Confirmed with Link: Ducks fire Greg Cronin

[Static]

It is impossible to reconcile this interview without knowing the specific reasons he was fired. Cronin is coming off like, hey, this is what you asked for. I did what you asked me to do, and then you bodied me.

It's very possible verbeek is recognizing his part in the original sin and Cronin paid for it.

 

[Mr Rogers]

Z called him a few days after he was fired, Z told him he wanted to strangle him in the 1st year - mention Z was a negotiator - but Z said he learned a completely new way of playing the game.

Also took a little swipe at spitten chiclets. Says he has no animosity towards Pat for giving him the chance, but bummed he isn't gonna be able to be part of the growth after doing the grunt work.

 

[Static]

Mcguire sitting in like a magpie is bizarre.

 

[Terry Yake]

some notes from cronin:

win against WPG in december was high point of the season

says special teams dragged them down (thanks captain obvious)

there was a real strong belief among team that they would make the playoffs

pierre enters the chat to say that cronin did an amazing job with the ducks. thanks pierre

FO wanted to bring in another vet at the deadline for playoff push

dumo trade/fabbri injury sucked some air out of the team

points out how bad the team was at faceoffs

says he was surprised at his firing mainly due to the 21 pt turnaround from last season despite having the worst special teams in the league

pierre says he can relate to cronin as someone who has been fired unfairly. thanks for the laugh, pierre

cronin says he was hanging out with PK this morning

calls out spittin chiclets and the media for misrepresenting him

says zegras called him and said he wanted to strangle him last season for making him do things he didn't want to do, but came to realize that he improved defensively and learned to play a new style

no animosity towards verbeek for giving him his first NHL HC gig. says what hurts the most is that he'll miss the players

more ball glazing from pierre

pierre has now overtaken the interview to air his grievances about his firing from the whalers

 

[Mr Rogers]

Also, he saw Kariya this morning apparently

 

[Static]

The interview bummed me out. Cronin isn't a bad guy, just a not good enough coach put in a no-win situation. That has to be rough considering how long he had to wait for his shot.

 

[All Mighty]

The interview bummed me out. Cronin isn't a bad guy, just a not good enough coach put in a no-win situation. That has to be rough considering how long he has to wait for his shot.

Ya he even went out of his way to thank Verbeek for giving him a chance and said he will be a friend forever.

Although I will say I can see what some players have said regarding long meetings or whatever. After he was asked that first question, he spent 20 minutes just giving his resume and rambling before actually answering it. Definitely seems like a talker.

 

[Big Fat Rebound]

I don’t know man, Murphy does seem connected and probably has sources, but the conspiracy theorist in me finds the timeline of everything that’s happened combined with his personal views on Cronin and this interview to be extraordinarily coincidental.

Call it blind faith if you want regarding the Quenneville situation (not to hijack this thread also), but I’ll stake my reputation for the franchise

 

[The Mighty Duck Man]

It is impossible to reconcile this interview without knowing the specific reasons he was fired. Cronin is coming off like, hey, this is what you asked for. I did what you asked me to do, and then you bodied me.

It's very possible verbeek is recognizing his part in the original sin and Cronin paid for it.

I’ll offer a theory I’ve had since around the time he was hired: he was fired because it was kind of always the plan. I never really bought that he was brought in to win this team a cup or even lead them back to the playoffs and a lot of what he said kind of leans into that. I think he was just there to teach fundamentals, test peoples’ limits, reset the culture and then when the time was right he would go. I do think the hope was Matt McIlvane would take over but either way I never thought Cronin was going to be here long almost regardless of any success.


Just a great interview overall, though. I could probably listen to Cronin for hours and you can read between the lines and make more sense of some things, like all the Zegras rumors last year. I also think I know where Jimmy Murphy got his Quenneville report from lol.

 

[JAHV]

I’ll offer a theory I’ve had since around the time he was hired: he was fired because it was kind of always the plan. I never really bought that he was brought in to win this team a cup or even lead them back to the playoffs and a lot of what he said kind of leans into that. I think he was just there to teach fundamentals, test peoples’ limits, reset the culture and then when the time was right he would go. I do think the hope was Matt McIlvane would take over but either way I never thought Cronin was going to be here long almost regardless of any success.


Just a great interview overall, though. I could probably listen to Cronin for hours and you can read between the lines and make more sense of some things, like all the Zegras rumors last year. I also think I know where Jimmy Murphy got his Quenneville report from lol.

This is exactly where I'm at. I think Cronin was always a temporary (2 - 4 years) guy to instill certain values in youngsters behind the scenes. As I said elsewhere, I think if everything went absolutely right, the Ducks would start playing like the Hurricanes and Cronin's message would be palatable for another year or two until McIlvane was ready to take over. As it happened, his schtick got old much quicker than that and Verbeek had to pull the plug or risk guys holding out or leaving. I also think Verbeek probably saw some connections between UFAs rejecting his offers and the guy who was behind the bench. If he's looking at adding anyone this summer, that's an important problem to fix.

