If Leafs do make a coaching change, whose your guy?

[stickty111]

Let me start by saying, we have bigger issues than the coach on this team, and I don't think firing Keefe will make a difference, but at the same time, thats the only move we can make, and he has overstayed his welcome.
So who would you pick?

Berube seems to be a popular answer especially considering his comments, but according to Blues fans, here is his make up. Good with motivating, but tactically he isn't a good coach.

I'm not mentioning Joel Q because I doubt MLSE goes anywhere near him.

Click to read more...

 

[Racer88]

Berube

 

[Raging Bull]

Babcock

 

[al secord]

This thread is new, refreshing and exciting.

 

[ACC1224]

This thread is new, refreshing and exciting.

Whose the Leafs Next Coach

This one is better.

 

[keonsbitterness]

Matthews, Marner & Nylander

 

[Raging Bull]

Matthews, Marner & Nylander

I like this too. Do we even need a coach?

 

[Metroid]

(no order) just 3 tiers of want to not want.
Atleast imo. Who f*** knows if that'll change anything, but at this point, doubt it'll hurt.

Berube
Evason
Gallant
--------------
Boudreau
Boucher
------------------
Woodcroft


Would be my tiers

 

[GoonieFace]

Honest question, are you like 7 years old?

 

[Suntouchable13]

If the goal was actually the SC, they would have fired Keefe a long time ago. I have a bad feeling Shanny is just hiring yes men. MLSE just wants to make money off Willy, Marner, and Matthews. They don't care about a cup.

 

[PromisedLand]

IMHO doing any significant change should wait till Tavares is off the cap. JT at 11 AAV is just getting worse game by game. Dude can't keep up with the pace of the game and cannot make his linemates productive.

Keefe should get the boot; but probably a good idea to let him be a quasi-tank commander for this season.

I mean seriously even if Leafs made the coaching change now; what do we expect Leafs to acheieve in the playoffs? I don't want Treliving to mortgage future this season again after Dubas absolutely screwed the Leafs.

Gotta be prudent and take a bit of a patient approach here. If they make playoffs; let them play as is without much help; lets see if they've learned from past 7 years; until they show that they've taken that next step I am not going to be willing to invest significantly or mortgage the future at least until Tavares is off the cap.

Keefe is most definitely an issue but so are the players. These are the same guys that could potentially have tuned out 2 coaches without any significant playoff experience. Gotta wait and see IMO.

EDIT:
forgot to add just for personal reasons I would LOVE to see Boudreau behind Leafs bench for at least one season if at all. Dude is a Leafs homer and I love him!

 

[ACC1224]

If the goal was actually the SC, they would have fired Keefe a long time ago. I have a bad feeling Shanny is just hiring yes men. MLSE just wants to make money off Willy, Marner, and Matthews. They don't care about a cup.

Why wouldn't they 'care about a cup'?
That's always made no sense to me.

 

[stickty111]

(no order) just 3 tiers of want to not want.
Atleast imo. Who f*** knows if that'll change anything, but at this point, doubt it'll hurt.

Berube
Evason
Gallant
--------------
Boudreau
Boucher
------------------
Woodcroft


Would be my tiers

Close to mine. I think I want a coach whose a good mix of hard nosed, tactically. Gallant's issues were he's too nice. These guys got their coach, it didn't work so.lets now get someone who won't baby them around.
In that case, Berube, Evason and Boudreau seem like the best options.
If you just want a tactical coach, Woodcroft may be the best from all of them.

It's close but I choose Woodcroft all though I don't mind the other three

 

[GoonieFace]

Why wouldn't they 'care about a cup'?
That's always made no sense to me.

There’s no doubt they care, why wouldn’t they. But it also seems they like PR angles as well, bring home local boy Tavares, squeaky clean “elite” players, which may hamper that pursuit

 

[stickty111]

IMHO doing any significant change should wait till Tavares is off the cap. JT at 11 AAV is just getting worse game by game. Dude can't keep up with the pace of the game and cannot make his linemates productive.

Keefe should get the boot; but probably a good idea to let him be a quasi-tank commander for this season.

I mean seriously even if Leafs made the coaching change now; what do we expect Leafs to acheieve in the playoffs? I don't want Treliving to mortgage future this season again after Dubas absolutely screwed the Leafs.

Gotta be prudent and take a bit of a patient approach here. If they make playoffs; let them play as is without much help; lets see if they've learned from past 7 years; until they show that they've taken that next step I am not going to be willing to invest significantly or mortgage the future at least until Tavares is off the cap.

