Therrien - New Season Edition

[Monctonscout]

Jiri Sekac.

Lars Eller.

Show me an example.

I think this is just an example of an over sensitive fan blowing comments out of proportion. If anything Therrien avoids naming players individually. He praises individuals and when blame comes he blames the team rather than 1-2 players. I see a lot of coaches in PC's calling out certain players or lines.

 

[SuperUnknown]

Well well well...I guess the people that were critical of the system were actually spot on. Go figure..

What I see is that adding Petry and Beaulieu (who wasn't a starter last year) made it possible.

It's not like you can play the same system regardless of the players you have at hand (outside of board fantasy hockey talk).

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

What I see is that adding Petry and Beaulieu (who wasn't a starter last year) made it possible.

It's not like you can play the same system regardless of the players you have at hand (outside of board fantasy hockey talk).

I think the system we had was poor regardless of the roster. And it certainly didn't make any sense when we've got PK Subban out there dumping it in. As for Beau not being a starter - that's just another reason to fault Therrien.

Bottom line though is that it doesn't matter WHY we're changing the system, it only matters that we change it.

 

[Kriss E]

What I see is that adding Petry and Beaulieu (who wasn't a starter last year) made it possible.

It's not like you can play the same system regardless of the players you have at hand (outside of board fantasy hockey talk).

That's not really the point. If the system used in the previous two seasons was as effective as some posters have repeatedly argued for, despite all the evidence and flaws pointing the other way, then why not keep it??..It's not like we had an overhaul of our roster.
Beaulieu was already here last season. We essentially replaced Gonchar with Petry.
I strongly doubt Semin is the reason why Therrien decided to completely change the system. We were playing more like this in 12-13 and had great results too. We could have kept it going.

 

[SuperUnknown]

That's not really the point. If the system used in the previous two seasons was as effective as some posters have repeatedly argued for, despite all the evidence and flaws pointing the other way, then why not keep it??..It's not like we had an overhaul of our roster.
Beaulieu was already here last season. We essentially replaced Gonchar with Petry.
I strongly doubt Semin is the reason why Therrien decided to completely change the system. We were playing more like this in 12-13 and had great results too. We could have kept it going.

Beaulieu was an unknown quantity last year and improved tremendously from the start to finish.

More balanced offense this year (Semin and Flash additions), much faster 4th line, a good top 4 are all part of being able to play like they have since the start of the season.

You don't have that, you lose playing this same system.

 

[Monctonscout]

Beaulieu was an unknown quantity last year and improved tremendously from the start to finish.

More balanced offense this year (Semin and Flash additions), much faster 4th line, a good top 4 are all part of being able to play like they have since the start of the season.

You don't have that, you lose playing this same system.

That pretty much sums it up. Especially when you have to beat smaller faster teams like Tampa Detroit etc to win the conference.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Beaulieu was an unknown quantity last year and improved tremendously from the start to finish.

More balanced offense this year (Semin and Flash additions), much faster 4th line, a good top 4 are all part of being able to play like they have since the start of the season.

You don't have that, you lose playing this same system.

He played dump and chase with a stacked Pittsburgh lineup. It didn't work then either. The only real time he had his team playing well was 2013 when we carried the puck in.

 

[Kriss E]

Beaulieu was an unknown quantity last year and improved tremendously from the start to finish.

More balanced offense this year (Semin and Flash additions), much faster 4th line, a good top 4 are all part of being able to play like they have since the start of the season.

You don't have that, you lose playing this same system.

Beaulieu wasn't an unknown quantity. He was ready two seasons ago but they kept him down in the AHL after the Olympics because he apparently pouted after his demotion. We chose to keep the brilliant Bouillon and Murray instead until Therrien was forced to call up Beaulieu in the POs because those two veterans were so bad.

Semin and PAP are the same in the sense that they are possession players. You don't tell those guys to play dump and chase. You also don't tell Briere to do it.
Floosh and Sekac are also possession guys. Floosh is more talented however but as I said, let's stop pretending we changed the whole team.

The system we used in previous seasons didn't make us win anything. We also were getting regularly outshot and outchanced. We looked completely unstructured and disorganized. If we switched back to the same style, the exact same thing would happen. We'd get owned on most nights and Price would have to save our bacon. We played that way vs Toronto and guess what, Price saved us.


We can stop this debate. We weren't playing a strong system before, and you don't need to have one of the best Dmen unit to join the rush.
My guess is coaches and management opted to play more possession vs TB in the POs last year. Even though we lost, they saw we pretty much beat them at ES. So coming into this season, they opted to stick with this style and made changes to further improve it.

