Post-Game Talk: Blue Jackets @ Caps, 7:30PM

[Calicaps]

weird how this just randomly comes out now?

bmac could have fired him anytime this year

Trotz was always Patrick's guy. That's not a secret. Maybe he couldn't.

 

[hockeykicker]

That’s assuming he’s allowed to.

well mcphee fired boudreau mid year, so seems unlikely ted stopped it

 

[Langway]

That’s assuming he’s allowed to.

Right and he very likely lacks that authority and may continue to do so going forward. Yet ownership extended him and he agreed so he's willing to walk this nightmare tightrope.

 

[hockeykicker]

Trotz was always Patrick's guy. That's not a secret. Maybe he couldn't.

maybe, just seems like a random thing so say now. why not after game 1? why not anytime during the season?

feels like someone wanting to throw more shade. maybe its true Idk, but the timing makes it seem less believable

 

[Calicaps]

well mcphee fired boudreau mid year, so seems unlikely ted stopped it

What does this have to do with anything?

 

[Roughing]

bmac could have fired him anytime this year

If he's allowed to. Good thing I'm an Orioles fan, too. That way I get to follow two horribly dysfunctional organizations with very similar failures.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

maybe, just seems like a random thing so say now. why not after game 1? why not anytime during the season?

feels like someone wanting to throw more shade. maybe its true Idk, but the timing makes it seem less believable

GM's have been forced to keep their coaches against their will before. Remember, they're not at the top of the food chain.

 

[hockeykicker]

What does this have to do with anything?

it shows that ted does allow coaches to be fired mid year, which goes back to my point, if ted/patrick didnt block boudreau fire, why would they block trotz fire

 

[Calicaps]

If he's allowed to. Good thing I'm an Orioles fan, too. That way I get to follow two horribly dysfunctional organizations with very similar failures.

Add the 'Skins and you could have the trifecta.

 

[hockeykicker]

GM's have been forced to keep their coaches against their will before. Remember, they're not at the top of the food chain.

again, then why did maclellan sign an extension? you can say with a lot of certainty some team would take him as their gm

 

[hockeykicker]

If he's allowed to. Good thing I'm an Orioles fan, too. That way I get to follow two horribly dysfunctional organizations with very similar failures.

ted is a lot of things, but he isnt an owner that would stand in the way if his gm wanted to fire a coach

 

[Langway]

We're rapidly approaching the point where ownership needs to make competent decisions or else the fanbase and/or players aren't going to have any more of it (and rightfully so). I do wonder if Scott Brooks hasn't changed the equation on Leonsis paying for coaches. That hasn't really worked out either but would they throw money at Vigneault due to name recognition, etc.? I don't think it's a great fit altogether but I wouldn't doubt some ill-advised move in that sort of direction.

again, then why did maclellan sign an extension? you can say with a lot of certainty some team would take him as their gm

$$$? I don't know how easy it is to just test those waters. You never know.

 

[AtNightWeFly]

maybe, just seems like a random thing so say now. why not after game 1? why not anytime during the season?

feels like someone wanting to throw more shade. maybe its true Idk, but the timing makes it seem less believable

To me it seems more believable actually. When things go really bad everyone loses their shit and god knows what slips out. That's why I never call someone a friend until we've been through really rough times together.

 

[hockeykicker]

We're rapidly approaching the point where ownership needs to make competent decisions or else the fanbase and/or players aren't going to have any more of it (and rightfully so). I do wonder if Scott Brooks hasn't changed the equation on Leonsis paying for coaches. That hasn't really worked out either but would they throw money at Vigneault due to name recognition, etc.? I don't think it's a great fit altogether but I wouldn't doubt some ill-advised move in that sort of direction.

$$$? I don't know how easy it is to just test those waters. You never know.

maybe im just different, but money isnt motivating when its a job i hate

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

again, then why did maclellan sign an extension? you can say with a lot of certainty some team would take him as their gm

It could be a lot more complicated than that. A coach and a GM not seeing eye-to-eye doesn't necessarily mean that the GM wants to fire the coach immediately. With the Caps winning their division, maybe GMBM couldn't come up with the right excuse to fire Trotz?

