Speculation: All Coaching Talk - Part 2

[DFC]

It's clear Cooper's system changed, and it's also clear Yzerman has pushed for this "safer" approach, probably starting around the beginning of 2016.

http://www.foxsports.com/florida/video/918833219639

He's waaaay more concerned about scoring chances against then he is our own scoring chances from that video

It's pretty obvious that he didn't like Cooper's run and gun. He's given Cooper the chance to adapt to his vision, which isn't a style that made Cooper successful. He's had some success with this like in 2016. We won games, but we looked worse. We didn't have the puck as much. Wasn't as fun to watch.

So if Cooper does go, Yzerman's comments make me believe he's not interested in a Bruce Boudreau type. I also believe Drouin and Cooper could have gone on and had a good working relationship. Drouin did say he envisioned staying here, but as evident from the trade, Drouin wasn't part of Yzerman's style.

TLDR; Cooper is being pushed to change from what made him successful.

That could actually be true.

 

[Leonardo87]

It's clear Cooper's system changed, and it's also clear Yzerman has pushed for this "safer" approach, probably starting around the beginning of 2016.

http://www.foxsports.com/florida/video/918833219639

He's waaaay more concerned about scoring chances against then he is our own scoring chances from that video

It's pretty obvious that he didn't like Cooper's run and gun. He's given Cooper the chance to adapt to his vision, which isn't a style that made Cooper successful. He's had some success with this like in 2016. We won games, but we looked worse. We didn't have the puck as much. Wasn't as fun to watch.

So if Cooper does go, Yzerman's comments make me believe he's not interested in a Bruce Boudreau type. I also believe Drouin and Cooper could have gone on and had a good working relationship. Drouin did say he envisioned staying here, but as evident from the trade, Drouin wasn't part of Yzerman's style.

TLDR; Cooper is being pushed to change from what made him successful.

This makes a lot of sense. A lot of players have regressed outside of Hedman and Kucherov. So makes you wonder.

 

[Sky04]

It's clear Cooper's system changed, and it's also clear Yzerman has pushed for this "safer" approach, probably starting around the beginning of 2016.

http://www.foxsports.com/florida/video/918833219639

He's waaaay more concerned about scoring chances against then he is our own scoring chances from that video

It's pretty obvious that he didn't like Cooper's run and gun. He's given Cooper the chance to adapt to his vision, which isn't a style that made Cooper successful. He's had some success with this like in 2016. We won games, but we looked worse. We didn't have the puck as much. Wasn't as fun to watch.

So if Cooper does go, Yzerman's comments make me believe he's not interested in a Bruce Boudreau type. I also believe Drouin and Cooper could have gone on and had a good working relationship. Drouin did say he envisioned staying here, but as evident from the trade, Drouin wasn't part of Yzerman's style.

TLDR; Cooper is being pushed to change from what made him successful.

Dude, are you trying to mind**** us all!?

 

[MattM92]

If Yzerman's vision is what we're seeing now, then why bring in Cooper in the first place? Cooper was the head coach of his minor league team, so he had to know what kind of hockey Cooper has his teams play. That just doesn't make sense.

Oh, just saw you said 2016. Disregard what I wrote above.

 

[DFC]

If Yzerman's vision is what we're seeing now, then why bring in Cooper in the first place? Cooper was the head coach of his minor league team, so he had to know what kind of hockey Cooper has his teams play. That just doesn't make sense.

Oh, just saw you said 2016. Disregard what I wrote above.

Yeah, might have been Yzerman who had the big philosophical shift in 2016 (well, October 2015) and not Cooper. Or maybe both of them.

Either way, it feels like SOMETHING changed, philosophically, after that Red Wings series where Mike Babcock clutched and grabbed his way to a 7 gamer. Both Yzerman and Cooper have ties to Babcock, and Yzerman to the Wings in general. And Yzerman won championships by shifting from a high octane game to a safe, low risk game.

 

[Todd1a]

This makes a lot of sense. A lot of players have regressed outside of Hedman and Kucherov. So makes you wonder.

Yep I think the Lightning care way to much on d they forget how to score

 

[Steazy Doo]

Dude, are you trying to mind**** us all!?

 

[VoluntaryDom]

Cooper will make a Girardi-Sustr pair

He will give Sustr one of hedmans sticks to make it LH-RH

 

[VoluntaryDom]

Yep I think the Lightning care way to much on d they forget how to score

Or just stop caring altogether a la Johnson

 

[Todd1a]

Or just stop caring altogether a la Johnson

Let's face it kucherov and stamkos our are offense

 

[VoluntaryDom]

Let's face it kucherov and stamkos our are offense

Yup.

