Do you support a coaching change?

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Do you support a coaching change?

  • Yes

    Votes: 14 13.0%
  • No

    Votes: 94 87.0%

  • Total voters
    108
  • This poll will close: .
I think adding to the staff wouldn't be a bad idea. The PP has gotten stale for instance, goaltending has been shit and our depth forwards aren't crashing the net like they should.
 
This is exactly the heart of the argument.

As I've stated I think Knoblauch is a very good coach and for many the argument ends right there and then, they think in binary terms good coach= keep, bad coach= fire.

My argument isn't worried about next season and wanting to retain a good coach, it's looking at the team we have and the limitations we have a.k.a. bad goaltending + undersized offensive wingers and wanting to extract more value and put forth a gameplan that plays around our weaknesses and strengths and is more likely to win us a Stanley Cup this season. We can't fix goaltending right now, but we can try and gameplan to make that weakness less prominent (rather than play into the weakness) and for me that is getting our offense going so we can outscore a terrible goal, in prior seasons we had that swagger where if we really needed a goal and we were all pushing particularly on the PP we could almost get that goal on command and this season we've lost that ability pretty much entirely.

If Drai and Nurse are canaries, why not McDavid, RNH, Arvidsson, or Henrique this is by far the worst McDavid has ever played and on par with the worst seasons of the other 3.

For many they are looking at this season as a probable early playoff exit, and are ready to accept their lumps. With the plan being fix it in the offseason, cause there are too many issues for a coach to cover it up. For me I see enough right with this team particularly on the back end and our ability to transition the puck, that I do think we can win a Cup this season, but to do that we need to open it up a touch and get more offense from our bottom 6 (the guys on IR should help) + tidy up our special teams.
Its not responsible management to just fire a coach yet again because one thinks it could lead to X more chance of getting title in a 32 team league where obtaining title in any particular year is an overwhelming against odds bet.

The gambit of any sensible org is build a team that can get a championship over the span of your key core. For instance what every other team except maybe the ST Louis Blues did.

I think we're locked into a strange universe now of wanting some kind of magic because a decade of McDrai has passed because the org entirely squandered it to this point.

In anycase the flaws are in the room. In limited forward lineup and with limited goaltending. Coaching change doesn't change that. Outscoring isn't really plausible either longterm with this roster.

Quality teams are built through stability, not chaos. I wish this org knew that a decade ago.
 
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I'm a bit torn on this. I sure don't want a coaching change right now as we head into the stretch drive of the season, but I'm also not completely satisfied with Knoblauch. His unwillingness to use Jeff Skinner effectively so far, along with his inability to get most of our players to play even close to what they were doing a year ago has me concerned. Our special teams dropping has me concerned. Are those on the coach? Are they on the players? Management certainly shares a hefty piece of the blame here, but I'm just not sold on the coach being the issue. That said, I'm also not sold on the coach being the answer. So an outright firing and taking the next best guy available doesn't interest me, but if we could actually get a legitimate upgrade, then I wouldn't be opposed to it. So less of a firing, and more of a "sorry, we found someone better" would be interesting to me, if that person is out there and available.
 
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Pretty sure Knob has one of the best winning % in this league so he knows how to win games in regular season and in playoffs.
His team has also lost many games in embarrassing fashion despite having 2 of the best players in the league. I didn't say fire him ,but every coach, especially rookie coaches can and should look to improve.
 
His team has also lost many games in embarrassing fashion despite having 2 of the best players in the league. I didn't say fire him ,but every coach, especially rookie coaches can and should look to improve.
I think we've determined it's hard to coach Bouch's brain farts away as well as sub .900 goaltending. On that note, Dustin Schwartz should have been fired long ago.
 