 

[hockeykicker]

It could be a lot more complicated than that. A coach and a GM not seeing eye-to-eye doesn't necessarily mean that the GM wants to fire the coach immediately. With the Caps winning their division, maybe GMBM couldn't come up with the right excuse to fire Trotz?

all he had to do was read this board

but look, maybe everything is true, maybe ted wanted to keep trotz, idk. just dont believe maclellan who has basically been able to do what he wants with trades, signings etc as not allowed to fire a coach

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

all he had to do was read this board

but look, maybe everything is true, maybe ted wanted to keep trotz, idk. just dont believe maclellan who has basically been able to do what he wants with trades, signings etc as not allowed to fire a coach

I'll give you a scenario.
So the Caps had yet another heartbreaking playoff loss last year, GMBM is having a rough offseason with the expansion draft and the free agency. He has to make a decision about Trotz, but he knows that the next season will be tough.

Maybe GMBM says: "Hey Barry, I'll give you one last chance and I promise that you will have job security as long as you have us in line to make the playoffs."

We're all worrying and reacting about the playoffs, but we tend to forget that we had to get there in the first place. Remember in the offseason and early in the season with the big losing streak we had. Most experts predicted us to miss the playoffs. Most people here thought we wouldn't make it. Yet we made it. This season won't be as much of a failure as we think it is. They've met expectations already. No one in their right mind thinks that this team has a shot at the Cup. If you've looked at other playoff teams, 75% of them would beat us in a 7 game series.

 

[hockeykicker]

I'll give you a scenario.
So the Caps had yet another heartbreaking playoff loss last year, GMBM is having a rough offseason with the expansion draft and the free agency. He has to make a decision about Trotz, but he knows that the next season will be tough.

Maybe GMBM says: "Hey Barry, I'll give you one last chance and I promise that you will have job security as long as you have us in line to make the playoffs."

We're all worrying and reacting about the playoffs, but we tend to forget that we had to get there in the first place. Remember in the offseason and early in the season with the big losing streak we had. Most experts predicted us to miss the playoffs. Most people here thought we wouldn't make it. Yet we made it. This season won't be as much of a failure as we think it is. They've met expectations already. No one in their right mind thinks that this team has a shot at the Cup. If you've looked at other playoff teams, 75% of them would beat us in a 7 game series.

well if he met expectation, then why does maclellan hate trotz? doesnt make sense.
but oh well, he isnt gonna be back anyways so its a moot point

 

[The Consiglieri]

I just have a really, really hard time understanding why the GM didn't blow up the franchise and start a full scale tear down last summer. It makes no sense. I get why a coach is focused on the short term, it's his job, but the GM is supposed to take the long view and only a total idiot would have believed there was any hope whatsoever this collection of clown college grads was ever going to sniff a conference title series let alone a Stanley Cup Finals.

I'm going to blow a ten ton gasket if they don't have a fire sale at some point in the next 10 months. Either this summer or at the deadline, whenever is most likely to max what little return we can get on these blue hairs, the fire sale needs to happen, I suppose it needs to happen sooner rather than later but they should build the sale around whichever year is better in terms of prospects. We want to tank properly, for a legit shot at some quality studs. It's like the NBA. You want to tank in a year lie 2015, or 2017-2018, you don't want to tank when you've got a whose whose of busts, mine field style like the 2013 NBA crop.

I've learned enough in recent years to have zero respect, less than zero respect really to the idea of deferring to authority when it comes to management in sports. There are just way, way, way too many incompetent regimes filled with incompetent ideas, and recalcitrant dinosaur scouts for me to believe these idiots know what they're doing. So all I can do is pray that our idiots, have enough sense to really be designing the tear down to work in cahoots with an outstanding draft class. We should have done it this past offseason. We didn't. I'd love to believe we did it for a smart reason (the '18 class is mediocre, or stinks, or something like that), but I know better. I just hope we're smart enough to not wait until its too late, to just continue in a futile effort to pull some miracle out of collective rear end that we know isn't happening, while any remaining value in our assets is depleted eventually to zero.

But it being the caps, I imagine that's exactly what they'll do.

 

[Roughing]

Add the 'Skins and you could have the trifecta.

No doubt. I have friends in that boat. At least the Steelers have served me well.

