GDT: [GM53] Vancouver Canucks vs Colorado Avalanche | Tue, Feb. 4th | 7pm | SNP | Hughes Dependent

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It's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Hoglander (or Kuzmenko, or Sprong) and just hate him immediately. If he does anything wrong, he's benched. If he doesn't hustle or hit or try in the right way, he's benched. If he makes a defensive mistake or takes a badly timed penalty, he's benched.

But at the same time, it's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Juulsen on the fringe of the lineup and play the everlasting shit out of him despite him clearly being in over his head, f***ing up royal night after night, causing chaos wherever he goes, but the coach continues to love him because of "work ethic" and "sacrificing the body" and "keeping it simple" and whatnot.

It's just an absolutely batshit dichotomy that drives me nuts.
 
This feels like such a guaranteed loss tonight.
I agree. The speed and east-west passing of the MacKinnon-Necas line has been insane and with how slow Demko has been moving in net it definitely could be one of those nights, even if the team plays well as a group.
 
It's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Hoglander (or Kuzmenko, or Sprong) and just hate him immediately. If he does anything wrong, he's benched. If he doesn't hustle or hit or try in the right way, he's benched. If he makes a defensive mistake or takes a badly timed penalty, he's benched.

But at the same time, it's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Juulsen on the fringe of the lineup and play the everlasting shit out of him despite him clearly being in over his head, f***ing up royal night after night, causing chaos wherever he goes, but the coach continues to love him because of "work ethic" and "sacrificing the body" and "keeping it simple" and whatnot.

It's just an absolutely batshit dichotomy that drives me nuts.

It's like the old mustache man's love for players like Vey Megna and Chaput.
:facepalm:
 
Its probably good for the team to play without Hughes for a while, honestly. @vadim sharifijanov i think it was mentioned that the team really has come to overly rely on Hughes creating mismatches to run their "system," and it totally confounds their ability to run the cycle, play through the neutral zone, and make breakouts. I think the team played quite well against Detroit so going without Hughes against both the Avs and the Sharks is probably a great opportunity for the new additions and the rest of the lineup to get used to playing the right way together without him.
 
It's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Hoglander (or Kuzmenko, or Sprong) and just hate him immediately. If he does anything wrong, he's benched. If he doesn't hustle or hit or try in the right way, he's benched. If he makes a defensive mistake or takes a badly timed penalty, he's benched.

But at the same time, it's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Juulsen on the fringe of the lineup and play the everlasting shit out of him despite him clearly being in over his head, f***ing up royal night after night, causing chaos wherever he goes, but the coach continues to love him because of "work ethic" and "sacrificing the body" and "keeping it simple" and whatnot.

It's just an absolutely batshit dichotomy that drives me nuts.
1. Yeah I do not understand the Juulsen fascination.
2. Kuzmenko and Sprong have now played their way off of two other teams.
3. I don't feel like Tocchet hates Hoglander. When Hoglander plays well, he gets more ice time. When he makes boneheaded plays, his ice time goes down. He got a run of games at the start of the year playing 12+ minutes per game because he showed up to camp in shape. Boudreau also had issues with Hogs' hockey IQ, which is why he got sent down that year.
 
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Surely Soucy on his off wing playing like shit is an improvement on Juulsen.
Wouldn’t be surprised if this is a management/coaching thing of “we want this guy to waive” “we want the cap space asap” thing.

If they were content waiting til the summer, which imo they should have been, i know tocchet is in love with not having defenders play their off hand but even in this case id assume he’d play soucy.
 
It's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Hoglander (or Kuzmenko, or Sprong) and just hate him immediately. If he does anything wrong, he's benched. If he doesn't hustle or hit or try in the right way, he's benched. If he makes a defensive mistake or takes a badly timed penalty, he's benched.

But at the same time, it's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Juulsen on the fringe of the lineup and play the everlasting shit out of him despite him clearly being in over his head, f***ing up royal night after night, causing chaos wherever he goes, but the coach continues to love him because of "work ethic" and "sacrificing the body" and "keeping it simple" and whatnot.

It's just an absolutely batshit dichotomy that drives me nuts.

It's got to be based on what he sees in practice and the games in terms of his pillars and non negotiables. It can be difficult to see the same things as a fan without knowing why and what he keeps making these decisions based on. In his defence we haven't really had any better options up to now. There is now a healthy Soucy, and Mancini, possibly sitting on the bench so a new evaluation is needing to take place.
 
For HFboards, I'm calling them Petey, EPD, and MPD. Simple.

Not looking good for tonight without Hughes and a Miller clone. Hope Sherwood and Joshua can help contain Big Mac.
 
It's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Hoglander (or Kuzmenko, or Sprong) and just hate him immediately. If he does anything wrong, he's benched. If he doesn't hustle or hit or try in the right way, he's benched. If he makes a defensive mistake or takes a badly timed penalty, he's benched.

But at the same time, it's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Juulsen on the fringe of the lineup and play the everlasting shit out of him despite him clearly being in over his head, f***ing up royal night after night, causing chaos wherever he goes, but the coach continues to love him because of "work ethic" and "sacrificing the body" and "keeping it simple" and whatnot.

