Craig Berube

[deadhead]

A lot of the complaints about Berube's decisions ignore his constraints. If he doesn't use the Couts line to check, who does he use, even with Laughton centering, you're not going to put that line on the ice against an opponent's top offensive lines, are you? And unless you put Raffl with Bellemare and Rinaldo, you don't have a 4th line you want out there (Akeson can't check his mother, and VV is too slow to catch anyone).

Lack of talent constrains decisions, Grossman has to play because you haven't had many alternatives, and guys like Cola will get exposed if they play 20+ minutes (plus he's made of glass). Vinnie has to play because, well, your alternative is VV or Akeson. Bleech.

If you're gonna judge Berube, at least give him enough players so his decisions can be seen to be stubborness, not desperation.

 

[Curufinwe]

Babcock is going to have his choice of jobs. Explain why he would come to Philadelphia with no caproom, a bottom 3rd prospect system by most rankings services, and immovable deadweight at the back end of the roster?

Huge bags full of cash.

 

[Funf]

They need 6 forward who constantly can kill. 4 being the main and the other 2 for penalties or a line change is needed. Way too many people on the Pk units.

Coots - read
Umberger - Raffl
Xxx/PEB - Rinaldo.

They need consistency out there. They don't have it in terms of doing a good job. They have it in stinking it up

Please no on Umberger. He's been stinking it up real bad the past few weeks. I think it was him last night that switched sides without telling his partner leading the MIN goal? And a few nights prior he got caught puck watching and completely missed an open man standing directly next to him.

 

[Striiker]

A lot of the complaints about Berube's decisions ignore his constraints. If he doesn't use the Couts line to check, who does he use, even with Laughton centering, you're not going to put that line on the ice against an opponent's top offensive lines, are you? And unless you put Raffl with Bellemare and Rinaldo, you don't have a 4th line you want out there (Akeson can't check his mother, and VV is too slow to catch anyone).

Lack of talent constrains decisions, Grossman has to play because you haven't had many alternatives, and guys like Cola will get exposed if they play 20+ minutes (plus he's made of glass). Vinnie has to play because, well, your alternative is VV or Akeson. Bleech.

If you're gonna judge Berube, at least give him enough players so his decisions can be seen to be stubborness, not desperation.

Just shut up Berube. You're not getting an extension by making pathetic excuses and ignoring reality.

 

[Cootsfanclub]

Babcock is going to have his choice of jobs. Explain why he would come to Philadelphia with no caproom, a bottom 3rd prospect system by most rankings services, and immovable deadweight at the back end of the roster?

Flyers have one of the best defensive prospect pools in the league and a very young core forward group. Their cap room situation is workable and Babcock is used to deadweight.

 

[bennysflyers16]

Just shut up Berube. You're not getting an extension by making pathetic excuses and ignoring reality.

We all agree he has bad options, but he is ALLOWED to hold the 3 mill plus anchors accountable. VV is a better option than Vinny if it means he is playing on the 4th line. The fact that they hung that stupid horse **** sign and one of Gross, Vinny , Umberger have not been benched for a game is comical. What could it possibly hurt to send a message , they cant get worse. Play lesser players and lose ??? Christ every time you dress Vinny and RJ in a top 9 role and start Emery, you are gonna lose more than you win anyways .

Berube LOVES vets and he LOVES players like himself, accountability will never be a part of his coaching style.

 

[bennysflyers16]

Flyers have one of the best defensive prospect pools in the league and a very young core forward group. Their cap room situation is workable and Babcock is used to deadweight.

Been reported that he may want a big say in Mgmt decision as well, that wont fly here with Snider, Holmer and Hexy all involved.

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

I did some research a bit back re: Hitchcock. He had some excellent turtors regarding coaching. As a Flyer fan, there is the love / hate thing for him. After reading what I read about him and his diligence / persaverance, I have respect.

That said, seeing what Lavy is doing in Nashville, I am not sure which ex-flyer coach I repsect more. Its all about getting the most out of your players and putting the right system in for the personnel.

Hitchcock was one of the best coaches this organization has had in the last 25 years. Of course his style of coaching wears thin on players after awhile like it did here.
I bet a kid like Forsberg loves playing for Lavy. Everyone loved Lavy at first here and most were glad he was canned at the end. Said it at the time. the entire staff should of been canned. But since Berube was a former player and part of tge family we know that was never going to happen.

 

[sa cyred]

A lot of the complaints about Berube's decisions ignore his constraints. If he doesn't use the Couts line to check, who does he use, even with Laughton centering, you're not going to put that line on the ice against an opponent's top offensive lines, are you? And unless you put Raffl with Bellemare and Rinaldo, you don't have a 4th line you want out there (Akeson can't check his mother, and VV is too slow to catch anyone).