 

[Rybread86]

I’ll offer a theory I’ve had since around the time he was hired: he was fired because it was kind of always the plan. I never really bought that he was brought in to win this team a cup or even lead them back to the playoffs and a lot of what he said kind of leans into that. I think he was just there to teach fundamentals, test peoples’ limits, reset the culture and then when the time was right he would go. I do think the hope was Matt McIlvane would take over but either way I never thought Cronin was going to be here long almost regardless of any success.


Just a great interview overall, though. I could probably listen to Cronin for hours and you can read between the lines and make more sense of some things, like all the Zegras rumors last year. I also think I know where Jimmy Murphy got his Quenneville report from lol.

I dont disagree, and honestly, I think a lot of people felt the same way when he was hired. Many around here thought he would have a 2-3 year stint before McIlvane was promoted. If they made they playoffs, Cronin isnt fired.... yet.

Its also why as much as I thought he should have been fired, I tried to stay away from piling on the guy. He did accomplish quite a few things with the team, and hearing how much pushback he got in his first season, the way things unfolded make a lot of sense. People hate change, naturally they resist it. So when some of the guys, longer in the tooth, come out and talk their smack, you can understand why. Then you have the Z situation and hearing that explanation, again, makes a lot of sense now.

 

[Rybread86]

This is exactly where I'm at. I think Cronin was always a temporary (2 - 4 years) guy to instill certain values in youngsters behind the scenes. As I said elsewhere, I think if everything went absolutely right, the Ducks would start playing like the Hurricanes and Cronin's message would be palatable for another year or two until McIlvane was ready to take over. As it happened, his schtick got old much quicker than that and Verbeek had to pull the plug or risk guys holding out or leaving. I also think Verbeek probably saw some connections between UFAs rejecting his offers and the guy who was behind the bench. If he's looking at adding anyone this summer, that's an important problem to fix.

Excellent point

 

[All Mighty]

I also think Verbeek probably saw some connections between UFAs rejecting his offers and the guy who was behind the bench. If he's looking at adding anyone this summer, that's an important problem to fix.

I think this point was underestimated when we assumed Cronin would be staying. Whether it’s fair to Cronin or not, the rumors of him not being a great coach would definitely factor into players wanting to join the team. Once you get that reputation, it’s hard to shake it.

 

[JAHV]

I think this point was underestimated when we assumed Cronin would be staying. Whether it’s fair to Cronin or not, the rumors of him not being a great coach would definitely factor into players wanting to join the team. Once you get that reputation, it’s hard to shake it.

I think most of us thought he was staying for the same reasons it sounds like Cronin was taken by surprise - it seems like was doing exactly what Verbeek asked him to do. Kind of like a lot of things with Verbeek, I don't know how much credit to give him. On the one hand, good for him in recognizing that the plan wasn't sustainable and making the move before it caused longer term damage to the roster. On the other hand, it doesn't speak well of Verbeek's communication skills that Cronin was completely blindsided by this move.

But yeah, I think attracting outside talent is a huge factor in this. I doubt we'll ever know fully what the reasons are behind Stamkos and Marchessault rejecting what were, reportedly, the highest offers they got. I would not be surprised if they heard of Cronin's methods and had no desire to sign up for that kind of punishment in their declining years.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

good f'ing riddance Cronin.

I can't wait to listen to this goofball give this interview

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

"Why did the Ducks let you go?"

"I don't know"

"What did Pat discuss with you about letting you go?"

"I don't know"

"Why did your PP and PK suck so bad?"

"I don't know but the players drank from a firehouse and I hate Zegras"

"Do you think Dostal and Gibson were the only reason the team improved in the standings?

"I don't know."

"Did you like being the head coach for the Ducks?"

"I don't know"

Etc.......

I hope our next hire at least does a better ommunicating job than this!

 

[Mr Rogers]

good f'ing riddance Cronin.

I can't wait to listen to this goofball give this interview

In all honesty, he is a good speaker and interviewer and this interview today was just one more example of that. He clearly had a point and point of view he wanted to cast and he came with very specific examples to support it. It's not hard to see why he gets jobs, i wish i interviewed like that haha

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Cronin's got great recall on positive games. He focused on improved 21 points with little support from the PP and PK. It sounds like a PR campaign for a head coaching job.

The problem with Cronin is he cannot see the bigger picture to help elevate the team. Looking at the 21 point improvement doesn't seem all that great since Cronin set the bar very low. He did less with more talent on the squad last season to have a lowly 59 points on the season, and only 1 point improvement.

That "A-ha" moment that Cronin was proud about was when the team beat Winnipeg 3-2 in game 30 of the season. Cronin had a great stretch between the WPG game and 4 Nations break. The problem was it was not there before nor after that stretch. His team fizzled out. When it did start to fizzle was when Verbeek admitted he started having doubts about Cronin.

In the chart below, we see our special teams in the negative for the "WPG to 4 Nations" row, but Cronin still found a way to have over a 50% winning pts record. He just couldn't find a way to keep winning in spite of the bad special teams to avoid being fired.

From the "4 Nations break to TDL", our goalies had only three games were they posted sub .900. Implying we should have had a winning record in those 8 games, but we ended up with a 3-4-1. Losing to Detroit, Buffalo, and getting blown out by Chicago are the low points in this game set. Cronin never fully recovered in the final 20 games.