It's just an absolutely batshit dichotomy that drives me nuts.
Who knows what's going on. It's indeed frustrating.

I did a fair amount of soccer coaching in the long ago. Some mistakes fell into a certain category where it felt like the player was essentially telling me to @#$% off. Something really simple to do, not requiring talent, not requiring a grasp of a complex system, just — "it's your job to cover the short man on the goal kick." The player doesn't do it. That's it; he sits.
 
It's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Hoglander (or Kuzmenko, or Sprong) and just hate him immediately. If he does anything wrong, he's benched. If he doesn't hustle or hit or try in the right way, he's benched. If he makes a defensive mistake or takes a badly timed penalty, he's benched.

But at the same time, it's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Juulsen on the fringe of the lineup and play the everlasting shit out of him despite him clearly being in over his head, f***ing up royal night after night, causing chaos wherever he goes, but the coach continues to love him because of "work ethic" and "sacrificing the body" and "keeping it simple" and whatnot.

It's just an absolutely batshit dichotomy that drives me nuts.
Translation: Juulsen, kindly f*** off, thank you.
 
It's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Hoglander (or Kuzmenko, or Sprong) and just hate him immediately. If he does anything wrong, he's benched. If he doesn't hustle or hit or try in the right way, he's benched. If he makes a defensive mistake or takes a badly timed penalty, he's benched.

But at the same time, it's interesting how a coach - in this case Tocchet - can identify a guy like Juulsen on the fringe of the lineup and play the everlasting shit out of him despite him clearly being in over his head, f***ing up royal night after night, causing chaos wherever he goes, but the coach continues to love him because of "work ethic" and "sacrificing the body" and "keeping it simple" and whatnot.

It's just an absolutely batshit dichotomy that drives me nuts.

I agree on Juulsen obviously.

But Hoglander got himself into exactly this position with both Green and Boudreau also.

He'd had basically two total disaster years under those two guys, was a healthy scratch and then sent to the AHL ... and then Tocchet is the guy who showed confidence in him and who Hoglander turned around under for his 24-goal season.

Then his play went to shit again.

Hoglander's treatment is on Hoglander, not Tocchet. He's a dumb player. He's bad defensively. He takes a ton of stupid penalties.
 
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Today’s Skate
  • Saw good energy today; sticking to their identity
  • Thought they played a solid game against Detroit and a half-decent game against Dallas
Hughes
  • Not going to play tonight
  • Hughes wants to gut everything out but the right move is to rest him
  • Day-to-day
  • Is a new injury
  • Has made a slight improvement since first getting hurt
  • Haven’t talked about the 4 Nations tournament
  • Give him an inch and he takes a mile, on the ice
  • Compares him to Connor McDavid and
Playing Without Hughes
  • Everyone needs to stick to their game
  • Would help if a few guys supply a little bit more offense
  • Can’t replace a guy like him
  • Anytime he can get rest, needs to take it
Starting Goalie
  • Demko starting
Breakouts
  • Have been better the last 2-3 weeks
  • Not giving up a lot of shots against but need to translate that to the offensive zone
Elias Petterson, Defenceman Extraordinaire
  • Big physical defenceman with a good first past
  • Has a really good shot
  • Calls him the “cycle buster”; goes flying into forecheckers like he doesn’t care; a competitive guy
  • Foote and Gonchar will really help him
  • Little things need to improve like keeping his stick on the puck, boxing out properly, etc.; these things will come
  • His skating ability, shot, competitiveness, and youth are hard to find
  • Not going to call him a prospect; trying to become an NHL defenceman for them
Anthem Singer
  • Did a terrific job; was awesome
  • Felt bad for the singer
Soucy
  • Have all been through what he is going through
  • Either needs a reset or a kick in the ass; felt he needed that
  • Might play tonight
Roster Communication with Allvin
  • Hard when you bring new players in; need to teach them the system and build chemistry
  • Thought the new players did a terrific job last game; all contributed and played very well
  • Wants high hockey IQ players, competitive, and fast players
  • Plenty of time to see where they are at
  • Allvin and Rutherford are always trying to improve the roster
  • Management asks him all the time what they need
Defensive Group
  • Wants to see the defence move the puck up quickly, join the rush, get shots through, and walk the blueline
  • Both Petterssons can do it
  • Haven’t even seen Mancini yet; thinks there’s big upside with him
Colorado Avalanche
  • Give Nathan Mackinnon an inch and he takes a mile
  • Compares him to Connor McDavid and how dangerous they are on the rush
  • When there’s an interior opening, he takes it; Canucks can learn from that
  • Mackinnon, McDavid, and Nikita Kucherov, the high-end players, attack the interior; they don't stay on the outside; have no fear
Stopping Hughes at the 4 Nations Tournament
  • Jokes that he won’t tell reporters how to stop him
Top-Line
  • Message is for them to attack and move their feet
  • If you have a guy one-on-one, take him; don’t have to defer
  • Wants to see them shoot the puck
  • Stop missing the net; Can’t always hit a pinpoint
 
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May as well give Hughes a break through the 4 nations, which I hope he will withdraw from now. Was looking forward to seeing how good are D looks now with both Marcus and Hughes in the line up.
 

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