The Jarmo Thread

[Crede777]

Since 2012 this team is 22nd in the league in points %.

If ownership was going to fire them because of last season, then the time to do that would have been at the end of the season. You don't let someone you're about to fire hire a new coach.

It's clear that ownership is giving Jarmo a second chance at building a team. He built one from 2013-2020 and we saw that he was able to build one that was competitive. Unfortunately it got dismantled by players who decided to pursue their own interests.

So he's getting a second shot to build a team essentially beginning in 2020. He should be judged based on how this new core performs. Last season was a massive disappointment but the core wasn't a finished product yet. I would say as of this season the core should be deemed complete and we should start seeing improvement again as they progress towards being a playoff team and hopefully more. But if there's a step back again, then Jarmo should probably be removed.

 

[Jovavic]

JD and Jarmo must have something on McConnell, any reasonable organization would've canned them both

 

[DarkandStormy]

Uh, isn't it a reflection of the culture you've built the last 10 years?

 

[Monk]

If we're going to get any semblance of the "real story" it's probably gonna be now, from one of the players.

EDIT: aaaaand the stream just died. This better be temporary.

EDIT2: It's not. WTF? Why

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

To the sub-discussion on ownership:

JD - "We immediately met with our group and our ownership... through Mike Priest."

 

[NotCommitted]

Uh, isn't it a reflection of the culture you've built the last 10 years?

It is, I guess on the positive side at least he acknowledges it. It's also somewhat built into the power dynamic between GM and players and competitiveness of pro sports - that's not an easy environment to create a culture where it's OK to have problems.

 

[aRussian]

Can’t watch any of the videos since I’m at work but a lot of the quotes by JD and Jarmo look more weasel-y than my ferrets used to be. They aren’t allowed to talk about accountability

 

[Cyclones Rock]

Wasn't Jarmo overseas during the interview process with Roy (and perhaps others)? He "zoomed" interviews. LOL

Scouring Europe for the second coming of Texier or allocating your time to securing the best coach for the team. Which would be the highest priority?

Appoint Flynn or McRae as as interim GM. Now.

Let the snake oil saleman PR clown JD go. Now.

Hire an outside firm to play a strong role in the next GM/Team President hiring and don't let Mike Priest have any say so in the process.

Or sell the bleeping team.

 

[OldGoaltender]

As a Browns fan for over 60 years this ownership reminds me of when Randy Lehner owned the Browns. It was more of a status symbol than anything else.

 

[LJ7]

Uh, isn't it a reflection of the culture you've built the last 10 years?

That's one part of the presser that I had no issue with. Jarmo was right, and that acknowledgment of power dynamics was honestly a good sign to me.

 

[majormajor]

I've not been a fan of Jarmo for a while and was disappointed we brought JD back after he left and was fired.
Now to me this reeks of a JD hire. Unfortunately Nash was also a proponent of the hire so his hands are bloody too.
This almost seems like where ownership needs to go the league and ask them for help in putting a new leadership team together. I don't think ownership knows who to hire nor do I think I want them to do so.

I don't know if it's a JD hire - the espn article (not the most reliable source) said that the driving force was Jarmo who has a 25 year connection with Babs.

 

[Marioesque]

I don't know if it's a JD hire - the espn article (not the most reliable source) said that the driving force was Jarmo who has a 25 year connection with Babs.

Yeah hard to know. JD was saying Babcock visited his house a few times before the hire so who knows how it went.

 

[CalBuckeyeRob]

Yeah hard to know. JD was saying Babcock visited his house a few times before the hire so who knows how it went.

Babcock probably went into JD's closet and bedroom drawers to see what kind of guy he would be to work for.

 

[squashmaple]

That's one part of the presser that I had no issue with. Jarmo was right, and that acknowledgment of power dynamics was honestly a good sign to me.

Agreed. I worked there for four years and Jarmo is utterly terrifying in person. I would go out of my way to avoid being in the same space as him, and I was in my late 20s and not connected to hockey ops at the time. Of course an 18yo who depends on him for job security is going to find him intimidating at best. Plus teenagers don't want to seem like tattle-tales.

Side note: JD despite seeming like twice Jarmo's size is not nearly so intimidating, although I would never call JD friendly. Torts always seemed to recognize me and would say hello even if there's no chance he knew my name or where in the building I worked, and that I appreciated.

 

[MoeBartoli]

I tend to believe that Jarmo and possibly JD will be gone - but not until seasons end. And I say that is the case only if the team fails to make or comes close to making the playoffs. If that happens the hour glass will be refilled and they will have more time.

Jarmo has shown he understands player talent and he has stocked the cupboard well. He’s less adept on the coaching front. Lars was a failure, Babs blew up like TNT and following the (possibly deleted for HFB) the Cap’n messages it is clear he didn’t cut bait with Torts when clearly Torts wanted out and he did damage by staying. Jarmo’s player evaluations may save him; if not his coaching hirings will doom him

 

[BluejacketNut]

the only reason to not firing them now if there is no future for them, is money. If you want to say is too close to the season start and the operations still need to run, why on earth would you want the lame ducks making any of those decisions? Last thing I want is JK handling another trade deadline or contract negotiations. I already wanted him gone after last season, now he can’t be gone fast enough

 

[cbjthrowaway]

the only reason to not firing them now if there is no future for them, is money. If you want to say is too close to the season start and the operations still need to run, why on earth would you want the lame ducks making any of those decisions? Last thing I want is JK handling another trade deadline or contract negotiations. I already wanted him gone after last season, now he can’t be gone fast enough

that's the thing – jarmo and JD were both taking risks this offseason because they know they're on thin ice. that's why they went out and got provorov and why they gave severson the eighth year. both of those were "if this hits, i survive; if it doesn't, i'm gone anyway and it's the next guy's problem."

babcock was the riskiest move of the bunch and it immediately blew up on them.

you can't simultaneously tell them that they can't take risks and also say that the ice under them is somehow even thinner. they're either going to take an even bigger short-term risk now, or they'll be handcuffed by ownership and not be able to make any bold moves. letting them go and putting someone more permanent in the GM chair – less risk, more security, long-term thinking – is preferable to both of those.