Keefe is most definitely an issue but so are the players. These are the same guys that could potentially have tuned out 2 coaches without any significant playoff experience. Gotta wait and see IMO.

EDIT:
forgot to add just for personal reasons I would LOVE to see Boudreau behind Leafs bench for at least one season if at all. Dude is a Leafs homer and I love him!

Thats why I think it's clear Keefe isn't the major issue. He is an issue and should be let go but we need a major core change too.
Maybe Dubas can help us out and fire Sullivan?

 

[Amadeus]

Craig Berube is logical. He's won before and he'll hold the players accountable but I have no issues with Keefe. He's always struck the right balance with this core.

 

[CDN24]

This team is too SoFF, teach em some rispeck.

 

[leafsfan5]

Why wouldn't they 'care about a cup'?
That's always made no sense to me.

They definitely care about a cup and the value it would bring, but it's also possible they realize they have a huge cash cow with this core along with having a somewhat decent chance to win something.

So rather than taking a risk by breaking apart the cash cow to maybe - and it's a big maybe - increase their odds of winning, they'll run with the status quo and print money while hoping the stars align for a magical run one of these years.

At the end of the day MLSE wants money, but who knows what they think is the best way to get it. All just guesses

 

[WTFMAN99]

Let me start by saying, we have bigger issues than the coach on this team, and I don't think firing Keefe will make a difference, but at the same time, thats the only move we can make, and he has overstayed his welcome.
So who would you pick?

Berube seems to be a popular answer especially considering his comments, but according to Blues fans, here is his make up. Good with motivating, but tactically he isn't a good coach.

I'm not mentioning Joel Q because I doubt MLSE goes anywhere near him.

I read about your coach Q comments, if we had to fire Keefe today, he's probably my guy, but I don't think he got re-instated.

The other guys don't interest me enough currently.

I genuinely believe that Sullivan is going to be fired by Pittsburgh by the end of the year and he's my top choice.

So for this year it's either Boucher as interim or you could put one of those other guys in as interim but no promises of it carrying forward after this year.

 

[Niagara Bill]

Craig Berube is logical. He's won before and he'll hold the players accountable but I have no issues with Keefe. He's always struck the right balance with this core.

You mean Keefe had them ready for good teams and they sank against bad teams Well that has changed.
Keefe is a fine coach, but the players don't hear him anymore. If they cared about winning the players would get Keefe fired like they did BABS..but they are comfortable and in control.

 

[Wiseguys]

Joe Pesce, Luca Brasi as the assistant

 

[TMLegend]

Someone like Tortorella would have been perfect. A demanding, detail oriented coach who demands an honest effort otherwise you will find yourself on the outs sooner rather than later.

Frankly, I'm not sure the Leafs organization will ever bring in someone like that after what happened with Babcock. They'll likely replace Keefe with another players coach when the time arrives.

 

[Arzak]

Someone like Tortorella would have been perfect. A demanding, detail oriented coach who demands an honest effort otherwise you will find yourself on the outs sooner rather than later.

Frankly, I'm not sure the Leafs organization will ever bring in someone like that after what happened with Babcock. They'll likely replace Keefe with another players coach when the time arrives.

This.

Keefe is not working and anyone will be an upgrade. At the same time, we can't get a coach that would be in any way paradigm shift demanding.

On the other hand, we paid enough to hire the best coach regardless of anyone's feelings. At least I think so.

Meanwhile in reality we'll get Keefe 2.0 like you mentioned.

 

[PromisedLand]

Thats why I think it's clear Keefe isn't the major issue. He is an issue and should be let go but we need a major core change too.
Maybe Dubas can help us out and fire Sullivan?

Dubas handcuffed the Leafs and Keefe. Undoing Dubas' garbage will take time. Personally don't care what dubas does. Before a coach can do anything, players have to take accountability themselves i.e. undo dubas' entitled culture.

time to see what this team does when faced with adversity. Would be pretty telling. Nylander is now a "signed" asset that can still be flipped if needed. All options are on the table.

Keefe is most definitely an issue. simple example: he never broke matthews-marner in the playoffs and continued to lose series. The one time he broke them against tampa leafs won the series. And then he went back to the duo against panthers and continued to lose. Thats not a coach that can game plan or coach on the fly.

 

[Arzak]

I don't know how we could do it ( pay 1st I guess ..), but Bruce Cassidy.

We should get him the moment Bruins fired him