Coaching and Management Talk

[pepty]

Murray does like to surround himself with relatives and/or family friends and less experienced people. The last thing he would want is Ray Shero or or any experienced GM lest they could do to him what he did to Muckler.

Maclean is on thin ice because it easier to blame the coach than the man who built the team and because Murray is desperate to bring in Luke Richardson so that he can mentor him for the next few years along with Pierre Dorion after Murray steps down as official GM.

Maclean has a lot of experience and a mind of his own so who knows how much longer Murray will keep him around? I think he was ready to give him the boot this year but Melnyk finally tired of paying for coaches that weren't actually coaching here.

 

[Clamshells]

What bugs me the most about our management is they cant decide if we will be rebuilding or going for it.

This just doesnt make sense to me:

Trade for Hemsky (must be going for it)
Sign Phillips (must be going for it keeping a veteran)
Looking to trade Spezza (wtf?, our we rebuilding again)

Pick a direction and go with it!

It's pretty obvious imo.

The team is looking to re-sign Hemsky and Michalek to keep that line together.
If they can't retain a line for Spezza, then they might consider trading him to return pieces that would be better for the make-up of the team in the long run. Not that they would take the best offer no matter what, just that they want to know what the market is like in case there is a trade that makes sense.

I don't believe for a second that trading Spezza is a plan A scenario for management.

 

[Qward]

I like that the coaching staff is watching the other teams to learn how their defense is so good.

 

[Benjamin]

I like that the coaching staff is watching the other teams to learn how their defense is so good.

Now we need the defensemen to watch other teams players to learn how to defense.

 

[coladin]

Now we need the defensemen to watch other teams players to learn how to defense.

I think a fresh start in camp and a confident start will help the defence more than anything else.

 

[EssendonBombers]

Hemsky was acquired to show what Spezza could do with top players in an offensive system. We paid almost nothing for him and it likely boosted Jasons value.

Phillips was resigned because we didn't want to lose our two most experienced players in a series of months, just a year after losing Alfie. Neil and Anderson would be our only two players over 30. You need veterans, especially when we will be one of the 2 or 3 youngest teams next seasons.

You might not be understanding the moves in a greater scope, but trust me, there is one.

The first reasoning is sound, but I'm not sure that it was the original motivation.

The second is a joke. Phillips played some of the worst hockey I have ever seen in the month leading up to his contract signing and the remainder of the season after it. There's no room for sentimentality when it is costing you wins, revenue, development, and the ability to improve your roster in both the short and the long term.

 

[TheBradyBunch]

The first reasoning is sound, but I'm not sure that it was the original motivation.

The second is a joke. Phillips played some of the worst hockey I have ever seen in the month leading up to his contract signing and the remainder of the season after it. There's no room for sentimentality when it is costing you wins, revenue, development, and the ability to improve your roster in both the short and the long term.

Its not sentimentality. It's off ice presence. Something you have zero way of evaluating because you're not a member of the Ottawa Senators organization. If they think it's worth an extra million and a half than they'd have to pay for another Joe Corvo, so be it. And if you think losing Spezza, Alfie and Phillips all in one year is going to be helpful for the development of our young guys I kind of just assume you have no clue what youre talking about. We already lost Alfie, we knew we were going to lose Spezza, so we signed Phillips. Thats why the move was made. Hoping he bounces back is the cherry on top. If he does, its a steal of a contract.

PS come back and find me on August 1st, show me 3 better DMen who sign for less than Phillips and I'll give you a blue ribbon.

 

[WhiteLight*]

Its not sentimentality. It's off ice presence. Something you have zero way of evaluating because you're not a member of the Ottawa Senators organization. If they think it's worth an extra million and a half than they'd have to pay for another Joe Corvo, so be it. And if you think losing Spezza, Alfie and Phillips all in one year is going to be helpful for the development of our young guys I kind of just assume you have no clue what youre talking about. We already lost Alfie, we knew we were going to lose Spezza, so we signed Phillips. Thats why the move was made. Hoping he bounces back is the cherry on top. If he does, its a steal of a contract.

PS come back and find me on August 1st, show me 3 better DMen who sign for less than Phillips and I'll give you a blue ribbon.

Why not just make him an assistant coach? Or give him Jason Smith's job? Let him work with the young players, but don't have him on the ice during games.


Actually, based on what I've seen out of him lately and all his pointing, I'm not really sure I want him teaching anyone, but hey, that would be better than playing him.

 

[Sun God Nika]

I'm gonna be one of the few to say i am not comfortable with our team watching how other teams are playing. We should know what went wrong internally not be at the phase of playing copy cat and trying to learn a new system and everything.

 

[WhiteLight*]

I'm gonna be one of the few to say i am not comfortable with our team watching how other teams are playing. We should know what went wrong internally not be at the phase of playing copy cat and trying to learn a new system and everything.

I don't think watching other teams is a bad thing, but NEEDING to do it shows the incompetence of the coaching staff. They really don't what went wrong and had no idea how to fix it. How are they still employed at the NHL level.

 

[EssendonBombers]

PS come back and find me on August 1st, show me 3 better DMen who sign for less than Phillips and I'll give you a blue ribbon.

We already have four in the system in Borowiecki, Wiercioch, Gryba and Ceci. If we had of retained Benoit instead of signing Corvo we'd have another one. Don't act like we got a bargain basement price for Phillips. If he had of received a contract based on the merit of his play this season he'd be out of a job.

I don't care how good Phillips is off-ice. You yourself say "you can't know because you're not a member of the team" so why place such importance on the assumption that he is good in the room? He is an awful player and a bad example for younger players on the ice. Missed assignments, bad pinches, terrible positioning, no ability to recover, can't take a D-to-D pass. I don't know about you, but I don't see the proliferation of useless pointing amongst the defenseman of this team as a positive development*.

And the "they left Alfie go so they have to keep Phillips" argument is a stupid one. Essentially the only thing they have in common is length of tenure. Unlike Phillips, Alfie was still one of the team's top contributors on the ice and was never a player that would lose you a game with an awful turnover or horrible positioning. It's chalk and cheese.


*I'd just like to point out that I've seen essentially no useless pointing by any defenseman in the playoffs. Does that tell you something?

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

I'm gonna be one of the few to say i am not comfortable with our team watching how other teams are playing. We should know what went wrong internally not be at the phase of playing copy cat and trying to learn a new system and everything.

Speed. That's the big difference.

Skating speed.
Speed moving the puck up the ice.
Speed in their decision-making.
speed in transition.

We don't have it.

 

[coladin]

Speed. That's the big difference.

Skating speed.
Speed moving the puck up the ice.
Speed in their decision-making.
speed in transition.

We don't have it.

I think we have speed, but we never get to see it. By the time we would fish the puck out of our end, the forwards had already wasted half to three quarters of their shift playing defence.

I think the more efficiently we can move the puck out of our end, the faster we will look.