Confirmed with Link: Dean Evason named Finalist for Jack Adams
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Danila Yurov Fan Club Executive Assistant
- May 2, 2018
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Tough crowd. He was handed a team that had Johansson, Rask, Bjugstad, and Hartman as C candidates and told to make a team. Oh and Sturm had what....maybe 5-10 points in his career coming into this season?
I thought he did really well. The team never gave up, and made numerous comebacks when I thought it was over. They took a Cup contender to 7 games despite some pretty questionable reffing and losing two starting Dmen. We were all pretty disappointed at the time, but seeing what VGK did to CO, maybe we should feel better about ourselves, and Dean. I would've liked to see Boldy in the playoffs over Bjugstad and Parise, but let's face it, LW is not where the real problem was, and Parise delivered when he was played.
Thought he could've done a bit better managing the goalies, but that's minor quibbling/ second guessing. We had much better goaltending this year than in the past, and he deserves some credit for that, IMO, as well as Guerin for signing Talbot.
The team seems to play for Dean. I think they appreciate that it is a meritocracy now, as Parise is no longer gifted top minutes, and Suter is just one of the top 4 guys rather than a guy who won't get off the ice, and Lords it over everyone.He tried all sorts of combinations of lines early in the year, and did, IMO, the best he could with a near impossible situation. He somehow conjured up the idea of playing Hartman as a top 6 C, and he didn't do half bad, compared to the other options.
I really don't get a lot of the criticism he gets on here. I think a lot of the things that he did are taken for granted, like putting together and sticking with the GREEF's after Kunin was traded, being smart enough to get out of Kaprizov's way as soon as he saw what he was, using tough love in the best sense of the word with Fiala, and figuring out that Cole could actually play, and Hunt couldn't. The PP was historically bad, but he then fixed it so it actually became quite good. All these things could have gone the wrong way, but didn't. That's not by accident. Evidently the NHL agrees.
I thought he did really well. The team never gave up, and made numerous comebacks when I thought it was over. They took a Cup contender to 7 games despite some pretty questionable reffing and losing two starting Dmen. We were all pretty disappointed at the time, but seeing what VGK did to CO, maybe we should feel better about ourselves, and Dean. I would've liked to see Boldy in the playoffs over Bjugstad and Parise, but let's face it, LW is not where the real problem was, and Parise delivered when he was played.
Thought he could've done a bit better managing the goalies, but that's minor quibbling/ second guessing. We had much better goaltending this year than in the past, and he deserves some credit for that, IMO, as well as Guerin for signing Talbot.
The team seems to play for Dean. I think they appreciate that it is a meritocracy now, as Parise is no longer gifted top minutes, and Suter is just one of the top 4 guys rather than a guy who won't get off the ice, and Lords it over everyone.He tried all sorts of combinations of lines early in the year, and did, IMO, the best he could with a near impossible situation. He somehow conjured up the idea of playing Hartman as a top 6 C, and he didn't do half bad, compared to the other options.
I really don't get a lot of the criticism he gets on here. I think a lot of the things that he did are taken for granted, like putting together and sticking with the GREEF's after Kunin was traded, being smart enough to get out of Kaprizov's way as soon as he saw what he was, using tough love in the best sense of the word with Fiala, and figuring out that Cole could actually play, and Hunt couldn't. The PP was historically bad, but he then fixed it so it actually became quite good. All these things could have gone the wrong way, but didn't. That's not by accident. Evidently the NHL agrees.
I agree with this for the most part. I thought he did well with a team that had a crucial weakness that wasn't in his power to fix. Good goaltending is obviously a major factor, but that strikes me as a little chicken-and-egg: did the coach look good because of a hot goalie, or was the goalie hot because he was playing behind a structured team? Probably both, and Dean gets his share of the credit for that.
Another thing that's been kind of been in my head is this from the last 31 Thoughts podcast (27:30).
Aside from the trade implications it's a reminder that this really was a long, strange season, played under conditions that've worn a lot of teams and players down. I think it's partially a testament to the coaches that the locker room has reportedly stayed close knit and continued to buy in, despite having one of the tougher travel schedules in the league. Maybe we'll hear otherwise over the next few weeks, but pretty much every report we've heard about where players' heads are at is that they want to stay put. Parise's an outlier, but that's a much larger question than just this season.
It's also something I think Guerin gets some credit for. I'm still not sure how wise it is but he's pretty clearly made "fixing the room" one of his priorities over the last year; I think that was a big factor in both Bonino and Cole being brought in, and possibly Johansson (on apparent vetting from Evason). It was certainly a factor in deciding some of the departures. It's a hard thing to quantify but, as we might see over the next few months, being a team that players actually want to play for does have some real advantages.
Elliotte Friedman said:
Aside from the trade implications it's a reminder that this really was a long, strange season, played under conditions that've worn a lot of teams and players down. I think it's partially a testament to the coaches that the locker room has reportedly stayed close knit and continued to buy in, despite having one of the tougher travel schedules in the league. Maybe we'll hear otherwise over the next few weeks, but pretty much every report we've heard about where players' heads are at is that they want to stay put. Parise's an outlier, but that's a much larger question than just this season.
It's also something I think Guerin gets some credit for. I'm still not sure how wise it is but he's pretty clearly made "fixing the room" one of his priorities over the last year; I think that was a big factor in both Bonino and Cole being brought in, and possibly Johansson (on apparent vetting from Evason). It was certainly a factor in deciding some of the departures. It's a hard thing to quantify but, as we might see over the next few months, being a team that players actually want to play for does have some real advantages.
This is getting away from coaching, but one of my fears about trading away Dumba is that i think he is one of those guys who keeps everyone loose, and brings the team together with his enthusiasm, good humor, and positivity. Foligno is probably one of those guys, too, though they both have their own styles. Guys like that do a lot of the coaches work for them, just like certain other types can make a coach work harder because of their negativity.
Agreed. I'm not sure Dumba ever lives up to all of our expectations over the past few years... But he would have been great with a letter on his chest.
Ehh...I don't think he needs to have that. It's almost better if he's outside the "chain of command", and is the prankster, relief valve, and bon vivant.
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