OT: Around The League: 2018-2019 - Playoffs

[serp]

 

[LT]

No surprise there.

Yeo’s next if he doesn’t right that ship soon (and for our sake I hope he doesn’t).

 

[serp]

Carlyle might be gone first. Ducks are currently riding a 7 game losing streak .

Without their goaltending they might be worse than the Kings right now.

I mean we've seen them twice now . They're horrible.

 

[serp]

Turns out neither was next it's Quenville who goes second. Not 100% expected for me right now to be honest . He was on the hotseat after last year though.

 

[Kcb12345]

That's really shocking

 

[LT]

That's very surprising. Chicago seems to be doing decently this year, too.

Their personnel just isn't what it used to be. Can't really blame Quenneville for that.

 

[WhoahNow]

CANDID CAMERA: Ottawa Senators players caught on video joking about team, badmouthing coach

The Ottawa saga just keeps getting better and better

 

[Smelling Salt]

CANDID CAMERA: Ottawa Senators players caught on video joking about team, badmouthing coach

The Ottawa saga just keeps getting better and better

Strike while the iron is hot, Jim.

 

[serp]

Dick move by the driver to put it online but still incredibly dumb of the Sens players to talk like that infront of a camera . This thing wasn't hidden and its not unusual for drivers to have a running camera since you don't know who might get into your car . No need to be idiots like that by the Sens players no matter how much of a douche the driver is by putting their conversation online.

 

[M88K]

Really wish we had hitchcock still, could definitely see him being fired and replaced with Quenneville, can't see it happening with Montgomery

 

[LT]

Really wish we had hitchcock still, could definitely see him being fired and replaced with Quenneville, can't see it happening with Montgomery

There's no way Hitchcock was going to get fired again. I think a lot of the reason he was brought in was so that he could go out with some dignity, in his own way.

I'm fine with Montgomery.

 

[Smelling Salt]

That's very surprising. Chicago seems to be doing decently this year, too.

Their ".500" record right now is pretty deceiving. It's being propped up by OT wins and losses. They have a handful of pretty bad losses mixed in there. They have also lost 5 in row.

Their personnel just isn't what it used to be. Can't really blame Quenneville for that.

Agreed. Especially Crawford's health being such an issue.

 

[serp]

Really wish we had hitchcock still, could definitely see him being fired and replaced with Quenneville, can't see it happening with Montgomery

Quenneville is a great coach with a long and great resume don't get me wrong but he's also pretty old timey. His style is not as out of date as Hitch was but its getting up there. Some of his decisions personal wise the last couple of year have been mind boggling. Babcock is another one i'm starting to feel might be getting out of date.

I think Montgomery has done a good job so far. No reason to make any changes even if he wasn't just new.

 

[M88K]

Quenneville is a great coach with a long and great resume don't get me wrong but he's also pretty old timey. His style is not as out of date as Hitch was but its getting up there. Some of his decisions personal wise the last couple of year have been mind boggling.

I think Montgomery has done a good job so far. No reason to make any changes even if he wasn't just new.

Chicago has had a largely trash roster with only Kane being good and a few upcoming youngsters his personnel management is largely because the roster is devoid of talent.
I don't know what you guys are watching but He hasn't really.

They've gotten outplayed or straight out dominated in a lot of their games.
Boston, Detroit, Ottawa, NJ, Minnesota, Tor x2, LA, Arizona, Mtl, and Min
They've managed to win or pick up points in some of them, Yes they've had a strong period in some of those games(the 2nd period against Min comes to mind)
the only games where they actually looked good were the Winn, and Ana (x2) games

And that is more as a result of how bad the other teams were then how good they've looked.
Granted it is only 14games, but the team is barely above .500 (2 games currently) with the one tonight being an almost guaranteed "excuse happy" loss.
in the opening 14 games last season we had the same record 8wins and 6 losses.

Montgomery has done an ok job so far, but with each passing game instead of improving with their system they(the players) seem to be getting worse, It's gotten so bad that almost literally one of Heiskanen, Klingberg or lindell is on the ice at all times, and in the rare occasion one of them isn't, Seguin, Benn or Radulov is.
Montgomery is literally riding 6 players, Heiskanen, Klingberg, Lindell, Seguin, Benn, Radulov (the first 3 especially) and just hoping nobody else screws up too bad in their limited amount of time.
It's still early in the season and all so there is still time for it to "click" but he hasn't done a good job of anything so far

 

[Kcb12345]

Geez Chicago's new coach is younger than Duncan Keith and the same age as Brent Seabrook.

