Post-Game Talk: #4 | FLYERS 5 at Predators 6 | Tue. Oct. 10, 8:00 pm ET

[Tripod]

My point is it's just not a big deal.
If you guys liked Hakstol you'd have said it was a mistake, everyone makes mistakes, now don't repeat it.
But because you want Hakstol fired, you make it into some huge deal.

The dishonesty here just makes me shake my head.
If Giroux screws up, "crickets", if MacDonald screws up, SHOUT SHOUT LET IT ALL OUT.
Gudas has looked like crap to start the season, and I'm one of his biggest supporters. But hardly anyone wants to mention it.

If one point in October keeps them out of the playoffs, they don't deserve to be in the playoffs anyway. Because if they're close to the playoffs in April, they should win their way in, not depend on a point in October (which was the joint responsibility of the refs, Elliott, Giroux and Hakstol) or some other team losing.

Dishonesty??? Look in the mirror first and the lengths you go thru to defend shit players and a coach making a shit decision.

"It's no big deal" you say. Horse shit!

 

[Tripod]

No it doesn't, it was just a mistake in judgement under new rules.

And most of the criticism of Hakstol concerns really minor issues, like benching Konency and Ghost for a couple games last year, playing MacDonald over a bunch of bad defensemen last year, playing VdV over a bunch of bad forwards, all of whom are gone from the team.

Right now Weise is playing over Lehtera, MacDonald over Manning.
Hextall decided who'd stay and who'd go, only reason Morin made the West Coast trip was their uncertainty concerning Ghost. He wanted the Europeans to have AHL experience.

Giroux at LW may be Hakstol's call, but given the roster situation I think it started out as an experiment and both Hakstol and Hextall liked the results, I'm sure Hextall has planned on Giroux moving to wing at some point in the future, or why draft Frost when you have Laughton, Vorobyev and Rubtsov already on the roster?

So far the scheme looks a lot better (check the shot diagrams of the four games) because the players are a lot better. And this started last year when we added Weal and Filppula. The defense should look a lot better in a couple months once Hagg and Sanheim settle in. The goalies?????

Who cares if all this is better, points don't matter anyways because we are rebuilding....so you say.

 

[deadhead]

It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

What is a big deal is the 8 players with 2 or less years of NHL experience showing improvement, because they're part of the core of the team that's going to compete for the Cup (along with the players in the AHL and the top prospects who are 2 years or less away from the NHL, 1 year in the AHL, 2018-19, rookie year 2019-20).

I don't care if LHV wins a Calder Cup, I care if the half dozen prospects there make substantial progress the way Weal, Laughton, Hagg, Sanheim and Leier did in the AHL. If the AHL prospects improve this year, Gordon can take care of his pet defenseman and blow the playoffs - if they don't, for me a Calder Cup wouldn't be enough to keep his job.

Two years from now, when this team hopefully is good enough for a long playoff run, their performance as a team will be the most important factor for evaluating Hakstol, but not this season.

 

[Striiker]

It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

What is a big deal is the 8 players with 2 or less years of NHL experience showing improvement, because they're part of the core of the team that's going to compete for the Cup (along with the players in the AHL and the top prospects who are 2 years or less away from the NHL, 1 year in the AHL, 2018-19, rookie year 2019-20).

I don't care if LHV wins a Calder Cup, I care if the half dozen prospects there make substantial progress the way Weal, Laughton, Hagg, Sanheim and Leier did in the AHL. If the AHL prospects improve this year, Gordon can take care of his pet defenseman and blow the playoffs - if they don't, for me a Calder Cup wouldn't be enough to keep his job.

Two years from now, when this team hopefully is good enough for a long playoff run, their performance as a team will be the most important factor for evaluating Hakstol, but not this season.

Even if we pretend that one game doesn't matter, this isn't an isolated incident. It's just another raindrop in a storm of misjudgments and bad choices by someone who has more failures than successes as this teams head coach.

And again you keep saying we have to wait until the team is good to judge Hakstol... which is nonsense and you know it. Why would we ignore this massive sample size and only judge when the job is easy? Nobody is judging him based on the teams win/loss record, he's judged by the decisions he makes. Whether the team is horrible, average, or fantastic, it's the coaches job to do the best he can with whatever hes got. That's how you judge him and he's failing.

 

[Rebels57]

Why does anyone even bother with this dude?

 

[Striiker]

Why does anyone even bother with this dude?

Deadhead is my project. I'm not going to stop until he says something negative about Hakstol.

At that point the sun will come out and I'll vanish like Obi-Wan Kenobi.

 

[Magua]

I don't care if LHV wins a Calder Cup, I care if the half dozen prospects there make substantial progress the way Weal, Laughton, Hagg, Sanheim and Leier did in the AHL. If the AHL prospects improve this year, Gordon can take care of his pet defenseman and blow the playoffs - if they don't, for me a Calder Cup wouldn't be enough to keep his job.

This idea you keep floating that Gordon is a development coach -- coaching to develop, not win -- is worse than anything you've ever written in defense of Hakstol. Blows it out of the water, deady.

 

[deadhead]

I don't care what kind of coach Gordon is, I care only about results.
If he's a doofus who hires good assistants, fine.

 

[deadhead]

Even if we pretend that one game doesn't matter, this isn't an isolated incident. It's just another raindrop in a storm of misjudgments and bad choices by someone who has more failures than successes as this teams head coach.