Maybe Point as well. Maybe.

 

[These Are The Days]

You officially have the best gimmick on the board. Omg

 

[CupsOverCash]

Wouldn't be surprised if Namestnikov finds himself healthy scratched or on a 4th line. Unless he catches fire next season.

Namestnikov plays good D and has good possession skills, he's just not a finisher. Coop likes players like him.

 

[Rschmitz]

Namestnikov is a good complimentary player. I'm perfectly happy with him on the third line and the occasional shift higher up. However, he likely ends up on the Kucherov and Stamkos line. He played well there last year, but that's a missed opportunity to give the spot to a real power forward or difference maker.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Alright we all have been questioning Cooper and his decisions in the past. But credit where it's due, this season so far he's done everything right.

Forwards: Cooper's lines have been effective to a T and I can confidently say we're icing the best possible version of the Lightning right now. Some of us (myself included) were advocating a line of 90-91-86 for quite a while now and boom, it happens. With the emergence of Point we're practically icing two 1st lines while our 3rd line is producing on pace of your typical 2nd line. Terrific! Callahan, Brown and Kunitz excel in their new energy line / shutdown roles.

Defense: Hedman and Stralman finally saw their TOI increased after years of questionable attempts to evenly distribute TOI amongst all defensemen. In their lesser roles all other defensemen have started to shine and get played to their strengths. We suddenly see something we haven't had for a long time before (Hedman aside): Lots of scoring from our blueline. Sergachev, Stralman, Koekkoek (wut?) and others all of a sudden appear on the scoresheet regularily. 11/7 allows us to relieve some pressure on the young guns, to get some rest for some forwards if needed and to double shift the hot sticks of Kucherov, Point and Stamkos.

Goaltending: Budaj hasn't been good and rightfully we're playing Vasy as much as possible. No silly attempts to get Budaj going, just playing the best player available.

PP: 2nd in the league, enough said.
PK: 9th in the league, nothing to complain about.

16 games in I gotta say: Job well done, Mr. Cooper and colleagues!

 

[MattM92]

When the team is playing like this then of course he's safe. I still don't believe that changing a couple of players was the difference in effort and consistency from last year to this year. As long as the team keeps winning hockey games, and looking good doing it, then I'll keep my mouth shut.

His decisions are with personnel are still dumb from time to time, like starting the 4th line with the 3rd pair last night. Continuing the 14-9-24 experiment. Not riding the 11-7. He thinks he's smarter than he is and he often causes problems when he tries to out-think himself.

 

[The Macho King]

Alright we all have been questioning Cooper and his decisions in the past. But credit where it's due, this season so far he's done everything right.

Forwards: Cooper's lines have been effective to a T and I can confidently say we're icing the best possible version of the Lightning right now. Some of us (myself included) were advocating a line of 90-91-86 for quite a while now and boom, it happens. With the emergence of Point we're practically icing two 1st lines while our 3rd line is producing on pace of your typical 2nd line. Terrific! Callahan, Brown and Kunitz excel in their new energy line / shutdown roles.

Defense: Hedman and Stralman finally saw their TOI increased after years of questionable attempts to evenly distribute TOI amongst all defensemen. In their lesser roles all other defensemen have started to shine and get played to their strengths. We suddenly see something we haven't had for a long time before (Hedman aside): Lots of scoring from our blueline. Sergachev, Stralman, Koekkoek (wut?) and others all of a sudden appear on the scoresheet regularily. 11/7 allows us to relieve some pressure on the young guns, to get some rest for some forwards if needed and to double shift the hot sticks of Kucherov, Point and Stamkos.

Goaltending: Budaj hasn't been good and rightfully we're playing Vasy as much as possible. No silly attempts to get Budaj going, just playing the best player available.

PP: 2nd in the league, enough said.
PK: 9th in the league, nothing to complain about.

16 games in I gotta say: Job well done, Mr. Cooper and colleagues!

Maybe he's learning. Breakout has gotten much better (if a bit higher risk), and we're certainly not sitting back.

This is the frustrating thing - for the past two seasons we thought the team on the ice was going to be the team we were watching after the Cup Finals run. Instead we became like... a poor man's Babcock team. I think I said this before, but we had a Ferrari and we were trying to use it like a tow truck. Now we're opening up the engine.

And seriously - I think this 80% comes from the breakout (as well as some improved Neutral Zone play - our entries have also gotten much better). There are obviously times where you have to be really patient with the breakout and circle back, but most of the time we're immediately trying to put the D on their heels, and we're forechecking aggressively to make up for any time we don't get a clean entry. It's a speed team playing a speed game, instead of a speed team playing like they're the Kings.