 

[LT]

Montgomery has done an ok job so far, but with each passing game instead of improving with their system they(the players) seem to be getting worse, It's gotten so bad that almost literally one of Heiskanen, Klingberg or lindell is on the ice at all times, and in the rare occasion one of them isn't, Seguin, Benn or Radulov is.
Montgomery is literally riding 6 players, Heiskanen, Klingberg, Lindell, Seguin, Benn, Radulov (the first 3 especially) and just hoping nobody else screws up too bad in their limited amount of time.
It's still early in the season and all so there is still time for it to "click" but he hasn't done a good job of anything so far

The defense is due to injuries. The personnel behind the big three really do suck when you remove Methot and Johns from the picture. One of Honka, Carrick, and Polak is fine as the #6 (or rotating them through), but when all three are regulars, it's a problem. Don't even start with Heatherington, either - he has no business playing in the NHL. I don't know what you want Montgomery to do with the defense. He can't heal Methot and Johns, and he can't simply make the rest better players.

Offensively, I think the team has been fine lately. Of course he's going to ride his elite players as much as he can - we'd be pissed off if he didn't. Dickinson, Shore, and Spezza are all looking fine offensively. The rest seem to be doing just enough.

The system only works if the players are good enough to implement it. Offensively, it seems to be going alright. Defensively, the players simply can't. They're not good enough.

What exactly are you expecting? If at the start of the season you were told we would be 8-5-1 through 14 games, wouldn't you be pretty happy with that? We're not going to play perfect games 82 times in a row, and it's not like this team doesn't have fundamental flaws that are beyond Montgomery's ability to correct.

 

[serp]

Montgomery has done an ok job so far, but with each passing game instead of improving with their system they(the players) seem to be getting worse, It's gotten so bad that almost literally one of Heiskanen, Klingberg or lindell is on the ice at all times, and in the rare occasion one of them isn't, Seguin, Benn or Radulov is.

We have 3 defenseman out . Of course that means the three big guns will play more to make up for that. Look at the minutes. They're absolutely fine. You can't play Heatherington much more than 7-12 minutes at best. Forwards minutes are also fine imho. Seguin maybe plays too much but other than that what do you expect ? Everyone gets ~10 minutes.

 

[M88K]

The defense is due to injuries. The personnel behind the big three really do suck when you remove Methot and Johns from the picture. One of Honka, Carrick, and Polak is fine as the #6 (or rotating them through), but when all three are regulars, it's a problem. Don't even start with Heatherington, either - he has no business playing in the NHL. I don't know what you want Montgomery to do with the defense. He can't heal Methot and Johns, and he can't simply make the rest better players.

Offensively, I think the team has been fine lately. Of course he's going to ride his elite players as much as he can - we'd be pissed off if he didn't. Dickinson, Shore, and Spezza are all looking fine offensively. The rest seem to be doing just enough.

The system only works if the players are good enough to implement it. Offensively, it seems to be going alright. Defensively, the players simply can't. They're not good enough.

What exactly are you expecting? If at the start of the season you were told we would be 8-5-1 through 14 games, wouldn't you be pretty happy with that? We're not going to play perfect games 82 times in a row, and it's not like this team doesn't have fundamental flaws that are beyond Montgomery's ability to correct.

The tried and true injuries excuse. When bad players get injured and out, it's a great excuse for why the team is bad, if only those bad players were back in the lineup we'd be better. It was the same excuse that Kept Ruff on for the rest of the season (injuries to crap players like Eakin cost us the season not poor coaching)
Offensively the team is fine, they just can't complete passes, or exit the zone, or make it through center ice without turnovers or sustain pressure, but yes they are "Fine"

No I wouldn't, and No I'm not. I've been stuck watching a decade of Mediocre hockey, continuing to be mediocre isn't something to be happy about.

New Coach, "better system", "better players", Same lousy results. (And yes the players added this year(Heiskanen, Nichushkin, Comeau, Polak, Dickinson are better than those that left (Roussell, Hamhuis, Pateryn, Elie.)
I'd rather we just suck outright for a few years and get some assets to actually be good, of course we pass up every golden opportunity we get to improve this team, and have the worst NA scouts in the world. But Continuing to be mediocre is just completely unacceptable

 

[LT]

The tried and true injuries excuse. When bad players get injured and out, it's a great excuse for why the team is bad, if only those bad players were back in the lineup we'd be better. It was the same excuse that Kept Ruff on for the rest of the season (injuries to crap players like Eakin cost us the season not poor coaching)
Offensively the team is fine, they just can't complete passes, or exit the zone, or make it through center ice without turnovers or sustain pressure, but yes they are "Fine"

No I wouldn't, and No I'm not. I've been stuck watching a decade of Mediocre hockey, continuing to be mediocre isn't something to be happy about.