From 4 Nations break to TDL

---

Cronin did identify things that are directly related to Verbeek such as the culture he inherited, the terrible special teams coaching, and losing at the faceoff dot this season. After Verbeek blew up the team at the 2022 TDL, he then constructed a shit roster for Eakins to finish dead last in the league. When Cronin was hired, Verbeek revamped the blueline with vastly improved talent, right-handedness, and physicality along with adding two offensive weapons in Killorn as well as Carlsson. Anaheim finally named a captain for the following season in vet addition Gudas; it was the first captain named under Verbeek's tenure. Then this year, we all noticed over the summer, we lost two of our aces at the dot in Rico and Carrick. Just like after the 2022 TDL, Verbeek didn't address the loss of faceoff specialists. The Special Teams coaches failed Cronin. PK coach Thompson has ties to Cronin, but I don't know what ties PP coach Clune has to Cronin, but Clune was touted for improving the AHL Marlies' PP to 21.9%, which was a 13% improvement.

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Very interesting to me that he was so surprised to be let go. Not sure whom to pin that on but it speaks very poorly of somebody.

 

[190Octane]

Cronin's got great recall on positive games. He focused on improved 21 points with little support from the PP and PK. It sounds like a PR campaign for a head coaching job.

The problem with Cronin is he cannot see the bigger picture to help elevate the team. Looking at the 21 point improvement doesn't seem all that great since Cronin set the bar very low. He did less with more talent on the squad last season to have a lowly 59 points on the season, and only 1 point improvement.

View attachment 1025830

That "A-ha" moment that Cronin was proud about was when the team beat Winnipeg 3-2 in game 30 of the season. Cronin had a great stretch between the WPG game and 4 Nations break. The problem was it was not there before nor after that stretch. His team fizzled out. When it did start to fizzle was when Verbeek admitted he started having doubts about Cronin.

In the chart below, we see our special teams in the negative for the "WPG to 4 Nations" row, but Cronin still found a way to have over a 50% winning pts record. He just couldn't find a way to keep winning in spite of the bad special teams to avoid being fired.

View attachment 1025836

From the "4 Nations break to TDL", our goalies had only three games were they posted sub .900. Implying we should have had a winning record in those 8 games, but we ended up with a 3-4-1. Losing to Detroit, Buffalo, and getting blown out by Chicago are the low points in this game set. Cronin never fully recovered in the final 20 games.

From 4 Nations break to TDL
View attachment 1025841

---

Cronin did identify things that are directly related to Verbeek such as the culture he inherited, the terrible special teams coaching, and losing at the faceoff dot this season. After Verbeek blew up the team at the 2022 TDL, he then constructed a shit roster for Eakins to finish dead last in the league. When Cronin was hired, Verbeek revamped the blueline with vastly improved talent, right-handedness, and physicality along with adding two offensive weapons in Killorn as well as Carlsson. Anaheim finally named a captain for the following season in vet addition Gudas; it was the first captain named under Verbeek's tenure. Then this year, we all noticed over the summer, we lost two of our aces at the dot in Rico and Carrick. Just like after the 2022 TDL, Verbeek didn't address the loss of faceoff specialists. The Special Teams coaches failed Cronin. PK coach Thompson has ties to Cronin, but I don't know what ties PP coach Clune has to Cronin, but Clune was touted for improving the AHL Marlies' PP to 21.9%, which was a 13% improvement.

Almost like he has an agenda and constantly provides examples to further it.

 

[Steppin Razor]

In all honesty, he is a good speaker and interviewer and this interview today was just one more example of that. He clearly had a point and point of view he wanted to cast and he came with very specific examples to support it. It's not hard to see why he gets jobs, i wish i interviewed like that haha

I think Cronin's probably a smart enough guy and he does his prep work for these interviews and the like. But his constant stream of "I don't know" answers to questions after games, during pressers, etc., seems to show he isn't the best when speaking extemporaneously. That kind of thinking and speaking on the fly isn't a guarantee of being a good coach but there's probably some correlation.

 

[Lord Flashheart]

I would be very happy if the version of events Cronin presented were accurate, but eye test and team metrics proved otherwise.

Good luck in future endeavours Cronin.

Sidenote, Pierre is delusional.

 

[Leonardo87]

It’s actually interesting that Cronin and Zegras got along despite Cronin sucking all the offense out of him. Z was willing to compromise to improve his overall game. Sadly the results were not good. But I put that more on the coaching than the player.

 

[DaGeneral]

It’s actually interesting that Cronin and Zegras got along despite Cronin sucking all the offense out of him. Z was willing to compromise to improve his overall game. Sadly the results were not good. But I put that more on the coaching than the player.

It goes to show you.. Zegras is a great guy, despite the villain they make him out to be

 

[Leonardo87]

It goes to show you.. Zegras is a great guy, despite the villain they make him out to be

Big season coming up for Zegras next year. I want him to be part of this franchise moving forward and he really needs to play his ass off, on both ends of the ice.