And again you keep saying we have to wait until the team is good to judge Hakstol... which is nonsense and you know it. Why would we ignore this massive sample size and only judge when the job is easy? Nobody is judging him based on the teams win/loss record, he's judged by the decisions he makes. Whether the team is horrible, average, or fantastic, it's the coaches job to do the best he can with whatever hes got. That's how you judge him and he's failing.

How is he failing, he took the team to the playoffs his first year and they played better last year outside the goalies who were downright putrid. They would have been a playoff team last season with average goaltenders.

It's not like Hextall gave him a lot of talent until this season, I mean he was looking at two decent lines (neither a #1 line) until Hextall got him Weal and Filppula, and 3 decent defensemen, of which one was a rookie and the other a 2nd year man, and the third had less than 3 years of experience going into last season.

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

How is he failing, he took the team to the playoffs his first year and they played better last year outside the goalies who were downright putrid. They would have been a playoff team last season with average goaltenders.

It's not like Hextall gave him a lot of talent until this season, I mean he was looking at two decent lines (neither a #1 line) until Hextall got him Weal and Filppula, and 3 decent defensemen, of which one was a rookie and the other a 2nd year man, and the third had less than 3 years of experience going into last season.

Excuses are like ass holes, head - everyone has them and they usually stink.

 

[Striiker]

How is he failing, he took the team to the playoffs his first year and they played better last year outside the goalies who were downright putrid. They would have been a playoff team last season with average goaltenders.

It's not like Hextall gave him a lot of talent until this season, I mean he was looking at two decent lines (neither a #1 line) until Hextall got him Weal and Filppula, and 3 decent defensemen, of which one was a rookie and the other a 2nd year man, and the third had less than 3 years of experience going into last season.

He's failing by hurting the team with poor lineup and bench management decisions.

Again, the amount of talent on the team is 100% irrelevant when evaluating the coach. Coaches aren't expected to work miracles and make a poor team into a contender, but they also can't make things harder than they have to be. Which he does.

And no.... he didn't "take the team to the playoffs", Ghost, Giroux, and Mason carried that team to the playoffs.

 

[deadhead]

What poor lineup decisions?
Giroux at LW? So far so good.
McDonald instead of Manning?
You don't like MacDonald with Provorov, then who do you pair with him, Gudas makes more sense with Sanheim, who needs a stay at home partner, same with Hagg and Ghost.

He gave Patrick Weal and Simmonds for a couple games, then put them back with Filppula like last season when the team finished strong.
Weise - Patrick - Konency, or would you rather Lehtera be on the LW?

Morin and Lindblom are in the AHL because Hextall doesn't think they're ready.
Filppula on the PP is probably the wonderkid's decision.

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

What poor lineup decisions?
Giroux at LW? So far so good.
McDonald instead of Manning?
You don't like MacDonald with Provorov, then who do you pair with him, Gudas makes more sense with Sanheim, who needs a stay at home partner, same with Hagg and Ghost.

He gave Patrick Weal and Simmonds for a couple games, then put them back with Filppula like last season when the team finished strong.
Weise - Patrick - Konency, or would you rather Lehtera be on the LW?

Morin and Lindblom are in the AHL because Hextall doesn't think they're ready.
Filppula on the PP is probably the wonderkid's decision.

 

[BillDineen]

Is the objective to sneak into the playoffs or build a team that can bring the Cup back to Philly?
In my experience, bad FOs focus on making the playoffs, and saving their jobs.
Good FOs focus on building teams, and want to kick down the front door into the playoffs, instead of sneaking through the back window.

When I watch one of my teams, I'm more worried about how they play early in the season then wins or losses. Over a season, penalties and mistakes even out, but if you're not a good team, you need lots of breaks to sneak in.

If it comes down to one point in April to make the playoffs, who cares?
That's not a team that's ready to compete with the big boys.

Holy cow. I actually agree with this. I don't agree with any other of your posts, but this in isolation, I agree with this.

Problem is, you are asking for a cup contender with a clearly mediocre coach. A bad FO would be one who builds a contender somehow and then lets an average coach steer the ship for no reason other than maybe loyalty.

 

[JojoTheWhale]

He gave Patrick Weal and Simmonds for a couple games, then put them back with Filppula like last season when the team finished strong.

You could not be more right or more accurate in his thought process. You also couldn't explain my problems with Hakstol any more succinctly. In one simple lineup decision, he conflates team and individual success and makes a key determination off of short-term results without looking at the underpinnings. That's a recipe for disaster.

 

[Striiker]

What poor lineup decisions?
Giroux at LW? So far so good.
McDonald instead of Manning?
You don't like MacDonald with Provorov, then who do you pair with him, Gudas makes more sense with Sanheim, who needs a stay at home partner, same with Hagg and Ghost.

He gave Patrick Weal and Simmonds for a couple games, then put them back with Filppula like last season when the team finished strong.
Weise - Patrick - Konency, or would you rather Lehtera be on the LW?

Morin and Lindblom are in the AHL because Hextall doesn't think they're ready.
Filppula on the PP is probably the wonderkid's decision.

"What poor lineup decisions?"

 

[Amorgus]

Is that supposed to be the world inside Dead's head or were you just dying to post that and said "Why not now?"

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

Is that supposed to be the world inside Dead's head or were you just dying to post that and said "Why not now?"

Yes, both