Confirmed with Link: Nashville Predators buying out Matt Duchene

[PredsV82]

I think he, and to a lesser extent Josi and Forsberg, all had that great season two years ago and saw that all the effort didn't get them a single playoff win, and consciously or unconsciously decided since they had their fat contracts they were just gonna phone it in, especially if they didn't like the way Hynes was doing things.

I'm hoping the new coach, new teammates and all the hungry kids will reignite the fire in 9 and 59.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I think he, and to a lesser extent Josi and Forsberg, all had that great season two years ago and saw that all the effort didn't get them a single playoff win, and consciously or unconsciously decided since they had their fat contracts they were just gonna phone it in, especially if they didn't like the way Hynes was doing things.

I'm hoping the new coach, new teammates and all the hungry kids will reignite the fire in 9 and 59.

TBH, I rank that season as one of the "weirder" things I've seen in hockey. Like, the team was really playing hard and near the top of the standings in January. They were riding an "identity"... however anachronistic that identity might have been (based on relentless physicality and the Herd Line mentality mostly)...

And then, boom, everything did a 180. Suddenly it was all Josi/Forsberg/Duchene and they scored a ton and... the team went into the tank in the standings despite that.

It's difficult to even unwrap what happened. There was the layoff in February, there was Saros, did the Herd line get worn out, what happened to make the big money stars get handed the ball to that extent? They piled up points. But the team was much worse.

It was definitely a bizarre outcome, anyway. I don't think from our peanut gallery seats we can even diagnose what happened, we can only observe that, yes indeed, it happened.


2 years ago was just weird.

 

[triggrman]

I think he, and to a lesser extent Josi and Forsberg, all had that great season two years ago and saw that all the effort didn't get them a single playoff win, and consciously or unconsciously decided since they had their fat contracts they were just gonna phone it in, especially if they didn't like the way Hynes was doing things.

I'm hoping the new coach, new teammates and all the hungry kids will reignite the fire in 9 and 59.

Well we know Forsberg and Josi have what it takes. They’ve done it before and only came up 2 wins short. Duchene was supposed to help with that, instead the team took a nose dive, fired the coach and continued to get worse unto he was finally traded to a good team with a chance to win……

 

[Edgework]

Suddenly it was all Josi/Forsberg/Duchene and they scored a ton and... the team went into the tank in the standings despite that.

It's difficult to even unwrap what happened. There was the layoff in February, there was Saros, did the Herd line get worn out, what happened to make the big money stars get handed the ball to that extent? They piled up points. But the team was much worse.

In retrospect, the roster was just dire.

You had:
Forsberg - granlund - Duchene
Herd
Kunin - johansen - cousins
Tolvanen - mccarron - tomasino

(And variations thereof, including Olivier and matt luff—two more grind guys)

So essentially we had three grind lines, more or less. Joey isn’t really an all-grind center but we insisted on skating him with kunin and cousins, who are basically just hustle guys.

Tolvanen and tomasino had good defensive metrics, which they never got credit for, but they were on the shortest offensive leash of all time. And they skated with mccarron when they played at all.

Early on, the herd line surprised everyone. It was pretty salty for a grind line, and it overmatched a lot of people’s weaker lines. But then everyone in the league figured it out: herd was the de facto 2nd line. So people started scheming them that way, and the preds’ answer was, uh, insufficient.

Because you had Joey saddled with subpar wings, and you had the kids saddled with pressure to play mistake free while skating with a non-nhl center.

The PP was still decent, because you had all four actual top-6 forwards plus Josi. And Duchene and forsberg together were (have always been) dangerous.

And actually by year’s end, when they finally brought glass back up, the kid line was pretty good. Because again, everyone was scheming for 9-95 and then herd. And that left Tolvy-glass-tomo to feast on third line types. They were raw and they weren’t dominant, but they were certainly a bright spot.

(So naturally Hynes waived Tolvanen, sent tomasino to AHL, and healthy scratched glass. But that’s a different year)

TLDR—forsberg and duchene were legit, herd line was too much for bottom 6 lines to handle but not enough as a de facto second line, and the other two lines were not good enough and incoherently constructed.

 

[Kat Predator]

In retrospect, the roster was just dire.

