Player Discussion Leo Carlsson

[Deuce22]

In a way, it's similar to Mac. Mac's got soft, quick hands and a booming shot. He's one of the few that can pot severe angle shots on the PP, but PP coach Clune loves putting Mac in front of the net. We've seen recently that Mac can snipe on break aways, but also when crashing the net, he has quick processing with his soft hands to maneuver around a goalie to pot goals.

We're pigeon-holing our offensive players to play only one way instead of having a variety of ways to score. Mac helped Vatrano and Strome score a lot of goals in transition than dump & chance. Why Cronin moved Mac away from Vatrano and Strome to make Strome a center feels derelict to the youth growth of playing center, either for Mac or Zegras or both!

This kind of decision making is consistent with Cronin, though. He stocks the PK with exclusively veterans, even though it isn't good. The PP that gets the most time is the one with Stome, Vatrano, and Killorn. The D rotation only scratches our young D, never the vets. He benches Zellweger, Mintyuov, and Helleson at the end of periods or at the end of games when Ducks have the lead. When Verbeek decides that the young players need to take on more responsibility, Cronin can't be the coach.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

This kind of decision making is consistent with Cronin, though. He stocks the PK with exclusively veterans, even though it isn't good. The PP that gets the most time is the one with Stome, Vatrano, and Killorn. The D rotation only scratches our young D, never the vets. He benches Zellweger, Mintyuov, and Helleson at the end of periods or at the end of games when Ducks have the lead. When Verbeek decides that the young players need to take on more responsibility, Cronin can't be the coach.

I actually don't mind shortening the bench at the end of games with our youths. We see that LaCombe has earned the trust to close out games and that's how it should be. Plus, it's difficult to argue against going 21-0-2 when trying to secure a lead.

Z and Drysdale were held out at the end of close games under Eakins in 2021-22 season because they kept screwing up at the end of games that lead to blowing a lead or a loss. The moment Eakins decided to shorten the bench, Anaheim went on an eight-game winning streak. That was a practical example to Z and Drysdale of the level of play needed to pull out wins or losing. If the youths want to close out games, then they need to raise their game play even higher throughout the whole game.

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As for special teams, that isn't Cronin's responsibility. Those are Clune's (PP coach) and Thompson's (PK coach) responsibilities.

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

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As for special teams, that isn't Cronin's responsibility. Those are Clune's (PP coach) and Thompson's (PK coach) responsibilities.

I'm going to disagree. Cronin is as responsible for his underlings as Verbeek is for Cronin. If the results aren't being achieved it's his job to step in and influence how the special teams are being run. "Not my job" isn't an acceptable answer any more than Verbeek can say that about Cronin's results.

 

[Deuce22]

I actually don't mind shortening the bench at the end of games with our youths. We see that LaCombe has earned the trust to close out games and that's how it should be. Plus, it's difficult to argue against going 21-0-2 when trying to secure a lead.

Z and Drysdale were held out at the end of close games under Eakins in 2021-22 season because they kept screwing up at the end of games that lead to blowing a lead or a loss. The moment Eakins decided to shorten the bench, Anaheim went on an eight-game winning streak. That was a practical example to Z and Drysdale of the level of play needed to pull out wins or losing. If the youths want to close out games, then they need to raise their game play even higher throughout the whole game.

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As for special teams, that isn't Cronin's responsibility. Those are Clune's (PP coach) and Thompson's (PK coach) responsibilities.

If winning games (by trusting vets in key situations) is the priority, I would ask why? Ducks aren’t making the playoffs and are in a rebuilding year. LaCombe was given the chance to earn trust and took advantage. Others won’t get to that point until they are allowed to play in those situations.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

I'm going to disagree. Cronin is as responsible for his underlings as Verbeek is for Cronin. If the results aren't being achieved it's his job to step in and influence how the special teams are being run. "Not my job" isn't an acceptable answer any more than Verbeek can say that about Cronin's results.

The head coach is in charge of ES play, which is usually most of the game. The PP and PK are specialty unit that represent a minority part of the game. If the head coach can coach all aspects of the game (ES, PP, and PK), then why the need for actual PP and PK coaches? Time. There isn't enough time for the head coach to cover all three parts of game.

It was GM Murray's job to find the PP and PK coaches. This scenario was clearly identified during the Murray-Eakins era. In 2020-21, Eakins took over the PP unit halfway through the season, but he could not do both the ES and PP well. Then Murray went out and did something different that off-season. Murray hired two PP coaches and just the standard one PK coach. The PP coaches were Geoff Ward and Newell Brown. The PK coach was Stothers. We now know that it was Ward who was the mastermind of the PP unit.

The actual production for the 2021-22 season was much higher for the PP and PK before the Verbeekening happened.

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Cronin isn't in charge of hiring the PP or PK coaches. That is Verbeek's responsibility. We have a third assistant coach in Tim Army, but he does more individualize coaching than scheme coaching, apparently.

