So when is Trotz getting axed? Thought it would of happened by now.
How many "shooters" do other teams have? The salary cap doesn't allow for a team of "shooters". They needed more from the bottom 6, more consistent play from Holtby, and better coaching adjustments.
How many "shooters" do other teams have? The salary cap doesn't allow for a team of "shooters". They needed more from the bottom 6, more consistent play from Holtby, and better coaching adjustments.
I think the bolded is absolutely key, and part of the reason I think Trotz's time should be up...
A team usually has about 5 to 6 shooters. And i'm not talking about goal scorers. OV, JW, snd Oshie were the only guys who had a set. Mojo and Kuzy wanted to play circles with the puck, snd didn't step up until we were in danger of being elimitated. Bura is a mystery to me. He showed some flashes of what he could be but he also showed some flashes of Mojo syndrome. As for the others there is no urge or their shots are weak. They don't have that drive. Get a few selfish guys. Get guys who want the puck on their sticks and want to take the shot when it counts.
Kuzy was 2nd in goals and 2nd in shots on goal. His game is outskating defenses. Backstrom lead the team in goals. They both shoot enough. In some cases they could shoot more, but they are shooting plenty.
Burakovsky has proven to fall victim to long scoring draughts. You can add to the broken hand. He really did very little after returning from the hand.
Kuznetsov was very good in the playoffs. Not really sure what you're talking about. What he did worked. He wasn't perfect, but his performance was probably the least concerning thing on the team this postseason.
With regards to developing offensive forwards, here's what Preds fans are saying about Trotz right now:
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=2346621
And when it comes down to it, the only specific example cited was Forsberg, which I already addressed. As for Arvidsson, there are also Nashville fans who say he's exactly the type of guy that would thrive under Trotz.
So again, when it comes down to it, I'm not sure even Nashville fans can give examples of young players whose offensive development was "screwed up" by Trotz.
Meanwhile, I got one positive example -- Radulov.
Looking for answers?
If you bothered to click on the thread link, you'll see them naming Colin Wilson and David Legwand as players that Trotz limited.
You're "positive example" is blatantly ignoring that Radulov spent four years in the KHL and how Radulov's subsequent return to Nashville ended.
But, yes, continue pretending that you know more about the Predators than Predators fans do and that 80% of Trotz's NHL career doesn't matter.
I think the bolded is absolutely key, and part of the reason I think Trotz's time should be up.
He is a fine enough coach at developing an overall strategy for success over the course of a season where opponents can't gameplan for you. But when it comes to in-game and in-series adjustments Trotz seemingly has no answers or is way too slow to come up with answers. It took him 3 full games before adjusting to what Toronto was doing to the Capitals, and it took him 4 games against Pittsburgh. And in Game 7 when Pittsburgh made their counter-adjustments Trotz wasn't able to come up with any answers in-game which helped lead to a complete dud.
Japers Rink mentioned it and I couldn't agree more that Trotz and the Capitals always seem to chase playoff series rather than dictate it from the get go, save for maybe last season against the Flyers. It felt like Babcock had a gameplan going into Game 1 on how to attack the Capitals whereas Trotz didn't do any preparation and instead waited to see what Toronto would do. He should have known that 27-74 would be eaten alive by Matthews given their struggles in the regular season, he should have known Orpik would struggle against Toronto given his struggles against faster teams, and he should have known that Schmidt would be a better option.
They were lucky enough to get out of the Toronto series given the apparently lack of gameplanning for games 1-3 but they weren't as lucky against Pittsburgh. They should have known that Pittsburgh would try to play a rope-a-dope, shot-blocking type of game and countered that starting in Game 1 given that this is exactly how they played against Columbus but instead it took them several games to figure out how to counter it.
Trotz just seems slow to think on his feet, even if his overall vision is admirable. I think they need a more creative guy behind the bench and someone who's willing to experiment during the regular season when things aren't going absolutely perfectly. They need a guy who can gameplan for specific opponents, and I don't think Trotz is that guy.