 

[ECWHSWI]

That pretty much sums it up. Especially when you have to beat smaller faster teams like Tampa Detroit etc to win the conference.

do you remember how many times we beat TB last season ?


PO included.

 

[Soltantgris]

Deal.

I'll bookmark this post. Ottawa, Pittsburgh and Boston will make the playoffs. I say yes for all three. You say not all three.

We can work out a deal involving avatars. If you win, I will add to my avatar that "Des Louise is the smartest poster on HFBoards" or something like that.

I'm with DesLouise on this. I thing there is a legit chance both 3 teams miss PO. Boston/Ottawa being the safest bet - Pens not that much tough. Floride/Flyers/Buffalo have better chances imo.

 

[OnTheRun]

Pens will fire Johnson and make the POs. Ottawa/Boston... meh thin ice here, their only hope is to secure the 2 wild card spots.

 

[Cole Caulifield]

Well well well...I guess the people that were critical of the system were actually spot on. Go figure..

lol.... Yeah no.

Hilarious that you came to that conclusion after reading that article. Especially since Basu tried his best to spin it in a way to save face after being so critical of MT last year.

You need skill to play a puck possession game. Beaulieu, Galchenyuk improving, the addition of Petry and shoring up that 4th line so it can now play against just about anyone have been game changers. The more tools a coach have the more he can do with his roster. MB gave MT some more tools and you see more performance from the team.

And if MT was an idiot before, he didn't suddenly become intelligent and start coaching well. You guys should try to stay consistent.

 

[OnTheRun]

lol.... Yeah no.

Hilarious that you came to that conclusion after reading that article. Especially since Basu tried his best to spin it in a way to save face after being so critical of MT last year.

You need skill to play a puck possession game. Beaulieu, Galchenyuk improving, the addition of Petry and shoring up that 4th line so it can now play against just about anyone have been game changers.

And if MT was an idiot before, he didn't suddenly become intelligent and start coaching well. You guys should try to stay consequent.

Or maybe the fact that Therrien was heavily questioned after the 2nd round exit, more than one were wondering if he was the right man for the job at that point.

The not-so-good job he did last year probably forced him to reevaluate his basic strategies and philosophies for this team.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

lol.... Yeah no.

Hilarious that you came to that conclusion after reading that article. Especially since Basu tried his best to spin it in a way to save face after being so critical of MT last year.

You need skill to play a puck possession game. Beaulieu, Galchenyuk improving, the addition of Petry and shoring up that 4th line so it can now play against just about anyone have been game changers. The more tools a coach have the more he can do with his roster. MB gave MT some more tools and you see more performance from the team.

And if MT was an idiot before, he didn't suddenly become intelligent and start coaching well. You guys should try to stay consistent.

The Penguins had tons of skill. Stanley Cup winning skill in fact. Therrien was not able to achieve a puck possession system with them either.

Or maybe the fact that Therrien was heavily questioned after the 2nd round exit, more than one were wondering if he was the right man for the job at that point.

The not-so-good job he did last year probably forced him to reevaluate his basic strategies and philosophies for this team.

He was under heavy scrutiny and it's very strange to see that when you're the coach of a 110 point team. So that might've had something to do with it. The Habs hired an advanced stats guy so that might have something to do with it. At the end of the day though, if it happens I won't care why.

I'm not holding my breath that we've moved away from dump and chase though. It's one thing to say it, we'll see if it actually happens. We saw last year with the Galchenyuk experiment that this team will make changes even when it has success. If it does though... GREAT!

 

[Cole Caulifield]

The Penguins had tons of skill. Stanley Cup winning skill in fact. Therrien was not able to achieve a puck possession system with them either.

Crosby was 18-19-20... and Malkin about the same. Their stars were very very young. And I don't care about the ridiculous definition of puck possession based on shot counts. You should call never ever call it puck possession.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Crosby was 18-19-20... and Malkin about the same. Their stars were very very young. And I don't care about the ridiculous definition of puck possession based on shot counts. You should call never ever call it puck possession.

That young team did fine once Therrien was replaced. The term puck possession is one that's used universally in advanced stats. 30th in shots is horrific no matter what term you want to use and so was having that great team out of the playoffs.

 

[ECWHSWI]

lol.... Yeah no.

Hilarious that you came to that conclusion after reading that article. Especially since Basu tried his best to spin it in a way to save face after being so critical of MT last year.

You need skill to play a puck possession game. Beaulieu, Galchenyuk improving, the addition of Petry and shoring up that 4th line so it can now play against just about anyone have been game changers. The more tools a coach have the more he can do with his roster. MB gave MT some more tools and you see more performance from the team.