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His team has also lost many games in embarrassing fashion despite having 2 of the best players in the league. I didn't say fire him ,but every coach, especially rookie coaches can and should look to improve.
Unless you expect him or any coaching coming in to bench Nuge, Bouchard and maybe even McDavid for their ES play i don't think we are going to get an upgrade.
We can boast all about advanced stats but fact remains that this season only Nurse has looked like a legit top 4 Dman. Not much to say for any other Dman or a goalie. Knob is working with Klingberg, Stecher, Kulak, Bouchard , Emberson and zombie version of Ekholm all season.

Also, one of the 2 best players has been on the ice for over 50 goals against and often being a big contributing factor.

Special teams need to be fixed for sure and also our defensive coverage. Hopefully knob gets it fixed by playoffs.
 
The problem I continue to have with Knob is his demeanor, his lack of emotion, his lack of holding players accountable. There are times in this recent slide these guys needed a kick is the ass, light a fire under these guys, I don’t see him as having it in his personality. Would like to see him get some passion, get after the refs when once again we get screwed with non calls. He just stands there.

I am not saying he should get fired, his record is good and obviously he came within one game of the cup. Thing is I am not confident he can get this team to the ultimate goal. This might be similar to the Chicago situation when they dumped Savard for Quenneville when they made the conference finals in 09. If they go out first this year they might consider it, the clock is ticking on McDrai.
 
Not speaking to the score, but how we got there tonight, we have the backend for clean transition hockey and when you break in cleanly it is so much easier on our skilled undersized wingers. While UTA kind of made a little too easy for us, this style will lead to us scoring more, less reliant on our goaltender to be stellar and in the games you break it wide open, you can give your key guys some more rest and downtime, rather than tight 1 goal games every night where you want McDrai out every other shift.

While the NYR game was a win about 70%+ of our entries were dump-in's while it is good to be able to switch it up, that style of game can not be our bread and butter, we don't have the speedy heavy forecheckers that are at the core of that style nor the wingers who can muck it up in the corner and win 55% of the puck battles.

We need to not fully, but atleast partially emulate the COL team that beat us on their way to win a Cup, that is more the style our current roster is IMO meant to play.
 
God this place is funny.

Our goaltending goes into the tank for an extended period giving up about a goal over the expected(stats eerily similar to the 13 games before Woodcroft was fired) & terrible goals at terrible times & all of a sudden it's the head coaches fault.

Just like clockwork around here.

I've already said we'd see what kind of coach Knoblauch is when there's some adversity & things start to go sideways & that's what we're seeing. All coaches suck when their goaltending is really bad, & let's not use the absence of McDrai as an excuse because things were definitely going sideways long before that.
 
God this place is funny.

Our goaltending goes into the tank for an extended period giving up about a goal over the expected(stats eerily similar to the 13 games before Woodcroft was fired) & terrible goals at terrible times & all of a sudden it's the head coaches fault.

Just like clockwork around here.

I've already said we'd see what kind of coach Knoblauch is when there's some adversity & things start to go sideways & that's what we're seeing. All coaches suck when their goaltending is really bad, & let's not use the absence of McDrai as an excuse because things were definitely going sideways long before that.
Virtually nobody voted in favor of a coaching change. Try looking at the poll.
 
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Only the players in the room know if coaching is an issue. Since Schwartz is in charge of the goaltending, we know at least some of the coaching is rotten.
 
God this place is funny.

Our goaltending goes into the tank for an extended period giving up about a goal over the expected(stats eerily similar to the 13 games before Woodcroft was fired) & terrible goals at terrible times & all of a sudden it's the head coaches fault.

Just like clockwork around here.

I've already said we'd see what kind of coach Knoblauch is when there's some adversity & things start to go sideways & that's what we're seeing. All coaches suck when their goaltending is really bad, & let's not use the absence of McDrai as an excuse because things were definitely going sideways long before that.
Odd bump from 12 days ago
 
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After the season unless we get to the conference championship round.

All of Jackson’s lone wolf moves have backfired and I’d think Knoblauch isn’t as bad as the signings and handing NMCs out like candy, but Knoblauch had a bad year with two sets of rules and accountability, poor on player deployment, and goes to the McDrai well far too much to the detriment of our other skaters and IMO needs a solid playoff run to keep his gig.

