Confirmed with Link: DJ Smith fired, Jacques Martin in as interim, Alfie as assistant

  • Xenforo Cloud has upgraded us to version 2.3.6. Please report any issues you experience.
  • We are currently aware of "log in/security error" issues that are affecting some users. We apologize and ask for your patience as we try to get these issues fixed.
i see Jacques Martin more as a Yoda character, the wise prophet who helps you discover your true talent. He certainly has the ears for it
I'm always blown away by his ears. I swear they weren't that big back in the 90s-00s.
 
I'm always blown away by his ears. I swear they weren't that big back in the 90s-00s.

He’s trying to set a good example for the players by listening with your ears and communicating on the ice. Growing extra big ears is the best way to do this
 
Yesterday Michel Bergeron said a good comment. This team have be built to play offense. Let the kids to be creative and win games 6-4 , 7-5 kinda like that or do a rebuild because this core would never change his style
That’s not how you build a winner. We could have kept smith and did what we did last year. But we need to find out what each player is made of. Martin is making. Those evaluations along with staios and co. Short term pain for hopeless. Long term gain
 
Yesterday Michel Bergeron said a good comment. This team have be built to play offense. Let the kids to be creative and win games 6-4 , 7-5 kinda like that or do a rebuild because this core would never change his style
Who do you listen too? Who are all these people you get stuff from?
 
Friedman: "I will be very surprised if they rush this coaching hire without a full process. They know that its something that they cannot get wrong."
Yup, called it:
1705078494646.png

1705078472269.png


More Grade School commentary
Best in class commentary
 
Yup, called it:
View attachment 801659
View attachment 801657


Best in class commentary
What's your angle here?

Surely, you can't believe DJ staying, even to finish the year, was the answer?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bileur
What's your angle here?

Surely, you can't believe DJ staying, even to finish the year, was the answer?
In a perfect world, DJ could and should have finished the season. He never lost the room. Doing a mid-season coaching change on a coach that hasn't lost the room makes little sense, because you need more practice time to implement new systems, especially for us considering how backloaded our schedule is. This type of coaching change is preferably done in the off-season where you have weeks of training camp and pre-season to dial in your new culture and new systems.

But the fan pressure was getting so high I was feeling bad for DJ. At worst, they should have waited a bit longer before firing him, then gone with Capuano to finish off the season (similar to how we fired Boucher and finished with Crawford in 2018).

I'll admit, I got excited by the nostalgia factor of having Jacques back, but it's clearly not working. Having a new interim coach come in and try to make sweeping changes when everyone knows he won't be back is a bit silly.
 
As much as we may envy the cash they make, and call it pro sports until we are blue in the face, these are not grown-ass men. They are current day 20-somethings whether we like it or not, and some of the key guys are young twenty somethings. Expecting high levels of maturity is a fools errand (not meant as an insult just a sign of the times).

G is a grown as man, as is Tank. I can understand why Staios is looking at that room and thinking that we need to add some grown ass men in there to help mentor and steer the ship.

They may not be driving the boat, but they can prevent it from sinking.
 
As much as we may envy the cash they make, and call it pro sports until we are blue in the face, these are not grown-ass men. They are current day 20-somethings whether we like it or not, and some of the key guys are young twenty somethings. Expecting high levels of maturity is a fools errand (not meant as an insult just a sign of the times).

G is a grown as man, as is Tank. I can understand why Staios is looking at that room and thinking that we need to add some grown ass men in there to help mentor and steer the ship.

They may not be driving the boat, but they can prevent it from sinking.

loser attitude.

the kind of babying that led to this situation in the first place.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Relapsing
In a perfect world, DJ could and should have finished the season. He never lost the room. Doing a mid-season coaching change on a coach that hasn't lost the room makes little sense, because you need more practice time to implement new systems, especially for us considering how backloaded our schedule is. This type of coaching change is preferably done in the off-season where you have weeks of training camp and pre-season to dial in your new culture and new systems.

But the fan pressure was getting so high I was feeling bad for DJ. At worst, they should have waited a bit longer before firing him, then gone with Capuano to finish off the season (similar to how we fired Boucher and finished with Crawford in 2018).

I'll admit, I got excited by the nostalgia factor of having Jacques back, but it's clearly not working. Having a new interim coach come in and try to make sweeping changes when everyone knows he won't be back is a bit silly.
Well, I think things got too ugly to continue. It wasn't just fan pressure, TSN and Sportsnet were running some pretty crazy headlines by then basically asking when the heck they were gonna put this guy out of his misery. It's most of what the pundits talked about. It was still for the best imo and as crazy as it seems with the results, the waters do feel calmer now.

I get that things haven't improved, but they were playing for nothing when he was let go and they're playing for nothing now, so the wins/losses aren't necessarily the focus at imo. They've been forward about the objectives with the group from here about building habits and structure and trust, etc.

I see Martin taking over as pretty similar to Capuano, but with more potential benefits long term, but I see your line of thinking at least. 6 of one, half a dozen of another a bit there imo, but I'd rather Martin and Alfie, personally.

