Change is needed.

[Nashville Transplant]

You guys are all great, and your contributions to this thread almost make sense...

HERE's the problem

Everyone is playing a role they are not suited for... well, everyone in the top 6 or so...

The matchups NEVER favor the Preds because essentially they have three third lines... It's NEVER gonna work.

Colin Wilson could have had four goals vs. Philly, but he shanked, shot wide, and flubbed three great chances... it happens, but when guys have hands of stone it happens more frequently... Couple this will good defensive matchups by the other team and you generally have a team that can barely pass, can't "break out," dump WAY too often... coupled with UNBEARABLY SOFT PLAY on the boards.

Watch the Kings vs. Ducks game last night... now THERE'S Hockey... Punish the D behind the net. Pressure them to give up the puck, always have someone 6-10 feet behind the man with the puck, seize opportunities, crisp passes, quick transitions...

Not enough talent on this team to force the opposition's coaches to make hard decisions...

... and yet, this is a .500 hockey team because the name of the game is parity.

 

[SavageSteve]

Knowing that Trotz is buddies with Hitchcock, I went back and re-read an article about him taking over the Blues: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/s...blues-takes-blues-to-top-of-the-nhl.html?_r=0
This is what stuck out to me:

After Columbus fired him, Hitchcock spent a year and a half as an N.H.L. scout and minor league consultant for the Blue Jackets. In that time, he studied the makeup of prospects and young professionals.

“The thing that stuck out in my mind, this is junior hockey played by professional athletes,” Hitchcock said last week outside the St. Louis dressing room. “They have the same fun-loving disposition about them. Attention span is short. They’re a little bit older. They’ve got a little bit more money. But they’re still kids. So that has been my attitude every day: how would I coach back in the ’80s?”

To adjust, Hitchcock scaled back his overbearing manner. He yelled less and instructed more. He relied on veterans like the captain David Backes and the alternate captain Jamie Langenbrunner, who played for Hitchcock in Dallas and in the minors, to spread his message. And when Hitchcock criticized a young player or adjusted his role, he offered a suggestion for improvement.

The results? Though lacking a superstar, the Blues surged behind strong checking, brutally efficient special teams — all Hitchcock trademarks — and record-setting goaltending.

I think that this is what we are watching in Trotz's own particular idiom and that this past summer's free agent signings were supposed to mentor the boatload of younger players on the roster. Which at times when they are focused, look pretty good like the Chicago game. The question I have is whether there is some disconnect in terms of overload with the instruction and the ADD-like nature of players in their early twenties to think in situations when it should be fluid. I think that there is no question that this team is resetting long-term in the same manner as the Blues did with the leadership group locked-up. Sadly I think it will be a year before we see consistent results; but I see this season as schizo with stretches of being world beaters and ECHL scrubs because of focus. But I also think we are in for some boring/maddening hockey in the near term as well till they have the focus to act intuitively and be creative within structure.

 

[jwhouk]

Only if by "blow it up" means firing Trotz and Poile first.

 

[glenngineer]

So everyone around here was saying we need to dump Spaling yet he's outscored all the guys people wanted to keep. He's outscored Hendricks and Nystrom combined. His +/- is better than those two and Gaustad. Yet people wanted him gone. Just gonna shake my head on that one.

We're paying a guy almost $2 million a year and he has one goal.

We're paying another guy $3.5 million a year and he has three goals.

Nystrom is the only one of the free agent signings that I'm ok with at this point. He's busting his butt out there.

I remember seeing a comment the night Wilson lit up Colorado about him and Stalberg having fun yet the guys aren't allowed to have fun. They're kids playing a game. If it's not fun, success won't happen. You have to have focus but there has to be a balance between the two. The system here is too regimented and if you don't play it you sit, if you're young. If you're older and throw pucks to the front of the net in the defensive zone that get picked off, you get to play your next shift. I forget who did it the other night, pretty sure it was Goose and he just put the puck on the stick of a Canuck right in the slot. If that were Smith, Forsberg or any other young kid they'd ride the pine for the period or the rest of the game.

Let the guys have fun and play hockey. Maybe they'll do something that surprises us and the coach. Heaven forbid we do that.

 

[LOUISVILLE ICE CARDS]

Honestly I say ride this season out. Buyout Goose and Hendricks. Resign Legwand. and sign either Callahan, Gaborik, Stastny, or Vanek

 

[PredsHabs]

Honestly I say ride this season out. Buyout Goose and Hendricks. Resign Legwand. and sign either Callahan, Gaborik, Stastny, or Vanek

Sounds too easy.

 

[PredsHabs]

So far 62.5% want to make moves to add offense.
So who/what are we gonna trade?

What about the 25% (which includes me) who say blow it up . Who will stay for you and who must we move.

I say Trotz and Poile need to go as well and we need to make this at least a little more offensive team somehow, I would much rather watch a shootout for a couple of years until we get the team together than this up and down stuff much longer.

 

[triggrman]

I like some of our players, I don't like the changes Trotz has made to the system and how he's become more restrictive.

 

[nomorekids]

Honestly I say ride this season out. Buyout Goose and Hendricks. Resign Legwand. and sign either Callahan, Gaborik, Stastny, or Vanek

That's a great idea...but unless you're willing to sign them at say, 2 million above market, they're going to take an offer from the 15-16 more teams that have more of a free agent draw than Nashville.

Then again, we overpaid Gaustad, Hendricks, and to a lesser extent Nystrom...so why not overpay someone that can make a difference?