker player who has to rely on introspection and a full understanding of myself and my mentality/approach, I know too well that doubt and the lack of confidence and pride will create weaknesses that weren't there in the first place. The good will turn into the bad and the bad will only get worse. Every mistakes and mishaps is 10X exaggerated and no win or strong performance will generate any faith, confidence or understanding of what went wrong/what can be done going forward.
It's like depression. Everything just sucks and nothing works and there's no end in sight. Lifeless and without an identity that you can rest your mind upon. It started out partly due to Rick Nash taking over as the offensive leader and players might have been complacent. Injuries happened, losses happened and we lost close games that made us weaker mentally especially with the high expectations and in a shortened season. It's not all on Torts but in a way, it's his job to make things better when things aren't going well by communicating with the players instead of implementing a system that is sure to fail with our personnel. That and his line ups that make no sense and are doubted by the players themselves. His inflexibility and the lack of strategics scares the players because they know they're going out of the gate with a losing game plan.
If you look at our wins, loses and the games that we barely won/lost and the games that saw us get blown out or blow the other team out. It's all reflective of Torts' system. Playing Ottawa, we're so far behind before the game even starts. When we play the Penguins, even with their great players, we should be able to put up a fight but we never stood a chance in the contests against them this year. Our games against Montreal were also bad including a 3-0 loss. We are being beaten systematically. We won against the Devils, Flyers and Islanders because they are not that great systematically. The panthers who were the worst in the NHL won because they have a fast transition and only a fast transition but that was enough to trump Torts' system.
Ripe to be beaten teams are taking one look at the way we play and their coaches are saying here's what we do to break their defense but most importantly, stymie their offense. The predictability of Torts' system combined with its simplicity puts us in a terrible spot to start every game.
The games that we win are won for various reasons. The games that we lose however are all lost because of the same reason.
We had the right personnel last year and we had balanced lines. Playing a shot for shot game that Torts likes, winning and losing comes down to the smallest battles and we won a lot of those small battles and we won games that way + Henrik's .930 1.98GAA which game partly from the battles the team won.
Before I explode this thread with my over wordy post, the point I'm trying to make is the lack of faith the team has in themselves. It's a game of momentum and when the individual players can't stay confident in themselves, what momentum is there to speak of aside from 5-10 minutes of up tempo shifts?
The signs are all there. A team plagued with self doubt and lack of faith in their identity, system and coach. It's time for a change.