 

[NotWendell]

Agreed. I worked there for four years and Jarmo is utterly terrifying in person. I would go out of my way to avoid being in the same space as him, and I was in my late 20s and not connected to hockey ops at the time. Of course an 18yo who depends on him for job security is going to find him intimidating at best. Plus teenagers don't want to seem like tattle-tales.

Side note: JD despite seeming like twice Jarmo's size is not nearly so intimidating, although I would never call JD friendly. Torts always seemed to recognize me and would say hello even if there's no chance he knew my name or where in the building I worked, and that I appreciated.

JD is a bit aloof. Engaging for a second, then off to find better uses for his time.

I tend to believe that Jarmo and possibly JD will be gone - but not until seasons end. And I say that is the case only if the team fails to make or comes close to making the playoffs. If that happens the hour glass will be refilled and they will have more time.

Jarmo has shown he understands player talent and he has stocked the cupboard well. He’s less adept on the coaching front. Lars was a failure, Babs blew up like TNT and following the (possibly deleted for HFB) the Cap’n messages it is clear he didn’t cut bait with Torts when clearly Torts wanted out and he did damage by staying. Jarmo’s player evaluations may save him; if not his coaching hirings will doom him

Let's not forget that, despite his coaching success, the Torts era was filled with player drama.

 

[majormajor]

that's the thing – jarmo and JD were both taking risks this offseason because they know they're on thin ice. that's why they went out and got provorov and why they gave severson the eighth year. both of those were "if this hits, i survive; if it doesn't, i'm gone anyway and it's the next guy's problem."

If you were on thin ice, and then you did a massive screwup, like say wasting $8m on a coach who didn't coach a single game, then you'd be fired. It's Monday afternoon and Jarmo and JD are somehow still here. There was no thin ice.

They thought Babcock was a great coach who would have learned how to treat people more respectfully. They just got it wrong. To do a full football analogy, it wasn't a hail mary, they thought they had an open receiver in the end zone and didn't see the coverage.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

If you were on thin ice, and then you did a massive screwup, like say wasting $8m on a coach who didn't coach a single game, then you'd be fired. It's Monday afternoon and Jarmo and JD are somehow still here. There was no thin ice.

They thought Babcock was a great coach who would have learned how to treat people more respectfully. They just got it wrong. To do a full football analogy, it wasn't a hail mary, they thought they had an open receiver in the end zone and didn't see the coverage.

Naw. They threw the ball off of their back foot into double coverage hoping to find a very narrow seam and got picked.

 

[majormajor]

Naw. They threw the ball off of their back foot into double coverage and got picked.

They thought they were making a great play, it was obvious in the way they were talking about it and even giving each other credit - remember JD saying Nash deserves a ton of credit on the Babcock hire (the kiss of death!). They had a full set of candidates and went through the whole process and thought they made a great play.

 

[BluejacketNut]

that's the thing – jarmo and JD were both taking risks this offseason because they know they're on thin ice. that's why they went out and got provorov and why they gave severson the eighth year. both of those were "if this hits, i survive; if it doesn't, i'm gone anyway and it's the next guy's problem."

babcock was the riskiest move of the bunch and it immediately blew up on them.

you can't simultaneously tell them that they can't take risks and also say that the ice under them is somehow even thinner. they're either going to take an even bigger short-term risk now, or they'll be handcuffed by ownership and not be able to make any bold moves. letting them go and putting someone more permanent in the GM chair – less risk, more security, long-term thinking – is preferable to both of those.

This isn’t the type of risk that it just didn’t work out and the team just didn’t respond. This risk turned out to be an embarrassment to the entire league that you took a chance on a pariah of a coach and he didn’t even make it to training camp before showing his true stripes. That’s a colossal blunder for a group already on thin ice. Again, the only time we’re the main talking point for the league is for soemthing bad.

 

[Byrral]

I would think that Rick Nash is not anywhere close to being ready to be a GM.

The Babcock damage has been done and once camp starts the fire will move to the back burner. I would have fired Jarmo and JD but this is not my team. The worst part is the self inficted wounds that CBJ management continue to hurt themselves with. This seasons results should determine both of these guys fates.

 

[MoeBartoli]

Agreed. I worked there for four years and Jarmo is utterly terrifying in person. I would go out of my way to avoid being in the same space as him, and I was in my late 20s and not connected to hockey ops at the time. Of course an 18yo who depends on him for job security is going to find him intimidating at best. Plus teenagers don't want to seem like tattle-tales.

Side note: JD despite seeming like twice Jarmo's size is not nearly so intimidating, although I would never call JD friendly. Torts always seemed to recognize me and would say hello even if there's no chance he knew my name or where in the building I worked, and that I appreciated.

I could see how Jarmo would strike a young person that way. He has such a Darth Vader persona you almost expect the words “I’m your father” to come out of his mouth.

 

[LetsGOJackets!!]

Byrral, that is the most sound thought I have read coming out of this train wreck. Nash isn't ready. What do you get out of gutting Mgmt the week before camp starts. I'm pretty sure the search for a new GM began last Friday morning. To me the bigger question is whether JD keeps his job beyond this season.