Should the Preds make a coaching change?

[Prediculous]

The series loss isn't on Lavi, it's on the players being outplayed and not stepping up. I'd be pissed if we fired him over losing to a 114 point team.

 

[GarbageGoal]

Clod Julien is elite and Lavi isn’t?

Wow.

 

[Marty Party]

I think the pole results say more than any words we could type.

 

[NoNecksCurse]

I think the pole results say more than any words we could type.

a jets fan and a random (flyers?) guy are the 2 yes votes

 

[Osprey]

Gonna go with no. I mean he can't play defense for Ellis and Josi, stop the puck for Rinne and can't make the 2nd line not turn the puck over and be horrible defensively. Do I think he could have made some changes on that 2d line, maybe change the D pairings up? Yeah he could, but hell it may not have been any better.

Actually, those are the kinds of a things that a coach absolutely can have an effect on. Players are only as good as the coach behind them. Look at Gallant. Why else did most of the Knights players go from being "meh" enough a year ago to be left exposed by their former teams to solid enough that their team is in the Conference Final today? It's not because they all coincidentally developed that much over last Summer.

Ellis, Josi, the 2nd line and most of the rest of the team have been unimpressive on defense not because they're not capable of being better, but because Laviolette's system encourages offense rather than defense. A different coach could implement a more defensive system and stress more responsibility with the puck. For example, I guarantee you that, if Sutter were hired, Ellis, Josi and the 2nd line would all look much better defensively and Rinne would look like a wall. Of course, along with that, the whole team would forget how to score, so it wouldn't necessarily be an improvement, but that shows how much coaching has an effect on both defense and offense.

I'm not advocating firing Laviolette. What I'd like to see, instead, is him tweak his system to stress a little more responsibility with the puck, including players covering for one another and not making risky plays. He seems to be capable of it because he got them to play that way in Games 4 and 6. I think that he should go into next training camp with the goal of tightening up the team's defense a little, even if it means trading a few goals. He'll never be a trap coach, but even coaches need to recognize when they need to tweak things to adapt, just like players do.

 

[Marty Party]

a jets fan and a random (flyers?) guy are the 2 yes votes

I spelled poll wrong also. SMH.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I get pretty critical of coaches. They all have an expiry date, even the best ones. Preds have been a huge anomaly with just Trotz and now Laviolette. You don't see that kind of stability very often. It's still "early days" for Lavi in a relative sense. But so far I'm less critical of him than of most coaches for teams I've followed. He has fewer foibles that I dislike. I think the Preds could - and almost certainly would - do a whole lot worse than Lavi. It's a no-brainer to keep him IMHO.

 

[Enoch]

This is a .... terrible thread topic.

I can't even...

 

[klt2001]

I questioned some of Lavy's style of play and keeping some of the lines together that weren't getting it done and think he should have changed up some of the lines but even w/ that no I don't think he needs to be fired. He got us to the Stanley cup finals last year and got us the President's trophy and Conference Division Title. Lavy and the team can just learn from this experience and their mistakes and do better next year. Next year the guys will be fresher w/ more time to rest in the summer and I suspect they won't be gunning for the President's trophy since having home ice wasn't an advantage to them but more of a disadvantage and so can be more rested going into the playoffs next year and hopefully that will help them w/ getting further into the playoffs with some change up in the lineup/trades if the guys aren't improving/playing well/scoring. I do think though that just as the Preds players can learn from this playoff experience, so can Lavy (which seeing how he did make some adjustments to our game in game 4 and 6 I think he is able to make changes on the fly) and hopefully that will make them better next year.

 

[glenngineer]

Without reading this thread and responding to the OP, no, we have an elite coach in Laviolette so no need to replace him. We've achieved great things with him.

 

[Drake744]

Should we make a coaching change? I think I speak for everyone here when I say........

 

[JustaFinnishGuy]

smh my head

 

[PredsV82]

It took 17 years to make the first coaching change. Lavy is here for a good while.

 

[WingsOverAvs]

I will say this.....I didnt like the way Lavi coached @ home. Seemed content to play matchups in lieu of structure. NSH was a brick wall on the NZ in games 4 & 6. That wasnt the case in Smashville. WPG had a much easier time entering the offensive zone

 

[ThirdManIn]

As a Flyers fan, I can tell you the grass is RARELY greener on the other side. I'd kill a man to have Lavy back. He didn't lose you this series. Rinne did in the first 10 minuts of Game 7. Their D also looked fatigued the long run last year. Turris and Hartman didn't acclimate quickly enough. Preds should be contenders again next year with a minor tweak or two.

Not that I disagree with the overall sentiment here, but Turris acclimated immediately. It wasn't an acclimation issue. He simply didn't show up in the playoffs.

 

[StarvinArvyn33]

No. Honestly we need more offence from our forwards. We clearly rely too heavily on our defence to generate scoring. Also maybe one-two defensively sound dmen. Ellis-josi got swiss cheesed this year. Wouldnt mind seeing them on different pairs

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Not even a question. No.

 

[bdub24]

smh my head

Wait...what does this mean?

 

[PredsV82]

Wait...what does this mean?

Hes rapping...

 

[FilthyScoresberg]

Wait...what does this mean?

It means “shaking my head.”
So he essentially said, “shaking my head my head.”

 

[JustaFinnishGuy]

Wait...what does this mean?

It's a meme.
Only I think it's hilarious though.
Smh= shake my head and I always add the my head after it so I can laugh to myself.

 

[jumb0]

Lol, no.

 

[101st_fan]

Nothing from Lavi indicates the need for a coaching change. He's been great for the team in the season-long game. It's a lot of his short-term decisions that leave me scratching his head ... decisions that in a series can be costly but not worthy of a change behind the bench.

 

[Spirit of 67]

Nope.

 

[Wolfpuck]

Canes fan echoing what the Flyers fans said. Lavy is an elite coach. He's certainly the best we've ever had.