Either way, the season was lost, it's still lost, and they still have to re-vamp the coaching staff entirely before next season, so little has changed imo.

I also think it's a net positive to just wipe the slate clean from the previous regime. Now, people can look at the new group starting next year and say you're accountable, it's no longer EM/PD/DJ's ship like this year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bileur and swiftwin


I hear you but you are just a substitute teacher, you are too old and your ears are too big ..... @swiftwin


I peed a little LMAO!

I am just glad to see the team finally being back at home where they can have more practice time. Any transition is tough and on the road while playing real NHL games is even tougher by a young, fragile but promising NHL stars lacking fundamentals of the professional game. As jam packed a schedule as they have, this homestand is key and we will see how the team leverages home ice advantage such as last change/line matching.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sens of Anarchy
The West is a bit of a gauntlet too. Not a weak team there and would be "expected" to lose against any of those 4 teams. Even Calgary should be expected to kick our behinds now that their bad start is behind them. We're lucky a stop in Winnipeg wasn't a part of it.
 
Well no matter what, you'd have to be insane to believe DJ should have stayed, so what difference does it make. The season was lost when Martin took over, so more or less losses don't really change much in the immediate term. He needs to break his horses down and restart this thing after years of bad habits. That can't be easy.
They waited too long to fire DJ. Martin takes over and we say wins and losses don't matter, which is totally fine, but what about the way they're playing? Does that matter? Cause in every single way you can measure they are playing worse, and it ranges from a little bit worse to a lot worse depending on the statistic. As uneven as they were under DJ how did their bad habits lead to much better PK numbers, better FO%, significantly better shots against per game, etc.

What's a bad habit that makes you perform better defensively, relative to what we see now?

It's clear DJ should have been fired but this is just about the worst possible outcome you could have imagined from a coaching change, no?
 
  • Like
Reactions: swiftwin
They waited too long to fire DJ. Martin takes over and we say wins and losses don't matter, which is totally fine, but what about the way they're playing? Does that matter? Cause in every single way you can measure they are playing worse, and it ranges from a little bit worse to a lot worse depending on the statistic. As uneven as they were under DJ how did their bad habits lead to much better PK numbers, better FO%, significantly better shots against per game, etc.

What's a bad habit that makes you perform better defensively, relative to what we see now?

It's clear DJ should have been fired but this is just about the worst possible outcome you could have imagined from a coaching change, no?
I totally hear you, and I expect push back to what I'm about to say. I do think they're improving and playing better and building some good habits at the same time. I see something there. Maybe not "better" in the sense of doing it right or getting results, but believe it or not, I see a team that's more likely to be competitive if they can buy in, than the one under DJ that just sort of felt like they could win, but more likely to lose, any given game.

I also see changes to how the lines and players are being used and I'm appreciative of that. With DJ staying, so much of the problem was repeating the same process, so I'm happy this is at least "new". With the top guys not pulling their weight, I've liked to see the bottom of the lineup leaned on more, even if they're not great. It's change.

I also think there's some arguments in their favor. They lost 3 off the hop after taking over, but had some bright spots in there. Still not good enough, but season was lost already. The West trip is an absolute gauntlet and I liked them in spurts. They gave Edmonton a game at least. Arizona, Seattle, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary are all much better teams atm and in any single matchup would be expecting a loss more than a win against any of them. Plus being on the road for all of them. Edmonton and Seattle are on a torrid pace. Calgary is back above .500 after their awful start. Van has been tearing it up from day 1 and Arizona was hot until after that game. That's also where DJ's team cratered last year and looked arguably as bad.

But yes, I did expect more of a new coach bump from the change and DJ stayed too long. I would have liked to see the change when there was still hope. In hindsight though, more than any issues with Martin, it really brings to light how damaged this team is atm and needing some tinkering, so I'm not too concerned with that now. I don't think Martin is the answer, but it's a nice interim solution that at least relieved some pressure and I'm still fine with him for the year unless they can line up their permanent guy and give him the Tocchet treatment.
 
He's got competition

WEB_HK_Sanderson_Jake_21.jpg


In a perfect world, DJ could and should have finished the season. He never lost the room. Doing a mid-season coaching change on a coach that hasn't lost the room makes little sense, because you need more practice time to implement new systems, especially for us considering how backloaded our schedule is. This type of coaching change is preferably done in the off-season where you have weeks of training camp and pre-season to dial in your new culture and new systems.

But the fan pressure was getting so high I was feeling bad for DJ. At worst, they should have waited a bit longer before firing him, then gone with Capuano to finish off the season (similar to how we fired Boucher and finished with Crawford in 2018).

I'll admit, I got excited by the nostalgia factor of having Jacques back, but it's clearly not working. Having a new interim coach come in and try to make sweeping changes when everyone knows he won't be back is a bit silly.
Did you not say it was time to fire DJ because he had lost the room? I am sure I saw you posted that...
 

Ad

Ad