 

[Bananas]

If we had actually adults working over at Monumental Failure Sports And Entertainment, they would have asked themselves why nobody tried to poach GMBM when he was the assistant gm while the Caps were the most exciting team in the league for seven years. All the other teams that were changing management didn't think they were worthy of such a great guy working for them? He's taken a team that was a year removed from being a playoff joke that couldn't get out of the second round, and he's just moved the Titanic's deck chairs around a bit.

I was hoping to be eating crow this time but it’s looking more and more like I’ll be serving it instead. GMBM is not very good and you will all be calling for his head in no time at all. He is not the architect to turn this franchise around.

Pointing out Trotz’s shortcoming is beating a dead horse at this point. And while I wanted him fired mid-season or earlier, it’s clear that he’ll be taken to the cleaners once he hands in this flop.

After that happens all indications are that we’ll still be stuck with the Leonsis/Patrick/McLellan trimuverate. It’s a crew that simply cannot make the hard decisions and stay one step ahead of the curve. The fact that the NHL went faster and we signed Oshie to 8yrs, held onto Orpik, and then let Schmidt be taken via expansion are exhibits A, B and C. Now old school Trotz is simply compounding it by not seeing the urgency in deploying Gersich/Vrana types.

 

[artilector]

What a spectacle.

It really sucks that Grubi got lit up -- in terms of future implications.

Ofc, they can still win this series. But more than winning, you know what would be good to see from these Caps at this point? Some rage.

Not implying anything crazy, by all means let's stay gentlemanly -- but just a bit more rage than exhibited by a team of accountants that's screwing up another tax return, let's say.

 

[The Consiglieri]

ted is a lot of things, but he isnt an owner that would stand in the way if his gm wanted to fire a coach

Yep, we've seen 50,000,000 coaches kicked to the curb on the Caps and the Boulez while the incompetent GM's carried on like they had Putinesque lifetime appointments for just about twenty years running.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

I just have a really, really hard time understanding why the GM didn't blow up the franchise and start a full scale tear down last summer. It makes no sense. I get why a coach is focused on the short term, it's his job, but the GM is supposed to take the long view and only a total idiot would have believed there was any hope whatsoever this collection of clown college grads was ever going to sniff a conference title series let alone a Stanley Cup Finals.

I'm going to blow a ten ton gasket if they don't have a fire sale at some point in the next 10 months. Either this summer or at the deadline, whenever is most likely to max what little return we can get on these blue hairs, the fire sale needs to happen, I suppose it needs to happen sooner rather than later but they should build the sale around whichever year is better in terms of prospects. We want to tank properly, for a legit shot at some quality studs. It's like the NBA. You want to tank in a year lie 2015, or 2017-2018, you don't want to tank when you've got a whose whose of busts, mine field style like the 2013 NBA crop.

I've learned enough in recent years to have zero respect, less than zero respect really to the idea of deferring to authority when it comes to management in sports. There are just way, way, way too many incompetent regimes filled with incompetent ideas, and recalcitrant dinosaur scouts for me to believe these idiots know what they're doing. So all I can do is pray that our idiots, have enough sense to really be designing the tear down to work in cahoots with an outstanding draft class. We should have done it this past offseason. We didn't. I'd love to believe we did it for a smart reason (the '18 class is mediocre, or stinks, or something like that), but I know better. I just hope we're smart enough to not wait until its too late, to just continue in a futile effort to pull some miracle out of collective rear end that we know isn't happening, while any remaining value in our assets is depleted eventually to zero.

But it being the caps, I imagine that's exactly what they'll do.

I think a lot of it has to do with revenue and fielding a competitive team during the regular season. There will always be a time to tank. We did it before and we'll do it again. Maybe the plan is to have more of these seasons of fielding semi-competitive teams to get revenue to go through the upcoming dark years when we will inevitably have to tank. There is no McDavid or Matthews coming up, now was definitely not the time to tank. The Nico Hischiers or Nolan Patricks of this world wouldn't get the Caps anywhere near the Cup. Tanking is only worth it if you get a shot at a generational player or a legitimate superstar.

I don't think GMBM thought this team had any shot at the Cup. He even said at the start of the season that he was concerned with the team defense.

 

[troyerlaw]

The good news is, we all die eventually