Ken Holland End of Season Press Conference

[Bondurant]

He's finally coming around. Still, this is akin to claiming there's a natural disaster AFTER the meteor hit. There have been signs the impact was coming for years and he stood defiant, thinking he could navigate around it.

I want Kenny to prove me wrong. But I won't hold my breath.

I quite shocked as to how many Kenny apologists have come out of the woodwork after the presser. He's acknowledged what others have been mentioning for years at this point.

Agree with you completely. I want to believe but don't have many reasons to be optimistic.

 

[Red Stanley]

I think the team has been a hot mess for almost a decade now. It was maintained into a steady, frustrating and inevitable decline. Despite all that there were opportunities for deep runs. "Anything can happen" is spot-on when it comes to the NHL playoffs. Let's not conflate these two separate points.

 

[BinCookin]

......This has been going on since like 2010.

I think the team has been a hot mess for almost a decade now. ....

We all have reason to be upset... but it hasn't been a decade.

WRONG

Fake News.

Sad.

 

[Winger98]

I dont' mind they signed those guys.
But not at the salary/term they were signed to.

If Helm gets 3x3 instead of 5x4, I'm satisfied.
If Abdelkader gets 3x3.5,I'm happy with it.

But the utter predictablity of these awful contracts is what's maddening. You KNEW they were coming.
Everyone KNEW they were coming.
It was like Holland had no other choice.

I don't know, I still kind of mind that we signed them. I was really hoping they would have been dealt for picks. Even if we then went out that following summer and signed some guys to fill those spots again, I think either of Helm/Gator bring back 1st rounders at the TDL. If we were really trying to keep rebuilding on the fly or whatever, I saw making that sort of deal as necessary to it.

Having a better term would have made me dislike it less, but I saw keeping them as a missed opportunity. As you said, though, they were deals all of us could see coming. They were disappointing, but not exactly surprising.

 

[Pavels Dog]

I think the team has been a hot mess for almost a decade now.

Come on, only a decade? I could see the rebuild coming two decades ago. It’s been a slow decline ever since back-to-back cups.

 

[Red Stanley]

We all have reason to be upset... but it hasn't been a decade.

WRONG

Fake News.

Sad.

Those are my personal feelings on it. Ever since Rafalski retired and Lids was at the end of his career, they've struggled to play the puck possession style they perfected. As the seasons kept on rolling the roster aged, got less talented and felt like they were grinding it out more than not. But they weren't even built to be a grindy team so it felt forced. I've been frustrated with the lack of identity for a while. That's what I meant by hot mess.

 

[BinCookin]

Those are my personal feelings on it. Ever since Rafalski retired and Lids was at the end of his career, they've struggled to play the puck possession style they perfected. As the seasons kept on rolling the roster aged, got less talented and felt like they were grinding it out more than not. But they weren't even built to be a grindy team so it felt forced. I've been frustrated with the lack of identity for a while. That's what I meant by hot mess.

I suppose you are allowed to have your opinion.
But if you say "since Rafalski retired... that is 2011

So 2012 forward... is not a Decade. You added 3 years, its a pretty big difference.

 

[Red Stanley]

I suppose you are allowed to have your opinion.
But if fyou say "since Rafalski retired... that is 2011

So 2012 forward... is not a Decade. You added 3 years, its a pretty big difference.

Well, I said almost. I certainly never wanted them to blow it up and I've made that clear before. I've been frustrated by what I saw as a lack of identity and a style of hockey that only masked the glaring problems with the roster. That to me is a hot mess of a team.

 

[Red Stanley]

Come on, only a decade? I could see the rebuild coming two decades ago. It’s been a slow decline ever since back-to-back cups.

Operative words being "I think" and "almost". In my opinion they have been frustrating to watch ever since they lost the ability to play possession hockey properly and couldn't out-grind the more physical teams, yet they still tried to do both at the same time. Didn't say anything about rebuilding.

 

[Winger98]

I'm with Red that the team got progressively harder to watch after Rafalski retired, Lids aged, etc. They could still go out and compete for a number of years afterward, and could be a dangerous team with some luck/health/etc., but even the wins could be hard watches.

 

[lomekian]

I like some of the things he said, but I still don't trust him to carry out those things. I'm glad he admitted the defense is old and that we need an impact defensman (hawt take there Kenny), but he's had 20 years of drafting defenseman that have failed to reach the 20 point plateau. I still don't have any faith that he'll be able to fix this team, but I'm glad he says he won't make the issues worse for the next GM.

So basically it's exactly as I said. Now he's saying more of what his critics want to hear, they decide either he's being dishonest or can't be trusted to make his intentions happen.

The rebuild has already started, but now its official.

Maybe a better question would be to ask
"What did he say that you disagree with?"
& "what didn't he say that you think he should have?"

 

[lomekian]

Fair enough. I think he very clearly stated he wants to be a contender.

I think he is using compete and competitive in a different sense.

I think Arizona was non-competitive this year. It was out of the playoffs in the first 2 months. theey were being blown out.
I think their team lacks something. Maybe they need 1-2 more vets for their kids? Maybe their kids just suck in general?

