ClassLessCoyote
Staying classy
- Jun 10, 2009
- 30,112
- 277
With the current record brings more and more blaming for what's happening. Who's to blame for the Coyotes woes?
Players.
On paper, this should be a much better team than it is. It's not the GM's fault that the defense leaves guys wide open in front of the net. It's not the Owner's fault that our goaltending has been horrible.
Second choice would be the coaches, but I'm not ready to hang it on them yet. This is the NHL, and coaches shouldn't be required to teach the players the basics of playing hockey.
It is also our coaches jobs to put the team into position to execute effectively.
Tippet fan club out in force lmao
I still think its too early to start pointing fingers. For now I blame everybody, players, goalies, coaches, equipment staff, fans, arenas and bad luck.
And its getting ridiculous how every thread now is a defend-tippett thread.
We would have 9th year of Tippet running his old, stale, and stiffling system and another year of finishing with overall pick of 12 but out of the playoffs.
This system and coach will pay dividends in the long run.
Yet the system worked for three years. So what I think would have happened is we would still be primarily defense first, but b/c we have added some talent to a strict structure, combined with far better positioning and understanding of where to be on the ice, we start evolving even more into the exact type of teams that we were at the beginning of the decade. Through better defense, we force turnovers and create better chances b/c we would be wasting less energy and forcing the other teams to get back and cover us. Over the span of games, we would be the fresher and less worn out team by the 10 minute part of the 3rd period. We would be the team that is focused and able to keep our leads when we scored first or took leads into the 3rd period.
That's what evolution in a system looks like. Start slow - make sure everyone is on the same page and be able to prevent goals. If the other team can't score, you will never come away with less than a point per game. Same thing happened when I was an athlete and/or coaching. Our problem is that we are getting caught up in the "we look better on offense" side, but the fact is that has a negative effect on our defense. And for the young players, that is bad - why have the Oilers, Jets, or Sabres struggled with immense young talent on offense? B/c they were piss-poor at defense, and that is the direction that we are trending.
Yet the system worked for three years. Plus, there have been many other elements (like my constant posts about how we had one year with a sub .500 record when we were the team that scored the first goal) that people probably gloss over b.c they don't want to recognize any positives out of Tippett's tenure.
So what I think would have happened is we would still be primarily defense first, but b/c we have added some talent to a strict structure, combined with far better positioning and understanding of where to be on the ice, we start evolving even more into the exact type of teams that we were at the beginning of the decade. Through better defense, we force turnovers and create better chances b/c we would be wasting less energy and forcing the other teams to get back and cover us. Over the span of games, we would be the fresher and less worn out team by the 10 minute part of the 3rd period. We would be the team that is focused and able to keep our leads when we scored first or took leads into the 3rd period.
That's what evolution in a system looks like. Start slow - make sure everyone is on the same page and be able to prevent goals. If the other team can't score, you will never come away with less than a point per game. Same thing happened when I was an athlete and/or coaching. Our problem is that we are getting caught up in the "we look better on offense" side, but the fact is that has a negative effect on our defense. And for the young players, that is bad - why have the Oilers, Jets, or Sabres struggled with immense young talent on offense? B/c they were piss-poor at defense, and that is the direction that we are trending.
We would have 9th year of Tippet running his old, stale, and stiffling system and another year of finishing with overall pick of 12 but out of the playoffs.
This system and coach will pay dividends in the long run.
Three years with a roster that fit his system to perfection. The next four were an abomination. Why is that??
Because we began to retool the roster and try to evolve the team to where everyone else was headed. Faster.... more offense and attack oriented like most of the other teams were doing. Because those were the teams winning Stanley Cups. Two years ago San Jose was the prototype Pacific Division team. A big..... physical..... defense forward type team and the Penguins literally owned them.
So we begin retooling the roster..... and still try to run the same defense forward unwavering system with players who aren't built for it. Rather than trying to adapt the system, Tippett tries to get the players to adapt to him and it did..... not...... work.