Lack of talent constrains decisions, Grossman has to play because you haven't had many alternatives, and guys like Cola will get exposed if they play 20+ minutes (plus he's made of glass). Vinnie has to play because, well, your alternative is VV or Akeson. Bleech.

If you're gonna judge Berube, at least give him enough players so his decisions can be seen to be stubborness, not desperation.

Good coaches can make average players play well. Also good coaches shouldnt have a good amount of games where his team doesnt want to play. Berube has constantly gotten out coached since he arrived. People last year in playoffs blamed it on "its his first year" but line matchup and personal decisions hurt us against the Rangers.

This year he has shown yet again the inability to outcoach other teams. The good coaches produce results even with below average personal. It all depends on the system and how well it is executed. It almost seems like Berube has forgotten his own system that he tried to implace last year.

Whats funny is you stating VV sucks but the coach you like feels that VV is a very good player. I think your fandom of Berube as a player is clouding your judgement of him as a coach.

 

[flyershockey]

Babcock is pretty much a pipedream. I still think he stays in Detroit, but if he does decide to leave the Wings, he'll have half the league willing to make him the highest paid coach in the NHL. That and there are for more desirable locations than coming to Philly where you're pretty strapped on assets to field a roster around.

 

[deadhead]

Whats funny is you stating VV sucks but the coach you like feels that VV is a very good player. I think your fandom of Berube as a player is clouding your judgement of him as a coach.

I don't think Berube feels VV is a very good player, he just feels he's better than the alternatives he's been handed.

Is there a Berube on this team, last time I checked that player was sent to Lehigh.

I don't "love" Berube, but I think he's become the fall guy for deeper problems on this team, and a new coach is not going to solve those problems. This team is not underachieving, it's just not overachieving like they did against the Rangers last spring. You can overachieve for short stretches, but at some point talent shows.

Funny, everyone here was saying we have a below average defense before the 3 top defensemen got injured, but now you're complaining that this is a .500 team at best? Get your stories straight!

 

[Rebels57]

Last night was one terrible decision after another by Berube.

It started with once again choosing the wrong guy to start in the back-to-back games. He ALWAYS picks the opposite of the obvious choice. Emery was a road warrior last year and Mason was dominant at home.

He starts Mason on the road against a cold team and Emery at home against a hot team.

Emery doesnt come up with any clutch saves.

Then, the PK that resulted in Minnesotas first goal. What kind of jackass coach uses 6 forwards on one PK?! The first 4 forwards did a great job. I think it was Couturier-Read followed by Bellemare-Rinaldo. THEN HE PUTS UMBERGER-VANDEVELDE OUT. The second they stepped on the ice I called for a goal. Umberger is nowhere near his man and his man scores. I hate Berube. I hate Umberger.

Then, after his team played their ***** off for 59 minutes and battled back to tie it, he puts the 2 defensemen just back from injury on the ice for the final minute of the game. What happens? MacDonald makes one of the worst decisions by any defensemen on any team all season. Schenn cant make up for and loses his coverage in front. Game over.

Then there is the whole ice time shenanigans. Laughton was one of the best players on the ice and got under 11 minutes.

Why is this guy a head coach? How?

 

[Rebels57]

The Flyers defense is better with Del Zotto and Colaiacovo then with Coburn and MacDonald. That is just insane to me.

 

[blinds]

It was nice when we had Rusty and Talbot on the Pk........

Unfortunately, Rusty thought too highly of himself and we shipped off Talbot for Clownie....

Hall was pretty damn good for us last year, would have liked to keep him.

 

[blinds]

The Flyers defense is better with Del Zotto and Colaiacovo then with Coburn and MacDonald. That is just insane to me.

Ehh, they've only played 6 and 8 games respectively, 5 and 1 since their injuries. They haven't been good, but I'm willing to give them to a dozen games to get their game legs back under them.

Guys with something to prove like Cola, MDZ and Schultz will usually start hot and regress back to their normal, bad selves. Although MDZ looks like he may have been a steal. Guy definitely has talent.

 

[deadhead]

Cola is an average defenseman, a solid third pair guy, but he can't stay healthy. So you want to limit his minutes.

MDZ was a good defenseman who mentally went south, if they've turned him around (hmm, who gets credit?) they have a steal.

Shultz is a solid 7th defenseman, you can get a good couple weeks out of him, but there's a reason he was available for that role.

