Should Cronin be fired? Yay or Nay?

[eaterfan]

Myron Rolle was a safety who was a Rhodes scholar and became a neurosurgeon.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

lol the percentage of this poll is wild

So naturally he’s not fired

 

[TheGoodShepard1]

To answer the overarching question, yes, if for the simple reason that although this team admittedly has been better in transition over the past month or so, despite employing 2 or 3 different systems at this point, through 125 games, this team has no concept of how to work the puck into the middle of the ice in the offensive zone (short of Terry trying to dangle through 3 guys trying to get it there); if the perimeter is Pride Rock, the slot may as well be the Elephant Graveyard. The basic premise of what we do is try to win puck battles down low or below the goal line (apparently not enough because all of our best players are not fit to retrieve pucks or are not physically developed enough to outmuscle the opposition over a full 60 minutes), send the puck around the perimeter from one point to the other point, and blast away hoping for a tip or the occasional rebound if anyone even works their way to the front of the goal. Net result: we're usually one-and-done in the offensive zone and what we run is completely antithetical to Cronin's entire ethos as a head coach.

There's nothing even remotely close to some of the basic principles I see watching any other team play: no weave concepts up high, no subtle picks to create space, very little interchanging up high between forwards and defensemen to cause confusion (our guys essentially function as a 4th-man rover with no forward committing to cover the point; and this goes double for the PP). We may not have the horses that the other teams have, but it is inexcusable with the pedigree we've got up front to generate as little offense as we do night in and night out.

 

[ScarTroy]

I’m just tired of watching this system. The defense is better but still bleeds chances against. On offense once we pass the blue line it looks like a team that’s never played together once. While the team has technically improved, I just don’t think it’s enough to warrant keeping Cronin around during these critical years where we either leave the rebuild, or we continuously rebuild like Buffalo.

 

[Hey234]

The stats are clear:

GF - 32nd overall
GA - 13th overall
PP - 31st overall
PK - 28th overall
SA - 2nd overall
Shots - 21st overall

Offensively, they don't shoot enough and their power play is awful so they don't score enough goals. Defensively, 5v5 has given up less goals this season. However, they are hemorrhaging shots, awful on PK, and being buoyed by solid goaltending. It's a recipe for failure.

The improvement this season seems almost exclusively on the shoulders of a refocused Terry, matured LaCombe, additions of Dumoulin & Trouba, and incredible goaltending. They have slightly improved in one are in spite of Cronin. There is no way to justify how they are playing. The coach has not created a structure that is effective after 3 tries in 1.5 years. It's time, fire Cronin.

Edit: added Dumoulin and Trouba

 

[eaterfan]

The stats are clear:

GF - 32nd overall
GA - 13th overall
PP - 31st overall
PK - 28th overall
SA - 2nd overall
Shots - 21st overall

Offensively, they don't shoot enough and their power play is awful so they don't score enough goals. Defensively, 5v5 has given up less goals this season. However, they are hemorrhaging shots, awful on PK, and being buoyed by solid goaltending. It's a recipe for failure.

The improvement this season seems almost exclusively on the shoulders of a refocused Terry, matured LaCombe, additions of Dumoulin & Trouba, and incredible goaltending. They have slightly improved in one are in spite of Cronin. There is no way to justify how they are playing. The coach has not created a structure that is effective after 3 tries in 1.5 years. It's time, fire Cronin.

Edit: added Dumoulin and Trouba

The team has been just as bad since the Trouba trade. I didn't think it's fair to say he's part of the improvement. The team looks worse with them on the ice now. And it's taking away playing time from young guys who need it.

All that is another strike against Cronin.

 

[KelVarnsen]

Sticky this thread up! Nice.

And deserved. He gotta go.

 

[HanSolo]

The team has been just as bad since the Trouba trade. I didn't think it's fair to say he's part of the improvement. The team looks worse with them on the ice now. And it's taking away playing time from young guys who need it.

All that is another strike against Cronin.

Well no I can't agree with this entirely and I have a first class seat on the fire Cronin train. After the Fowler trade we did have that run of games where the team genuinely and legitimately played better hockey between both the offense and defense. I don't know if it was a product of Trouba stepping up as a leader in the room, or fear of a trade in the room, or Cronin actually breaking through and motivating the team or some combo of the three, but the team played much better hockey than we've seen since the Calgary game. Whatever the source, the effect seems to have worn off and we're just left with memories of how well this team can, but usually, doesn't play and most of those performances were against really good teams.

I think what should've been fireable after this stretch was how the Duck put up a horror show of a performance against St. Louis Thursday and with a day off between games, time to make adjustments and work on problem areas in practice, the Ducks showed up to the game against Philly, a game where they knew their opponent would be fired up by the crowd over off ice drama, and they played an even worse game. Arguably their worst of the entire season and got shut out by one of the worst goalies in the NHL. After all that Cronin tells Derek Lee that there's no alternative formulas to produce offense and increase scoring other than shooting the puck more and winning more battles.

I mean to me, I've said it a number of times he should have been fired after admitting to the public that for the last 20 games of the season last year he stopped coaching to watch and learn from what would happen if the players were left to coach themselves. That's basically a quarter of a season with young prospects still developing and needing training and guidance that they were just left to figure it out on their own. That to me is a fireable offense on any team, but especially a developing team like ours. But maybe my standard for coaching in this league and what I expect from men with the job is too high. We're at the quarter mark and our coach is saying there's nothing he can do as coach to improve the offensive anemia this team has shown halfway through a season, it's on the players to just shoot the puck more.

I mean that is so incandescently stupid. They're struggling to shoot the puck because the offensive systems in place or "the formula" is not conducive to offensive success in this league and/or the team is not adequately prepared to execute at a high level though game prep in practice and you have the players still telling the media that the players feel disconnected with each other and we're 44 GAMES IN. That's squarely in the purview of the coaching staff.

There aren't many people still defending Cronin but it is baffling to me that there's anyone still doing it. He has to go. He's already done enough damage to this team's culture and the development of its youth.