 

[Sky04]

All this stretch proves is that we were right to criticize Cooper considering this is the exact type of team we've been saying we should've been seeing for 3 years.

 

[Bolt 45]

This team's fun to watch again. That's all I really wanted to see the past two years, because watching them had become a terrible, terrible chore. When they're allowed to play run-n-gun, the results speak volumes. I'm betting that Coop pulled a 180° in part because he was on the verge of losing the team. They sure looked like they'd checked out by the midway point last year, and they didn't seem too enthused about the kind of hockey they were being asked to play either. Who can blame 'em?

I disagree, however, that we're icing our best possible lineup. We aren't. That's still on Coop, and it'll only get overlooked as long as we're winning.

 

[Sky04]

Well it's not traditional run-n-gun, they're not trading chances and cheating on offense, we're getting scored on because we suck once we get hammed. The offense has been given a leash and it helps when the defense doesn't take 5mins to make a pass and all the forwards have stopped at the blueline going ????

 

[These Are The Days]

LMFAO you guys are Looney Tunes.

1. We resolved chemistry issues by putting together 2 lines we've never had before featuring 2 players we didn't have until last year.
2. The same players who have struggled for the last 2 years continue to struggle now despite us running wild on the rest of the NHL. Oh gee imagine that. It had nothing to do with the system. It had to do with players struggling to play hockey.
3. We are bouncing back after poor showings and we are seeing ACTUAL leadership take effect versus demanding the coach do it all on his own
4. We are not distracted with outside issues

All the shit I've been saying for 2 years is resolved.... Imagine that... we are healthy and focused and playing better hockey as a consequence in every facet of the game.

But nawww man it's fake news based on nothing more than conjecture and speculation.

Coop just decided to stop sucking for personal reasons and now because of that we are winning again! A coach should be able to win despite: missing both its captain and alternate or a panicked locker room worried about said captain leaving, fielding an AHL team for 2 months at a time in back to back years, a Vezina caliber goaltender falling off the face of the earth and his backup letting in 2 and 3 bad goals a night for 2 weeks. And he should especially put in an AHL goaltender in place of said struggling backup because THAT gives us a better chance to win.

Don't worry folks. The system will be broken again as soon as we lose a handful of games. Just you wait and see. Nothing more than 5 weeks of blind squirrels finding acorns.

 

[Sky04]

Nah man needed full roster change according to you, we changed 2 players and you're all "HORRAH IM RIGHT".

 

[These Are The Days]

Nah man needed full roster change according to you, we changed 2 players and you're all "HORRAH IM RIGHT".

Sometimes that's all it takes. Sergachev is fantastic. Gourde is fantastic. Point (who was MIA with injury for a long time) is fantastic and singlehandedly carried us for periods of time. He was change from within the roster that made a difference albeit one I did not expect and he came on late last year. Dotchin is okay at best but he provides us flexibility we never had until he came along. That's 4 players on a roster of 20. Oh and before I forget. Sustr is being scratched because we have other options.

So let's see that's (in their current capacity) two top 6 forwards and 2 top 4 D worth of changes and the giraffe on the bench and all the men in the room. I'd say that's major change but hey... what do I know? It's not like Nikita Kucherov went out of his way to talk about complacency in the lineup at the exact same time I did.

We get some turnover in important areas and suddenly it's like we have f***ing superpowers because we turned over to players that know what they are doing and have actual chemistry with more than one linemate.

Coop is doing the same thing he always has. It was NEVER a coaching issue. It's a roster that had holes in it that also could not handle the pressure of its own success

If it was that obvious to me then what does that say for your evaluation?

 

[These Are The Days]

Whoops forgot Girardi too. Boring and unspectacular.... a far cry from Garrison falling off a cliff. So we actually changed HALF of our defense! And we are giving regular minutes to Koekkoek!! But that's not big turnover at all! Let's just focus on what a difference Point and Gourde make versus the likes of Filppula.

 

[Bolt 45]

Well it's not traditional run-n-gun, they're not trading chances and cheating on offense, we're getting scored on because we suck once we get hammed. The offense has been given a leash and it helps when the defense doesn't take 5mins to make a pass and all the forwards have stopped at the blueline going ????

You're right, but we play a fair amount of run-n-gun here and there because other teams want to match our speed. Which I'm fine with... the odds are generally going to be in our favor. I agree that we're playing way better defensively, in that we're actively trying to move the puck out of our zone as quickly as possible. I'll never understand why that wasn't the case last year. I still contend that the loft pass into the neutral zone is part of it too... it was our bread-and-butter a few years ago, but I feel like it was absent for most of last year. Even with the injuries, last season was just a head-scratcher in terms of coaching.