Who is supposed to teach Dvorak, Domi, and Keller how to play smartly? Stepan?

there is something to be said about "competing" which builds the right kind of mentality for young players.

I think Holland says compete in the sense of "We could have won this game".

Even on our worst stretch of the season 10 game losing streak... I would say our team didn't collapse and give up on any game.
I think that is important.

People also asked him alot about time-lines. And the real answer is... he has no idea.
It all depends.
When will Rasmussen perform. When will Cholowski or Hronek make the top 4 (if ever)
Will Bertuzzi/Mantha/AA/Larkin keep improving.
How much will the vets decline.
I think he said it could be as soon as 1-2 years where the team makes it back to the playoffs, or it could be 7-8 years.

As he also alluded to, a lot depends on what picks we get in the lottery this and probably next year. We get lucky and maybe an instant franchise player. We are unlucky and maybe a top 6 fwd or top 4 D.

Would have a massive effect on any rebuild.

 

[Perfect Human]

Didn't the wings win the cup a decade ago and make the finals 9 years ago?

 

[Heaton]

So basically it's exactly as I said. Now he's saying more of what his critics want to hear, they decide either he's being dishonest or can't be trusted to make his intentions happen.

I don't understand, because he says it we should believe that he'll fix everything? Saying and doing are two different things. I can like what I hear and still be skeptical, this isn't a black or white type of conversation.

 

[StargateSG1]

So many questions, so many contradictions, so many same old, same old statements. Not sure why some people are expecting changes..

The future’s so blah, I wanna throw shade

Ken Holland, Jeff Blashill appear on WJR 760

 

[Ezekial]

Didn't the wings win the cup a decade ago and make the finals 9 years ago?

Yea but since we didn't go to a 3rd straight and only won one series in 2010 it was time.

 

[Shaman464]

I think the team has been a hot mess for almost a decade now. It was maintained into a steady, frustrating and inevitable decline. Despite all that there were opportunities for deep runs. "Anything can happen" is spot-on when it comes to the NHL playoffs. Let's not conflate these two separate points.

Except statistically the top 8 (4 from each conference) win the cup by huge margins (think over 80% of the time). So, no anything can't happen, Cup winners come nearly exclusively from the top 4 seeds, and aside from LA, never from seeds 6, 7 or 8 in a conference.

 

[Red Stanley]

Except statistically the top 8 (4 from each conference) win the cup by huge margins (think over 80% of the time). So, no anything can't happen, Cup winners come nearly exclusively from the top 4 seeds, and aside from LA, never from seeds 6, 7 or 8 in a conference.

I said deep runs in general, not Cups in particular. Upsets happen all the time in hockey.

 

[ricky0034]

I dont' mind they signed those guys.
But not at the salary/term they were signed to.

If Helm gets 3x3 instead of 5x4, I'm satisfied.
If Abdelkader gets 3x3.5,I'm happy with it.

But the utter predictablity of these awful contracts is what's maddening. You KNEW they were coming.
Everyone KNEW they were coming.
It was like Holland had no other choice.

yeah it's funny just how predictable Holland became over time

I still remember a couple years back responding to someone on here about Helm's impending contract telling them that they were being too optimistic about their estimates and that he would get ~4m for 4-5 years

definitely one of the sadder moments i've had following this team seeing that almost literally come true that same day

 

[Shaman464]

I said deep runs in general, not Cups in particular. Upsets happen all the time in hockey.

The stats are still very skewed when it comes to teams competing in the SCF being mostly top 4 seeds. There are a few more exceptions, but again, the 'anything can happen' mantra is a sales gimmick, the data doesn't back it up that lower seed teams have even a decent chance of getting to the late rounds.

 

[Goalie guy]

Omg so many people here with Kenny's kids dripping off their lip it's sad really. Oh yes hes talking right about building threw the draft, again his only problem is he is about 10 years behind the times. He is wanting to build a his words " Big" team when the rest of the league is no longer trying to be 6'3 and over. All you guys thinking this going to be a 3 or 4 year build are in for a big let down.

 

[Pavels Dog]

Omg so many people here with Kenny's kids dripping off their lip it's sad really. Oh yes hes talking right about building threw the draft, again his only problem is he is about 10 years behind the times. He is wanting to build a his words " Big" team when the rest of the league is no longer trying to be 6'3 and over. All you guys thinking this going to be a 3 or 4 year build are in for a big let down.

Where did he say he wanted to build a big team?

 

[Goalie guy]

Where did he say he wanted to build a big team?

Go watch it again.

 

[KJoe88]

Where did he say he wanted to build a big team?

He didn’t. Not from the video I watched.

 

[Oddbob]

The stats are still very skewed when it comes to teams competing in the SCF being mostly top 4 seeds. There are a few more exceptions, but again, the 'anything can happen' mantra is a sales gimmick, the data doesn't back it up that lower seed teams have even a decent chance of getting to the late rounds.

Who saw EDM vs CAR in '06 or NJD vs LA in '12, no one! Who saw OTT in the 3rd round last year, not one person outside OTT fans!