Either way, we need to replace Coffey/Gulutzan with a modern assistant coach who understands defensive systems, and won’t be swayed to let the shot counters get thier way with this deny entry nonsense that leads to so many odd man breaks.

Also please get rid of Schwartz.

Bowman has had some good calls this season and some iffy ones, but if he’s the GM going forward, he really needs to pick his own coach, or it will eventually fall apart.

Voted yes since I think the Kings are going to school us, and make Knoblauch look worse than he is.
 
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Not speaking to the score, but how we got there tonight, we have the backend for clean transition hockey and when you break in cleanly it is so much easier on our skilled undersized wingers. While UTA kind of made a little too easy for us, this style will lead to us scoring more, less reliant on our goaltender to be stellar and in the games you break it wide open, you can give your key guys some more rest and downtime, rather than tight 1 goal games every night where you want McDrai out every other shift.

While the NYR game was a win about 70%+ of our entries were dump-in's while it is good to be able to switch it up, that style of game can not be our bread and butter, we don't have the speedy heavy forecheckers that are at the core of that style nor the wingers who can muck it up in the corner and win 55% of the puck battles.

We need to not fully, but atleast partially emulate the COL team that beat us on their way to win a Cup, that is more the style our current roster is IMO meant to play.
That Rangers game my have been fun to watch but shone a stark light on how far we are away from being able to play that style which is generally tied to playoff success.
 
After the season unless we get to the conference championship round.

All of Jackson’s lone wolf moves have backfired and I’d think Knoblauch isn’t as bad as the signings and handing NMCs out like candy, but Knoblauch had a bad year with two sets of rules and accountability, poor on player deployment, and goes to the McDrai well far too much to the detriment of our other skaters and IMO needs a solid playoff run to keep his gig.

Either way, we need to replace Coffey/Gulutzan with a modern assistant coach who understands defensive systems, and won’t be swayed to let the shot counters get thier way with this deny entry nonsense that leads to so many odd man breaks.

Also please get rid of Schwartz.

Bowman has had some good calls this season and some iffy ones, but if he’s the GM going forward, he really needs to pick his own coach, or it will eventually fall apart.

Voted yes since I think the Kings are going to school us, and make Knoblauch look worse than he is.
Did Coffey suddenly turn stupid and useless? Wasn't long ago he was hailed a a defensive guru for helping to steer our defence the right way. But yah, you're right. Shame on him for not turning the much ballyhooed Emberson into a competent NHL defenceman, and allowing Ekholm to get injured.
 
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Bringing in some new assistants over Gulutzan and maybe Stuart in the offseason might not be the worst idea in the world. And obviously Schwartz.
I think the PP is stale because they're saving 'set' plays for the playoffs.

One of the most creative PP in history doesnt ever seem to care about innovations suddenly one year? I think they're keeping shit in the bag.
 
After the season unless we get to the conference championship round.

All of Jackson’s lone wolf moves have backfired and I’d think Knoblauch isn’t as bad as the signings and handing NMCs out like candy, but Knoblauch had a bad year with two sets of rules and accountability, poor on player deployment, and goes to the McDrai well far too much to the detriment of our other skaters and IMO needs a solid playoff run to keep his gig.

Either way, we need to replace Coffey/Gulutzan with a modern assistant coach who understands defensive systems, and won’t be swayed to let the shot counters get thier way with this deny entry nonsense that leads to so many odd man breaks.

Also please get rid of Schwartz.

Bowman has had some good calls this season and some iffy ones, but if he’s the GM going forward, he really needs to pick his own coach, or it will eventually fall apart.

Voted yes since I think the Kings are going to school us, and make Knoblauch look worse than he is.

I have a feeling that Bowman “answers” to Jeff Jackson to a degree, unlike the “full autonomy” Holland had.

He really should be bringing in his own coaches.

I do like Coffey the best out of the incumbents, but would rather a fresh start
 

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