In all of our games, it's the ES game that doesn't fail us. Although our goalies do stand on their heads, they don't stand on their heads when on the PK. What Cronin does as ES is actually great when he has the goal support of 3-goals or more because we have a record of 21-0-2 (44 pts) when scoring 3-goals or more. Cronin is a defensive-minded head coach and doesn't have enough time to take over the PK unit. We can look at the 2020-21 PP% as proof when a head coach eventually takes over the PP unit, it cannot improve.

Currently, our PP is ranked 31st with a 12.50% efficiency rating. The PK unit is ranked 27th with a 74.15% efficiency rating. Clearly, Verbeek has failed in acquiring assistant coaches that could improve the PP and PK efficiencies.

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

The head coach is in charge of ES play, which is usually most of the game. The PP and PK are specialty unit that represent a minority part of the game. If the head coach can coach all aspects of the game (ES, PP, and PK), then why the need for actual PP and PK coaches? Time. There isn't enough time for the head coach to cover all three parts of game.

If you're talking about making changes during the game I have no quarrel with that. But in the full 1.5 years Cronin has been here our special teams have been anything but special even with changes in coaches. The results have been abysmal and it is Cronin's job to work with his coaches to come up with ways to make them better.

We may not have the best special teams coaches in the league, but the head coach has to get involved in trying to improve them. It IS part of his job.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

If winning games (by trusting vets in key situations) is the priority, I would ask why? Ducks aren’t making the playoffs and are in a rebuilding year. LaCombe was given the chance to earn trust and took advantage. Others won’t get to that point until they are allowed to play in those situations.

Actually, LaCombe earned that trust prior to the end of games. He was also put into a rotation to start the season. All of our youth D have closed out games to start the season, but it's a recent development to close out games with our Vets + LaCombe.

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Early Season

We see LaCombe having the fewest ATOI among the youth D because the team was bringing LaCombe along slowly after being sick for over a week.

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Recent

Things have drastically changed since the start of the season. Zellweger is more sheltered (OZ Start%) as a top-4D and Minty has struggled to play defense. The fact that Helleson's CF% is better than Minty's CF% should speak volumes. But Helleson is also sheltered (3rd pairing TOI), though his DZ Start% is similar to Minty's.

With the addition of Trouba, there is a better balance of LD/RD pairings. Before Trouba, we had LD Fowler. Gudas, Trouba, and Dumo have the experience while LaCombe's has shown the capacity to handle defensive responsibilities.

Right now, Minty and Zell need to show better defensive responsibilities in order to earn to close out a game. With Helleson, probably more game experience, but I'd rather put him in at the end of games to secure a win than Minty or Zell.

We can develop our youths while also instilling a high standard in order to close out games. This is a normal thing as we have witnessed it under both Eakins and Cronin.

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OT time

Lost in all this is the fact that when it does go to OT, then that is when our youth D gets implement over the vets. I witnessed the rotation of LaCombe and Zell for OT in one of our recent games. OT is more pond hockey than a structured game. Both LaCombe and Zell are our fastest d-men skaters. I can see Minty in for Zell too.

This reminds me of the 2022-23 season. We just needed to get to OT to deliver wins. Our team roster sucked as a whole, but once in OT, then our top-end guys matched well with the opponent's top-end guys. Our top-end guys were our youth. Over 60% of our points share was generated in 1-goal games that season: 14-7-12 (40 points).

 

[Hockey Duckie]

If you're talking about making changes during the game I have no quarrel with that. But in the full 1.5 years Cronin has been here our special teams have been anything but special even with changes in coaches. The results have been abysmal and it is Cronin's job to work with his coaches to come up with ways to make them better.

We may not have the best special teams coaches in the league, but the head coach has to get involved in trying to improve them. It IS part of his job.

No.

I already showed you Eakins' first three seasons as head coach in Murray's rebuild. Murray admitted it is his fault for not getting better coaching talent to support Eakins. And when Eakins did take over the PP, it didn't help improve the PP at all in 2020-21, despite Eakins being an offensive-minded coach. Please note that it took TWO PP coaches to vastly improve our PP efficiency for the 2021-22 season. This is the second post of me telling you this.

In 2022-23, I said PP coach Brown was deplorable at his job, but Verbeek kept him for 2023-24.

In 2024-25, Verbeek went younger in Clune for the PP to help communicate with the youths better. No idea when Army was added, but he doesn't help on the PP, he's more of an individual coach.

 

[Leonardo87]

I still think everything is tied to the poor efficient PP. It’s called a power kill for a reason, it frustrates players, lowers players confidence along with momentum in a game .

The Killorn thing is not because Killorn has been bad at all, he just doesn’t gel with Leo. In fact they probably both have hurt eachother’s production.

Honestly, After what Cronin and Verbeek said, that individual point production is not a concern this season, why should we even stress about it if the coaching is not going to try to help him there where he is struggling.

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

No.

Yes.

Verbeek can definitely share some blame but the HC can't simply say...I didn't hire them, it's not my job to help them.