Don't get me wrong..... I don't hate Tippett. But there were so many times in games over the last fours years where teams would make adjustments after period one against us and we had no idea how to respond. That's a failure of the coaching staff to recognize other team's adaptations and adjusting for them.
I kind of agree but the goalie is also an easy scape goat. Playing a D first system would help shield our weak goal tending and have gotten a few wins along the way. Remember how bad Duby was in Edmonton with their offense only system. He came here and played way better than on the Minni. Turns out he wasn't a bad goalie after all, just in front of a bad team. We might have more of the same thing here.Most to blame I’d say is the goaltending.
We’re 1-2-1 with an NHL goalie in net.
We’re 0-10-0 with an AHL goalie in net.
*This is not an endorsement of Mike Smith.
I'd add Domi to that list. His lack of finish has been frustrating but he's extremely noticeable on the ice and in a good way (except that foolish penalty).Everyone but Hjarmalsson and Keller.
I was just going to ignore this thread because it promised to devolve into the same tired entrenched arguments. And it has.
But if anyone thinks that this team would be a winning one right now with Tippett, Smith, and Vrbata still around, you're fooling yourselves.
This almost had me speechless...
So you are saying that starting in 2012-13, we made a conscious effort to bring in speed to our team, and evolve the system that way? Which acquisition did we make that proves this, of the following players:
Dave Moss
Rob Klinkhammer
Steve Sullivan
Conor Murphy
The bolded player is the only player that emphasizes what you just said - we were building for speed and the system failed these three players. Let's be real - we were a team making bargain basement deals b/c we had a GM who scouted for good deals and not the false narrative that you just created. We'll check other years of acquisitions and new faces:
13-14: Mike Ribeiro, Jeff Halpern, Tim Kennedy, Martin Erat
14-15: Sam Gagner, BJ Crombeen, Joe Vitale, Marc Arcobello, Tobias Reider
The trend that I am not seeing is necessarily one of trying to add significant speed and even then, it wasn't until 140-15. The bolded players are the ones whom I could agree with the idea of building towards playing fast. I see additions that were made b/c we had little money to offer, and we managed to make a good trade for Gagner and Reider. Ribeiro was worth it if you actually look at our free agent acquisitions over the decade. He is easily the most name recognizable player that signed from another team. I just question exactly what you are trying to imply by saying that we went up-tempo, b/c we really didn't. Maybe that is why we did have to play a defense first game. Also of interest - how many rookies did we add in that time? I see one - Murphy. We had an extreme lack of prospects to fill in the gaps. People have said this already, but it is because you are believing some sort of narrative that we started to build the team for speed.
Now if you are referring to the 15-16 and 16-17 seasons for building toward speed - sure - we played the rebuild with:
Max Domi, Anthony Duclair, Brad Richardson, Klas Dahlbeck, Niklas Grossmann, Steve Downie
Funny how Ray Whitney played this system fine. Relative to every significant offensive addition, his point totals and offensive play are far ahead of anyone. Vrbata tended to do well.
Maybe we need to see this for exactly what it was and is: we either had one of two problems - a severe lack of talent or a lot of youth that still needs to learn the game as professionals. The latter is where we are at now, an for the most part, the lack of talent killed us. There are going to be ups and downs, but it is funny how people are saying, "patience" right now, yet isn't playing Jooris and Holland in place of players who need time exercising exactly that?
That's why I have been saying, sure there are some deficiencies to Tippett, the same way there are deficiencies to Tocchet. But at a time when we have the best talent collection and everything that could be viewed as a positive (coach who wants to go up-tempo, adding quality veterans to assist with the process, getting rid of someone who was termed as a hindrance to the youth in Tippett), does it not seem really odd that this has been an even bigger setback than expected. I truly hope that this gets turned around soon, but something on the players isn't working. They have been given rope and they still can't execute effectively. Maybe the short leash actually worked better than people realized...
I was just going to ignore this thread because it promised to devolve into the same tired entrenched arguments. And it has.
But if anyone thinks that this team would be a winning one right now with Tippett, Smith, and Vrbata still around, you're fooling yourselves.