And if MT was an idiot before, he didn't suddenly become intelligent and start coaching well. You guys should try to stay consistent.

so... it's better to constantly give the puck away when you have less skills ?

 

[Wats]

When this team enters the zone on the powerplay they're wired to find a way to pass to the point. They literally have no other intention when entering the zone judging by how predictable every setup has been. I have seen them be on a 3 on 2 then still skate in wait and try to pass to point just because they're on a PP.

Even lottery teams set up better so it's a joke to blame the talent on the team. These guys have all been on top PP teams, including Subban, Plekanec, Markov, Semin.

 

[Kriss E]

Crosby was 18-19-20... and Malkin about the same. Their stars were very very young. And I don't care about the ridiculous definition of puck possession based on shot counts. You should call never ever call it puck possession.

And due to injuries later, Crosby and Malkin never had better seasons than their first 3. They also happened to win the cup that year as LG pointed out to you. Heck, we played that way in his first year back here and we weren't more talented then.

lol.... Yeah no.

Hilarious that you came to that conclusion after reading that article. Especially since Basu tried his best to spin it in a way to save face after being so critical of MT last year.

You need skill to play a puck possession game. Beaulieu, Galchenyuk improving, the addition of Petry and shoring up that 4th line so it can now play against just about anyone have been game changers. The more tools a coach have the more he can do with his roster. MB gave MT some more tools and you see more performance from the team.

And if MT was an idiot before, he didn't suddenly become intelligent and start coaching well. You guys should try to stay consistent.

Lol indeed. You think Semin who scored 6 goals last year and Fleischmann who was on a try out, and Petry, are the talent. Now, if they were replacing grinders, then fine, I could get your poing but they're not. They're replacing PAP-Sekac-Gonchar (or you can say he's replacing Gilbert's spot, who in turn is replacing Gonchar's).
Those guys were definitely a worse trio, however, they're not guys you target for a grinding style and when we started the season last year, we didn't attempt to change our game. Galchenyuk at center last training camp also looked good, but Therrien had him playing with Patches. He also had no intentions in putting DD on the 3rd line.
Beaulieu was already a great skater last year, certainly he seems to have improved, in no way does this mean he wouldn't have been able to rush the play more often last year if he was as encouraged to do so as all the Dmen are this year.

We could have easily opted to take a different approach, as we did in 12-13 with a team that wasn't more talented.

Not sure what inconsistency you're talking about. People can learn and change. It doesn't mean he won't ever take a stupid decision again.
I'm pleased with what I've seen so far. Good on Therrien. If management used the same mindset that you guys had, which was ''look at the record! 110pts!'' then they wouldn't have changed anything considering the vast majority of this team is identical.

 

[Hoople]

Therrien has this team looking great.

Habs fans should be proud of his efforts.

Go Habs Go!!

 

[Captain Mountain]

Much love for how Therrien has Les Boys playing, seems like he's eased off the dump and grind.

Deserves his fair share of the credit for this start.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Full marks to the coaching staff for having us playing much better this year!

 

[The Great Weal]

Wow can't believe I'm saying this but Therrien has been doing great so far.

 

[Habnot]

Beaulieu wasn't an unknown quantity. He was ready two seasons ago but they kept him down in the AHL after the Olympics because he apparently pouted after his demotion. We chose to keep the brilliant Bouillon and Murray instead until Therrien was forced to call up Beaulieu in the POs because those two veterans were so bad.

Semin and PAP are the same in the sense that they are possession players. You don't tell those guys to play dump and chase. You also don't tell Briere to do it.
Floosh and Sekac are also possession guys. Floosh is more talented however but as I said, let's stop pretending we changed the whole team.

The system we used in previous seasons didn't make us win anything. We also were getting regularly outshot and outchanced. We looked completely unstructured and disorganized. If we switched back to the same style, the exact same thing would happen. We'd get owned on most nights and Price would have to save our bacon. We played that way vs Toronto and guess what, Price saved us.


We can stop this debate. We weren't playing a strong system before, and you don't need to have one of the best Dmen unit to join the rush.
My guess is coaches and management opted to play more possession vs TB in the POs last year. Even though we lost, they saw we pretty much beat them at ES. So coming into this season, they opted to stick with this style and made changes to further improve it.

No debate on the change of tactics in zone entries - which is the major change I see. Less dump, much more possession when entering the zone.

The rest - I don't much change in the system - I see more changes in personnel. What helps is that we are a speedier stronger team which does give the coaches more options. Petry is a possession machine. Emelin is playing lights out. DSP, Flynn, Mitchell are contributing with offensive zone presence. DD's ice time is where it should be.

 

[Habnot]

Full marks to the coaching staff for having us playing much better this year!

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