New Coach, "better system", "better players", Same lousy results. (And yes the players added this year(Heiskanen, Nichushkin, Comeau, Polak, Dickinson are better than those that left (Roussell, Hamhuis, Pateryn, Elie.)
I'd rather we just suck outright for a few years and get some assets to actually be good, of course we pass up every golden opportunity we get to improve this team, and have the worst NA scouts in the world. But Continuing to be mediocre is just completely unacceptable

Who is saying Methot and Johns are bad?

When three of your top seven defensemen are injured, you think the system is supposed to just replace their abilities? That you can just put anyone into a system and it work the same way, no matter then personnel?

The offense is doing enough to win games.

How the f*** is 8-5-1 mediocre? We're tied for #10 in the league in points and tied for 9th in points percentage. That's on the upper end of the league. If that's mediocre, you're expecting way too much.

 

[serp]

I don't know how anyone can expect to just replace two second pairing guys and a #5/#6 within the system. Its not like we have any highend defensive prospects left to call up that aren't already playing ready to go.

Look at Texas roster and tell me which defenseman is ready to just play ~20 NHL minutes ? The answer is none.

 

[M88K]

I don't know how anyone can expect to just replace two second pairing guys and a #5/#6 within the system. Its not like we have any highend defensive prospects left to call up that aren't already plaiyng ready to go.

Lmao, Nobody would rate Johns or Methot as "2nd pairing guys" but sure, they are great our defense rivals Nashville when healthy

 

[serp]

Lmao, Nobody outside of delusional stars fans would rate Johns or Methot as "2nd pairing guys" but sure, they are great our defense rivals Nashville when healthy

Marc Methot played first pairing minutes next to Erik Karlson on an Ottawa team that almost went to the finals. Now Methot is made out of glass these days and shouldn't play too many minutes but he is still capeable of playing 2nd pairing minutes on a decent team. To Johns really ? So who are the #4 defenseman in the league who are so much better than Johns ? On pretty much all the teams it gets a bit iffy on from #4 to #6 .

They're both ~#4-#5 defenseman . Washed up Dan Giradi is playing those minutes for Tampa but Johns or Methot arenot 2nd pairing guys ( example ) or Zaitsev in Toronto. Outside of Nashville with Ellis none of the #4 guys are that great around the league .

Yeah Nashvilles defense is better. Whoop di freaking doo . Its pretty much the best defense in the league .

 

[Magic Mittens]

I'm happy with where we are at right now. Third coach in 3 years, and the team seems to be slowly buying into Monty's system. I wasnt expecting them to be #1 in the league, so yeah tied for 10th with a new coach and handful of injuries, I'll gladly take our record.

Now, half way through the season if we havent gotten much better then maybe ill be worried.

Just looked at the standings again, we're 2 points out of 3rd place, so yeah I'd say we're doing good

 

[serp]

I don't f***ing understand whats his problem ? Defense and goaltending has not been a problem . Despite injuries to the depth defenseman the defense looking solid. Yeah that meant our #1 #2 and #3 have played big minutes but no coach can make guys who are #6/7 ( Polak , Honka ) or AHL defenseman ( Heatherington ) suddenly look like solid players that can log 20 minutes and still have a decent defense . Heatherington didn't look nearly completely lost and out of place yesterday as he did in Washington which was a huge improvement but much more than that you can't expect out of him . Quenneville wouldn't make our replacement defenders look any better. Any half decent coach would do what happened the last couple of games and ride the good defenders hard.

It's not like thats how the season started . Its how things went when people went down.

 

[Frozen Failure]

Monty has done a good enough job that we shouldn't be trying to lynch him.

Stan Bowman has too much money locked up in guys who aren't producing for Reasons(TM). and sacked Quennville as a scapegoat. Keith and Seabrook's contracts are going to be boat anchors going forward, Saad has done nothing this year, and Crawford has had health issues. Kane and Toews are good but two ten million dollar forwards can't carry a team. We're basically Chicago without having two giant defensive boat anchor contracts, which is good. We just have 8 million cap dollars tied up in injuries right now.

Though it seems the Stars always one piece short of a full pie both up front and on D. One top 4 minute muncher, one top 6 forward position up for grabs. I'm mildly terrified of what's going to happen next year with Methot probably retiring and Polak being on a one year. We should be hoping that Stephen Johns recovers from what ails him, because he'll be a huge building block going forward.

I would just hope that Heatherington plays well enough, and I honestly think he has, to maybe stay up in the NHL this year and going forward in place of Methot.