What if the source of the Elvis conflict is {dramatic music} still on the team but injured and not in the locker room? {more dramatic music}
Porty promotes Porty. I believe pictures of Elvis hanging out with other guys over the years more than I believe Porty. Was there a conflict with management? dYes, but I can count several guys who had problems with a management.
Anyway, the discussion is pointless unless we have actual guys from the locker room participate. New management and a new coach seem to be exactly what this team needed. Elvis has played the best 6 quarters in a row that he has played in years. I am just going to be happy.
I've stayed somewhat quiet on the Elvis debate, but your post has me coming out of the woodwork. Not in disagreement just that it triggered me about Elvis and the coaching difference. EDIT - this turned into a rant about the prior FO and HC than I intended! TL;DR, but I left it all here.
If Elvis was a problem for the room generally, as suggested by Porty and MM, then the two people not currently in the room and most likely to be irritated by Elvis last season would have been Jenner as C and/or HCPV. And maybe Z, who is still in the room. Hell, they were also irritated by other things (Laine, losing, JK, losing, PV, losing).
My take is that "IF" there was wide-spread discord within the room last season specifically regarding Elvis, then Jenner and Z took up the sword, but with encouragement from GMJK and HCPV to beat that drum. My "guess" is that Elvis probably spouted off about the lack of D structure, lack of D support, something about coaching and the D generally - and that didn't sit well with anyone. And I agree that should not have sat well. In last year's environment, hell yes Elvis was a handful. He can be a handful in the best of times. However, publicly "demoting" Elvis to 3rd goalie last January based on off-ice issues, not on-ice performance, was a bonehead move - it was seen as embarrassing and undeserved, and both were fairly accurate reads. When/if there is discord from a player about coaching/systems, you don't demote and send "messages" through the media, no matter how immature the player may be. You sit all the parties down and you work it out. If it doesn't work out and the damage is that extreme, you send to the AHL, or you trade him (I know, not tradeable) or buy him out (not last year based on numbers). That's not what PV and/or JK did - they (or one of them) instead wanted to "send the message" that they were in charge and publicly demoted him behind 2 goalies at a time when his play was fine. All goalies are head cases to some extent. What you do to get a 21-year old forward's attention for repeatedly not playing D (a healthy scratch with video reinforcement) is not what you necessarily do with a goalie (a 3-week demotion, not one game) when that G happens to be stopping pucks relatively well under the team's overall circumstances. Elvis had been playing OK, borderline OK+ leading up to the demotion announced by GMJK and HCPV. They gave similar yo-yo treatment to Jiricek - never a clear consistent professional message, but instead messaging through TOI and through the media. Immature leadership imo.
No doubt that Elvis needs more than a normal share of direct leadership and coddling than most players - but that is true for several stellar players in the NHL. Every team has some of that, the better teams/coaches know how to adapt and capitalize on that. Assuming that Elvis questioned coaching/systems, that was not going to be tolerated last year for a second, because PV could not afford any questioning because he himself knew he was flailing; he had no buy-in from the room generally and was losing the room. JK suspected he himself was a short-timer. Mature (confident) coaches/GMs know that while the overal treatment of the TEAM needs to be consistent, the amount of time/effort needed with, and the tailoring of messages to, individual players will vary from player to player, and even from month-to-month. Even Torts got that part right- especially with goalies.
My opinion is that GMJK was never able to see that players were individuals with regard to any player - to him players had x talent/potential from a scouting perspective and otherwise you plugged those talents/potential into a team of interchangeable parts. From his perspective, every player needed to have Boone Jenner's attitude/approach. That is simply not the real world. My opinion is that HCPV was a rookie coach in way over his head and that became obvious very early in the season - PV's actions all year were more about defending his own hiring from the first minute on the job than they were true leadership. He had started to lose the entire team so felt he had to look strong in dealing with Elvis. That last statement is much more on GMJK in hiring PV than it is on PV himself. PV simply wasn't ready and the Babcock fiasco thrust it on him. Maybe PV will be a great HC someday; I know there will be some disagreement, but PV was horrendous last year, regardless of the circumstances. And if the choice of PV somehow is seen as excused by the timing of the Babcock fiasco, I disagree with that excuse - that was on GMJK making the wrong choice of Babcock in the first place. It was past time for GMJK to go elsewhere, and some of the Elvis issues got caught up in the FO/Coaching fiasco.
Counter that with a guaranteed "fresh start" from GMDW and from HCDE as to EVERY player - they didn't even want to discuss or view last year's performances. I would venture to say that the room was encouraged to do, and from what we see, has done, the same thing. I like Porty's writing, but Porty seems stuck on last year's targeting of Elvis and wanting to circle back to that whenever an Elvis sighting occurs. Not saying Elvis doesn't still have issues, what goalie doesn't. Elvis certainly could use more endearing terms than cursing, calling attention to himself, etc... But the only action out-of-line since the fresh start appears to be the overly-dramatic and admittedly selfish reaction to losing the shutout in the last seconds. Usually it would be the player who took the penalty and the PK'ers who would be pissed and apologizing to Elvis, but Elvis didn't give them a chance. I agree Elvis was out of line, and yet I also understand Elvis' reaction - I'd want the shutout too, especially after last season's escapades/blaming and also coming back from whatever injury ailed him. HCDE nipped Elvis' lack of focus solely on TEAM result IMMEDIATELY (and to a certain extent publicly to reinforce the message to the ENTIRE ROOM, in response to Elvis' very public display on the ice). The feedback was based on Elvis' specific conduct that evening. The feedback was clear, it was not degrading, it was given IMMEDIATELY that night and reinforced the very next morning. Not a benching - a coaching. That is what good feedback to a player looks like. And Elvis got the net the very next game and capitalized on it. I'd say that's good player response to good feedback. He still can learn more. How that plays out from here, who knows.
Sorry for the rant. Not an Elvis apologist, he has been less than stellar for stretches. Not sure he is an answer to the G position but for this season, yes he is part of the answer. No doubt he has brought a lot of criticism upon himself at times. But he's gotten ZERO help from the last 3 seasons of coaching (Larsen's laissez-faire and PV's reactionary coaching) - and skaters got that same ZERO help from coaching.
HCDE may not be a HofF coach. He may or may not be the coach to get you a Stanley Cup. But he is clearly head and shoulders above the last 3 years coaching at implementing a system in the first 9 games of a season and in dealing with professional hockey players and their egos. Hopefully, he's just as adept at holding players accountable in a professional way, and keeping the room for an entire 82-game season. Baby steps, but really good baby steps.
Rant over.