You had:
Forsberg - granlund - Duchene
Herd
Kunin - johansen - cousins
Tolvanen - mccarron - tomasino

(And variations thereof, including Olivier and matt luff—two more grind guys)

So essentially we had three grind lines, more or less. Joey isn’t really an all-grind center but we insisted on skating him with kunin and cousins, who are basically just hustle guys.

Tolvanen and tomasino had good defensive metrics, which they never got credit for, but they were on the shortest offensive leash of all time. And they skated with mccarron when they played at all.

Early on, the herd line surprised everyone. It was pretty salty for a grind line, and it overmatched a lot of people’s weaker lines. But then everyone in the league figured it out: herd was the de facto 2nd line. So people started scheming them that way, and the preds’ answer was, uh, insufficient.

Because you had Joey saddled with subpar wings, and you had the kids saddled with pressure to play mistake free while skating with a non-nhl center.

The PP was still decent, because you had all four actual top-6 forwards plus Josi. And Duchene and forsberg together were (have always been) dangerous.

And actually by year’s end, when they finally brought glass back up, the kid line was pretty good. Because again, everyone was scheming for 9-95 and then herd. And that left Tolvy-glass-tomo to feast on third line types. They were raw and they weren’t dominant, but they were certainly a bright spot.

(So naturally Hynes waived Tolvanen, sent tomasino to AHL, and healthy scratched glass. But that’s a different year)

TLDR—forsberg and duchene were legit, herd line was too much for bottom 6 lines to handle but not enough as a de facto second line, and the other two lines were not good enough and incoherently constructed.

I believe Tolvanen spent the majority of that season wedded to Kunin. Kunin, as we might recall, had worked himself down to the Wild's 4th line, but when he got here he was anointed a so-called "top 6" spot. Joey and Granny played merry-go-round at centre between those lines. The surprise factor of having the HERD out there hitting people in Oct and Nov like it was the first round of the playoffs, did set a tone and led to some things. But by the end of the season, other teams had stepped up their own intensity and sorted themselves out. Adding more grinders and getting in more fights was never going to win games. At the very end, the line of Tolvy, Glass, and Tomasino did provide some spark and looked promising. Perhaps because they didn't "play to the identity" of that ground-and-pound system? But that was killed before it could get any traction.

With any luck, Brunette will be a breath of fresh air.

 

[Scoresberg]

Pot kettle black?

And with that one comment Duchene showed why the buyout was the right choice.. points be damned.

What a f***ing loser, honestly. Everywhere he’s gone in his career has been a contender.. well right until he has arrived.

 

[Armourboy]

In retrospect, the roster was just dire.

You had:
Forsberg - granlund - Duchene
Herd
Kunin - johansen - cousins
Tolvanen - mccarron - tomasino

(And variations thereof, including Olivier and matt luff—two more grind guys)

So essentially we had three grind lines, more or less. Joey isn’t really an all-grind center but we insisted on skating him with kunin and cousins, who are basically just hustle guys.

Tolvanen and tomasino had good defensive metrics, which they never got credit for, but they were on the shortest offensive leash of all time. And they skated with mccarron when they played at all.

Early on, the herd line surprised everyone. It was pretty salty for a grind line, and it overmatched a lot of people’s weaker lines. But then everyone in the league figured it out: herd was the de facto 2nd line. So people started scheming them that way, and the preds’ answer was, uh, insufficient.

Because you had Joey saddled with subpar wings, and you had the kids saddled with pressure to play mistake free while skating with a non-nhl center.

The PP was still decent, because you had all four actual top-6 forwards plus Josi. And Duchene and forsberg together were (have always been) dangerous.

And actually by year’s end, when they finally brought glass back up, the kid line was pretty good. Because again, everyone was scheming for 9-95 and then herd. And that left Tolvy-glass-tomo to feast on third line types. They were raw and they weren’t dominant, but they were certainly a bright spot.

(So naturally Hynes waived Tolvanen, sent tomasino to AHL, and healthy scratched glass. But that’s a different year)

TLDR—forsberg and duchene were legit, herd line was too much for bottom 6 lines to handle but not enough as a de facto second line, and the other two lines were not good enough and incoherently constructed.

I'd say you are pretty close, the one add I would make is that everyone came back from that break and started ramping up for the playoffs. Basically we had been running full tilt all year and didn't have another gear to grab. Once we couldn't just out hustle teams we basically became a one line team, which is why it racked up points but we still lost. Also think guys like Jeannot just ran out of steam too.