Jared Bednar & Co. Discussion Thread

[SirLoinOfCloth]

Well - we're not talking about the 1976 Flyers versus the Red Army and the "Broad Street Bullies." Which, by the way, was the most thrilling five minute start to any hockey game I've ever seen. Every Russian was hit on every play whether it was a the middle of the ice or heaven forbid, near the boards where they were crucified. I digress.

Bedsy is very structured. This can be good and bad. (I wonder if Jared has the days of the week stitched on his underwear?) Being physical is a mindset. It means checking hard so a player thinks twice about nonchalantly going into the corner and leisurely passing it out of their "D" zone. The truly great teams play with physicality, skill and finesse. They battle for every inch of the ice and use their bodies in front of the net and wear an opponent down. For too long, Joe Sakic downplayed questions about the Avs not having enough toughness and grit. And I'm a huge Sakic fan so let's get that out of the way.

A physical hockey team will beat a finesse team nine times out of ten. Especially in the playoffs. No one is asking for wild head hunting. But to forget about hitting or that hockey is a contact sport (unlike basketball - by definition, but the NBA lets you play with your hands, feet, arms, elbows and does more "checking" than some NHL teams - I digress again) severely lessens your chance of winning the Stanley Cup.

It is interesting that two of the teams people here fear the most in the playoffs - Stars and Oilers, are both below the Avs in terms of Hits/60.

Our hits per game is 10 below that of Florida (#1) which is significant, but to the teams in the west that we are in competition with:

Oilers and Stars ~4 less per game
Vegas about the same as us
Jets and Wild ~1 more per game

And of the top 10 teams in Hits/60, 6 are not in the playoffs right now, and 1 is a wildcard team.

I think Bednar's distaste for hitting is way overblown here. Sure, we're in the bottom quarter of teams, but the delta isn't that significant from most of the other playoff teams, Florida excepted.

 

[avsfan2189]

We give the coaching staff shit when it comes to our special teams when its cold,

so I'm going to show some love to the coaching staff for the PP and PK

in the last 3 months Avs PK is top 5:

Avs PP is also red hot in the last 2 months:

If you go by really recent as in the last month Avs are:

4th in PP & 12th in PK

Gotta give credit where credit's due, especially if we blame them for when it's cold and underperforming

This team was 9-9 in November and 16-13 in December and the team's now

Jared & co. deserves some credit here too even warts n all in some personel decisions and ice time allocations.

only losing 11 more times in regulation since December 7th is unreal

 

[Foppa2118]

Weird that for a guy like DeBoer, who supposedly out coaches Bednar all the time, he seemed to have no answer for the Avs, with shots 34-15 with six minutes left in the third, and his team highly motivated to win.

Maybe there were other reasons for some of those previous losses?

 

[flyfysher]

Reading some of these posts show you how quickly things change. Dump Bednar.

 

[forsbergavs32]

Reading some of these posts show you how quickly things change. Dump Bednar.

If they end up losing this series, or hell even if they win this one and lose next round, he needs to go. I'm thankful for the Cup win but his head scratching decisions are just enough and its probably time for a new voice.

 

[Pokecheque]

Again, if they lose this series I will be shocked beyond belief if he isn’t gone.

If by chance the Avs come back and win it (which I don’t anticipate) then I think DeBoer gets the boot.

 

[flyfysher]

If they end up losing this series, or hell even if they win this one and lose next round, he needs to go. I'm thankful for the Cup win but his head scratching decisions are just enough and its probably time for a new voice.

I’ll always be grateful that he coached the team to the SC championship He was the right coach for the time. But I think his time is now past.

No one can defend the line ups he has been icing. From the TDL, he should have been identifying what worked and then drilling the players. Instead we look like the Keystone Cops. If you can’t motivate a team then you have lost the room and it’s time to go.

 

[Tommy Shelby]

He's done.

His system doesn't work anymore.

If he doesn't have an unrealistically deep team, he plays the 4th line 5 minutes a game, and the top line 25+ minutes.
If the opposition clogs up the ice, he has no answer to it.
If the opposition pressures the boards near our blueline, all they have to do is dump it in, wait there, and sure enough our defensemen will send the puck there and have it intercepted. Also no answer to this.

The PP is an absolute embarrassment and has been for a lot of the season. The opposition simply needs to keep sticks in the middle of their box and sure enough, one of MacK, Necas or Drouin will try and force the puck through 4 sticks and have it intercepted.
Then on the flipside, the PK does an awful job at covering the slot and teams exploit this

His teams only look dominant when the other team tries to skate with them. That's where the success to his style lies, he's not a tactician or good at adjustments, never has been and most likely never will be

 

[Pokecheque]

If indeed this is the end, there are a couple things about Bednar's system that I hope leave with him.

1. He doesn't emphasize net-front presence. So many times I see a centering feed or a rebound head to the slot area...and no one is there. I think he pushes for motion across the net area, but he likes his forwards near the posts. Really makes it hard for them to make adjustments when the other team takes away ice and doesn't let them get away with longer shots and they have to get those greasy goals. They just don't seem to know how to scrum in front of the net, and they are woefully inept when it comes to deflections. Even without Pavelski, the Stars are 10X better at it, just look at how Benn scored their first goal last night. That's a set play they practice. The only time I heard of an Avs player practice deflections, it was Landeskog doing it on his own time.

2. The penalty kill system has always been horrid. It only works when the goalie is completely on his game, and/or there are forwards like Helm who just know how to get sticks in lanes and create turnovers. Otherwise it's just them hanging on for dear life and hoping they get lucky. It's always confounded me how Bednar emphasizes skating skating SKATING everywhere else and in every other situation, but he insists on the least aggressive penalty kill. The switch to the diamond formation certainly helped matters but not nearly enough.

I just hope whoever they get isn't some old-school stooge. I have no wish to see an Avs team try and emulate what teams like Dallas do, they need a coach who knows how to neutralize that sort of system.