A positive outlook on the coaching decision

[McGuillicuddy]

Is Carlyle a coward for hanging on while his assistants take the fall?

The captain goes down with the ship, as the saying goes. But apparently that does not apply to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Picture the discussion between Carlyle, Nonis, Shanahan et al. where they say "the assistants have to go but Randy, you can stay". Any good man would stand up right there and tender his resignation. Instead Carlyle lets his guys take the fall - including his buddy from junior, Dave Farrish. And then he signs on for a couple more years!

I'm not a Carlyle basher. I think he's probably a solid NHL coach. But I don't think any of this reflects well on his character.

Thoughts?

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[TootooTrain]

Only 30 coaching jobs in the NHL. This isn't war, or a sinking boat, it's a business.

 

[Northern Dancer]

Well you could argue it the other way. Abandoning ship would have been the cowardly thing to do.

PS. Randy (except for Farrish) did NOT pick the assistants, he inherited them.

 

[Daisy Jane]

Yup. and it was only rumoured that Florida would sign him.
a job in the hand - is better than the rumoured one in the field. (says the unemployed one).

 

[Warden of the North]

No. And this thread is unnecessary and is now closed.

 

[Avec Fromage*]

I won't discuss Carlyle's moronic idea of sitting back on leads, his ruining of Reimer, his waste of a third and fourth line, his mismanagement of skilled players like Gardiner, etc. This is a simple list of positives that come with firing the assistants over the head coach.

1. Line matching. Carlyle's aggresive line matching is one of the biggest reasons why the Leafs took Boston to 7. He always got Phil away from Chara, whereas Wilson gave it no effort, and he always matched the 4th line against Chara where Orr and Komarov checked him every chance they got.
2. Special teams. Many have knocked Carlyle for leaving Phaneuf-Franson on the powerplay's first unit without realizing that assistant coaches handle special teams. Both the powerplay and penalty kill struggled majorly last year. If nothing else, there should be an improvement in special teams.
3. Message to players. The players quit on the coach. This is putting the onus on them as much as it is on Carlyle.
4. Best option? Trotz and Laviolette are not clear upgrades. However, next year, McLellan, Babcock and Hitchcock might be available. The extension is peculiar, but it doesn't mean that Carlyle won't be fired for another year of missed playoffs.

 

[Cor]

Carlyle did not ruin Reimer. He gave him the starting job out of camp, and Bernier outplayed him.

Reimer ruined Reimer

 

[Diatomic]

The only positive outlook I see is that the rebuild begins and ends in 2016-17 when this dinosaur is gone.

 

[HEAVY DUTY]

the extension is just a severance package for carlyle and also a way to let the players know that carlyle isn't a lame-duck coach.

it's a win-win. if we're successful, we have carlyle locked in, if not, the team and coach part ways and the coach doesn't go home empty handed.

 

[rdawg1234]

His negatives far outweigh his positives.

If you give him a good/average team he'll make the playoffs or get close to it, but we wont go anywhere with him, he's like a stop gap coach.

Anaheim already showed he can't do anything without a stacked defence+goalie, while better coaches have done much more with a much worse team.

I dont think we'll be as bad as last season with getting outshot by 20 a game, but with his system we're definitely still going to get outshot.

we're probably gonna look like 12-13, where we get outshot a bit, look tough but still get outplayed, at least that team was fun to watch at times.

 

[DD03]

Reimer's fall was because of Bernier, not cause of Carlyle. Also the fact he can't catch a puck.

 

[Daisy Jane]

the extension is just a severance package for carlyle and also a way to let the players know that carlyle isn't a lame-duck coach.

it's a win-win. if we're successful, we have carlyle locked in, if not, the team & Nonis & coach part ways and the coach doesn't go home empty handed.

there.
this was Nonis doubling down on Carlyle.

 

[I Am The Stig]

I don't know if there is a positive outlook to keeping Carlyle.

Like why would you keep him AND extend him if he has no clue what the hell is going on?

 

[DD03]

I don't know if there is a positive outlook to keeping Carlyle.

Like why would you keep him AND extend him if he has no clue what the hell is going on?

Because instead of just taking the easy way out, the players need to step up. Phil came out and said he needed to play better down the stretch, so did other players. Time for them to step up and prove it.

 

[StuckOutHere]

The best spin I can put on this is that Nonis and Co. just tied their wagon to a three-legged horse. Just gotta wait for the crash.

 

[PuckMagi]

His biggest mistake was playing Franson all year.

I was a big fan of Frason at the start of the year... but he kept making huge mistakes every game and cost us a lot of goals singlehandedly.

A lot of people got fed up with him early on. I was willing to give him another chance or two. But he quickly blew those chances and never turned it around. But Carlyle never even really benched him for 1 game, let alone for the rest of the season. I don't see how any good coach could keep playing him after the way he played. Espeically when we had guys like Ranger, Liles and some good Marlies who could have stepped in.

I just don't understand how he could keep playing him when everyone here on the these boards knew for months that he was continuing to make huge errors.

I actually think he can be a good defenseman with a good shot... his problem is that he makes blunders. He pinches too much and gets caught and just makes really stupid plays. Aside from that, he's actually pretty good... but he never showed any signs of smartening up and i blame the coach for letting him get away with his sloppy play all year.

 

[DD03]

Wasn't Franson playing hurt too?

 

[nussell]

FIRE CARLYLE FIRE NONIS. Just heared Adam oates telling leaf fans to shut up and that he's happy the Leafs back Carlyle and gave him an extension. WE AS FANS NEED TO MAKE NONIS HEAR US. FIRE BOTH THE F&*(ING DUMMIES

 

[Joey Hoser]

FIRE CARLYLE FIRE NONIS. Just heared Adam oates telling leaf fans to shut up and that he's happy the Leafs back Carlyle and gave him an extension. WE AS FANS NEED TO MAKE NONIS HEAR US. FIRE BOTH THE F&*(ING DUMMIES

You want Nonis to fire himself?

Pretty sure Leafs management already decided what to do. You being angry changes nothing, nor should it.

 

[saffronleaf]

The silver lining from Carlyle's signing is that it guarantees a very high draft pick, and gives a clear signal ahead of time to fans that they need not waste time following the team in 2014-15.

 

[Tie Domi Esquire]

Next year is the year that doing badly for once won't be an awful thing.

 

[Bardown warrior]

LOL Babcock isnt coming here give it a rest people

 

[hoglund]

Carlyle did not ruin Reimer. He gave him the starting job out of camp, and Bernier outplayed him.

Reimer ruined Reimer

Reimer wasn't given the starter job, the first 2 months both Reimer and Bernier were starters 1A and 1B, and by the middle of December Bernier began as the only starter and Reimer was the back up.

 

[saffronleaf]

No one ruined Reimer. There was nothing to ruin. Reimer is Reimer, the kind of goaltender who will lead his team into three epic collapses consecutively, and bounce back with a loss against France.

 

[Stephen]

No one ruined Reimer. There was nothing to ruin. Reimer is Reimer, the kind of goaltender who will lead his team into three epic collapses consecutively, and bounce back with a loss against France.

If one comment by an unsupportive coach can ruin a guy's year, he doesn't have the makeup to be a quality professional athlete.

Reimer is pretty lucky he found a modicum of success in Toronto the past few years. In relation to the rest of the league he's probably a Peter Budaj type backup talent who had a nice taste of first string responsibilities and some local stardom on the league's biggest stage.