 

[OrangeAndBlackMetal]

Babcock is pretty much a pipedream. I still think he stays in Detroit, but if he does decide to leave the Wings, he'll have half the league willing to make him the highest paid coach in the NHL. That and there are for more desirable locations than coming to Philly where you're pretty strapped on assets to field a roster around.

ehhh, an owner with some of the deepest pockets in the league might be incentive enough...

 

[kelmitchell]

The Flyers defense is better with Del Zotto and Colaiacovo then with Coburn and MacDonald. That is just insane to me.

The big problem was grossman

 

[Appleyard]

My take on Berube:

+ He got the team in great shape.
+ He seems to be a decent motivator.
+ He got the team playing better in the neutral zone on O and D, they are less frustrating to watch at 5v5 now than they were in 2012-13, if the puck gets to the defensive zone circle it usually gets out now, and the decision making in the neutral zone is better as players seemingly have more options.

- His personal decisions and evaluation are poor.
- His bench management is atrocious.
- I don't know if it is him or Lappy 100%, but the PK changes are inexcusable.

I just feel all in all he is far more suited to the role of an assistant coach, he seemingly has some good ideas tactically but his lack of judgement and management in game is nowhere near good enough to succeed as a head coach.

 

[Striiker]

My take on Berube:

+ He got the team in great shape.
+ He seems to be a decent motivator.
+ He got the team playing better in the neutral zone on O and D, they are less frustrating to watch at 5v5 now than they were in 2012-13, if the puck gets to the defensive zone circle it usually gets out now, and the decision making in the neutral zone is better as players seemingly have more options.

- His personal decisions and evaluation are poor.
- His bench management is atrocious.
- I don't know if it is him or Lappy 100%, but the PK changes are inexcusable.

I just feel all in all he is far more suited to the role of an assistant coach, he seemingly has some good ideas tactically but his lack of judgement and management in game is nowhere near good enough to succeed as a head coach.

Curious as to why you consider him a good motivator? He doesn't seem to be too lively behind the bench and it's not like the team is coming out ready at the start of games. I see this team as being motivated by each other instead of rallying behind a coach like some others might.

 

[Appleyard]

Curious as to why you consider him a good motivator? He doesn't seem to be too lively behind the bench and it's not like the team is coming out ready at the start of games. I see this team as being motivated by each other instead of rallying behind a coach like some others might.

They seem to comeback well! That is why I abstained from using anything more that 'decent' in the + column!

 

[Striiker]

They seem to comeback well! That is why I abstained from using anything more that 'decent' in the + column!

Gotcha

 

[Garbage Goal]

Curious as to why you consider him a good motivator? He doesn't seem to be too lively behind the bench and it's not like the team is coming out ready at the start of games. I see this team as being motivated by each other instead of rallying behind a coach like some others might.

Meh, getting and keeping a team in good shape is a form of motivation I suppose. Plus he doesn't seem to have a bad relationship with the players or have anyone on the team or within the organization disliking or revolting against him. For those reasons alone I'd say he has good relationships with the players, at least. Semantics though.

As usual, Appleyard is spot-on. As an assistant (that doesn't deal with any aspect of line combos or ice-time management) I'd actually like Berube. He just is too consistently awful at in-game management to be a good head coach.

 

[Striiker]

Meh, getting and keeping a team in good shape is a form of motivation I suppose. Plus he doesn't seem to have a bad relationship with the players or have anyone on the team or within the organization disliking or revolting against him. For those reasons alone I'd say he has good relationships with the players, at least. Semantics though.

As usual, Appleyard is spot-on. As an assistant (that doesn't deal with any aspect of line combos or ice-time management) I'd actually like Berube. He just is too consistently awful at in-game management to be a good head coach.

... yeah so basically the problem is he's bad at the two biggest things a head coach is responsible for, roster decisions and bench management.

Basically everything people have given him praise for are all things to be expected instead of things that deserve praise, as in it'd be unacceptable for it to be any other way. A coach shouldn't have his players hate him and a coach shouldn't have players in anything other then great condition.

I wouldn't really care if he went back to assistant coach, although I assume he wouldn't want to do that, just so long as he's not head coach and we have someone who uses their brain.

 

[GKJ]

My take on Berube:

+ He got the team in great shape.

I don't get why people attribute this to coaching. That was the first thing everyone said about Laviolette when he was hired, the players weren't in shape for his system (which proved to be the case in their results). Now that they're a bottom-third team in possession (which they weren't under Lavy), they're somehow in better shape yet less productive and successful? Being in shape has nothing to do with coaching, that's with the trainers, who have been the same trainers here for eons now.