Confirmed with Link: Bowness fired, Lauer's contract not renewed

[DFC]

Richards does the PP. Smith thinks he may be the new associate coach as well.

I really have no clue what Bauer did. He wasn't behind the bench as I recall.

We've always had one coach who doesn't go to the bench, whose duties are mysterious. It might have something to do with practice, who knows.

If I'm not mistaken though, firing Bowness means every single piece of Cooper's staff has been replaced. And Lauer, if I'm not mistaken, is the second non-bench coach replaced. So any theories that we haven't had coaching problems are kind of out the window.

 

[The Macho King]

We've always had one coach who doesn't go to the bench, whose duties are mysterious. It might have something to do with practice, who knows.

If I'm not mistaken though, firing Bowness means every single piece of Cooper's staff has been replaced. And Lauer, if I'm not mistaken, is the second non-bench coach replaced. So any theories that we haven't had coaching problems are kind of out the window.

I think Yzerman sees pretty much what we see - we have what is likely the most talented roster in the NHL. I think we lost to a team with significantly inferior talent, but superior structure and buy-in. I give Yzerman credit - most orgs would stand pat on an 11 win postseason with a team record regular season performance. These aren't necessarily monumental changes, but they're significant ones.

 

[Hoek]

I do think this is one step closer to putting Cooper out the door. If he can't get it done with new assistants then there's not really any other levers you can pull.

 

[Sky04]

Next year is also the last year of Kucherov's bridge and Point's ELC which have provided a ton of cap relief, if we take any steps backwards next season he should be gone.

 

[These Are The Days]

I wonder if Ben Bishop is going to bang the drum for Bowness to come to Dallas

 

[DFC]

One positive is, apparently Cooper had a hand in hiring Todd Richards, and, if he really was brought in to improve the PP, mainly, we can definitely say that was a success. So maybe we can have similar success on the PK with a new hire. We have the personnel for a top-ten PK, especially now that Point has blossomed into a legit shut down C.

 

[VoluntaryDom]

What’s a PK? I thought minor penalties counted as 1 against you on the scoreboard...

 

[LightningStrikes]

Change is good

 

[dbieon12]

This basically means Cooper is running out of 'outs'. Bought him 1-2 years. He's next in line for the axe.

 

[LightningStrikes]

This basically means Cooper is running out of 'outs'. Bought him 1-2 years. He's next in line for the axe.

We'll see. Y'know it was not our time. It was their time.

 

[Hoek]

We'll see. Y'know it was not our time. It was their time.

Watching the way the game last night basically turn out exactly like our Game 7 (Caps getting outshot and outchanced by a significant margin, but shots hitting posts or barely missing while they score on every little chance), I think Cooper was right.

 

[MattM92]

What I'm wondering is how many quality coaches will want to come in and work under Cooper knowing that if he gets fired a full staff change will likely happen. In other words, why accept a job when you know the company might be going out of business soon?

 

[Felonious Python]

What I'm wondering is how many quality coaches will want to come in and work under Cooper knowing that if he gets fired a full staff change will likely happen. In other words, why accept a job when you know the company might be going out of business soon?

People want to be in the NHL, so that's a benefit, but that's part of why I like the idea of bringing in a Mike Kitchen and/or Paul MacLean. Kitchen probably isn't going to be an NHL head coach again, and if Chicago end up firing Coach Q, then having his friend and long-time coaching partner already in TB would be attractive.

Paul MacLean can also step into the head coach role mid-season if necessary.

 

[Hoek]

There's also this thing called the Stanley Cup they could win and significantly enhance their resume. The risk/reward isn't that skewed.

 

[DFC]

It'll be interesting to see how many of our D problems persist under Bowness's replacement. Remember how terrible our PP looked before we hired Todd Richards? With basically the same roster as we have now? Yeah. Coaching matters.

 

[LightningStrikes]

It'll be interesting to see how many of our D problems persist under Bowness's replacement. Remember how terrible our PP looked before we hired Todd Richards? With basically the same roster as we have now? Yeah. Coaching matters.

I mean you could see something is wrong in how we're using our relatively big and mobile defensemen. Opponents enter our zone and we back up, fan our sticks around and end up next to our goalie while we watch the other team pass or shoot. What strategy is that? Meanwhile teams like the Caps clog up the neutral zone and won't let you near their blueline, forcing a dump-in which is picked up by Holtby (a good stick handler) or a defenseman 50% of the time. Threat eliminated. Why don't we do that? Hedman, Stralman, McDonagh, Sergachev are big, quick and agile enough.

 

[These Are The Days]

Any rumors at all at who we might be looking at? If it was someone like Benoit Groulx as the top choice I'd have to imagine that he would have been hired by now.

 

[DFC]

I mean you could see something is wrong in how we're using our relatively big and mobile defensemen. Opponents enter our zone and we back up, fan our sticks around and end up next to our goalie while we watch the other team pass or shoot. What strategy is that? Meanwhile teams like the Caps clog up the neutral zone and won't let you near their blueline, forcing a dump-in which is picked up by Holtby (a good stick handler) or a defenseman 50% of the time. Threat eliminated. Why don't we do that? Hedman, Stralman, McDonagh, Sergachev are big, quick and agile enough.

That's what I saw with the Caps too. They just had no fear of a dump-and-chase cycle. They were actually WAITING for us to do it, and we never failed them. (This is why I'm pretty frustrated with Cooper right now. The Capitals were gobbling up our dump-ins, and we just continued right on doing it.)

But yeah, our own D often just looked passive. Same as our PK. Weak plays up the boards. We really miss Bishop with that. I don't think it's a coincidence that we get hemmed into our own zone WAY more often with literally any goalie other than him. We used to think it was an issue of confidence in the goalie (why we played worse in front of Lindback, Nabokov, Budaj, and on and on and on), but in reality Bishop's puckhandling was probably masking a severe coaching issue.

Our D personnel is a lot better now than in Bishop's time here, and yet we often look worse. I don't think that's a coincidence.

 

[TampaJay]

That's what I saw with the Caps too. They just had no fear of a dump-and-chase cycle. They were actually WAITING for us to do it, and we never failed them. (This is why I'm pretty frustrated with Cooper right now. The Capitals were gobbling up our dump-ins, and we just continued right on doing it.)

But yeah, our own D often just looked passive. Same as our PK. Weak plays up the boards. We really miss Bishop with that. I don't think it's a coincidence that we get hemmed into our own zone WAY more often with literally any goalie other than him. We used to think it was an issue of confidence in the goalie (why we played worse in front of Lindback, Nabokov, Budaj, and on and on and on), but in reality Bishop's puckhandling was probably masking a severe coaching issue.

Our D personnel is a lot better now than in Bishop's time here, and yet we often look worse. I don't think that's a coincidence.

I’ve been saying this since the whole Bishop v. Vasi debate. Obviously going with Vasi was the right move but it also meant they needed to face the reality of Vasi’s weakness regarding puck handling (it goes all the way back to the pre-draft scouting reports) and adjust the D system and D personnel to make up for it.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Damn Yzerman for being so tight lipped. Would like to see who he picks. It will be an interesting choice, because whoever comes in has every tool to succeed on the D.