Speculation: D.J. Smith

[AchtzehnBaby]

Good trait

Has Ian ever been critical of DJ?

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Has Ian ever been critical of DJ?

not that I recall.. (but my memory aint what it used to be)

 

[cudi]

Has Ian ever been critical of DJ?

Lineup decisions early season along with everyone else I believe.

Unless you're Jason Spezza I dont find Ian to have much bias. From what I see he calls it as he see's it.

 

[DylanSensFan]

You know, I keep looking at Binghamton (Belleville) and remembering how badly they sucked up until that last couple of seasons. We have a lot of depth coming up through the draft and the more time passes, the more depth we get. I'm just not sure it is a useful endeavor to replace Smith at this moment. He literally doesn't have a D-corp to work with and our overall team defense is just sleepy. I'm not sure even a Sutter can fix what is wrong with this team right now. We just have to suck for this season and see what comes about in the draft and into next season.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Looks like Mendes has been reading our posts

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Money on Zub being the one scratched for Brown?

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Looks like Mendes has been reading our posts

That seems unfair to put on DJ since it's clearly a personnel issue more than coaching.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

That seems unfair to put on DJ since it's clearly a personnel issue more than coaching.

I think both can be an issue.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I think both can be an issue.

I don't disagree with that, I think there have been some questionable decisions by DJ as well. I just think it's much more of a personnel issue than coaching, and I don't see a group that can have much success no matter how you shuffle them. The talent just isn't there.

 

[Big Muddy]

Bad early goals deflate a team especially when it happens often. The team was quite bad in 6 of the 10 games as I have previously said but they never got that goaltending performance in games 4-10 that could have emboldened them. I mean the Hogberg performances were literally some of the worst I have ever seen.

At the same time, the chances we were giving up makes it hard for a goalie to find their footingand can kill their confidence. You can't put all the blame on one or the other, besides, its not like the team was playing solid two way hockey up until that deflating goal.

Seems like a "Less filling, tastes great" debate. How about both have been bad?

 

[Burrowsaurus]

I don't disagree with that, I think there have been some questionable decisions by DJ as well. I just think it's much more of a personnel issue than coaching, and I don't see a group that can have much success no matter how you shuffle them. The talent just isn't there.

I don’t see a group to have success either. But I also don’t see a group that should be getting blown out in embarrassing fashion as much we have

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I don’t see a group to have success either. But I also don’t see a group that should be getting blown out in embarrassing fashion as much we have

That's reasonable. More could be done to mitigate it from the coaching end imo as well, but where we differ is that I do see a roster on paper that will get spanked fairly regularly. Nothing this year has surprised me and if anything, these last 2 years have actually gone a lot better on the ice than I anticipated and would consider the team to have over achieved.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

That's reasonable. More could be done to mitigate it from the coaching end imo as well, but where we differ is that I do see a roster on paper that will get spanked fairly regularly. Nothing this year has surprised me and if anything, these last 2 years have actually gone a lot better on the ice than I anticipated and would consider the team to have over achieved.

Yeah another worry is that we’ve actually seen a regression. We were not this bad last year.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

...does he remember what our old division was. If the canucks and the oilers are spanking us up and down the ice what does he think Boston and tampa would do to us

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Yeah another worry is that we’ve actually seen a regression. We were not this bad last year.

Can't disagree there, we are worse this year than last.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Can't disagree there, we are worse this year than last.

Maybe that’s on the GM. I mean he certainly my believes he was acquiring better players than last year or else he would have just kept the others.

wonder what it was like behind closed doors

 

[Matsens15]

Can't disagree there, we are worse this year than last.

The Division is tougher than last year and we got a weaker defence than last year .. lol this is bad

 

[Beech]

...does he remember what our old division was. If the canucks and the oilers are spanking us up and down the ice what does he think Boston and tampa would do to us

yes, but Buffalo and Detroit. Add to it the Metro's, NJ. You have Nashville and Dallas and the 3 California teams. So you have 7-8 teams at 2 games each plus a future 2 games against Buffalo and Detroit. That could have meant an extra 10-20 points by season's end and so ~ 5-10 points at the half way mark.

Every team in the North division was 500 or better at the shut down. I had forgotten even Montreal was at 71 points in 71 games.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Maybe that’s on the GM. I mean he certainly my believes he was acquiring better players than last year or else he would have just kept the others.

wonder what it was like behind closed doors

It definitely is imo and relates to the same pro scouting/personnel decision issues they've had since the beginning of Dorion's tenure.

The Division is tougher than last year and we got a weaker defence than last year .. lol this is bad

The division being tougher is a factor, but I'm unconvinced it's as much of one as has been portrayed at times. Our D and G is somehow worse than last year.

 

[Tuna99]

That seems unfair to put on DJ since it's clearly a personnel issue more than coaching.

The million dollar question is “If Barry Trotz coached this team would they make the playoffs”

what do you think?

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

The million dollar question is “If Barry Trotz coached this team would they make the playoffs”

what do you think?

No, but I think you would see a moderate improvement from such an experienced coach. If he were somehow able to have a couple young guys performing at a higher level, there's potential for improvement, but I don't see room for improvement in the veteran group.

I think the issue is very clearly the ingredients in the recipe, not the chef.

 

[Tuna99]

No, but I think you would see a moderate improvement from such an experienced coach. If he were somehow able to have a couple young guys performing at a higher level, there's potential for improvement, but I don't see room for improvement in the veteran group.

I think the issue is very clearly the ingredients in the recipe, not the chef.

agree. I like DJ and think he’ll coach for a long time. There’s been to much blaming of the players here by many - like this summer when management said it’s on the players to improve the team and move the team ahead - but the pro trades are the guys that are performing the least. So it is the ingredients and not the chef

 

[aragorn]

This should not be about DJ Smith keeping his job, but Pierre Dorion & why he still has a job?

 

[aragorn]

Yeah another worry is that we’ve actually seen a regression. We were not this bad last year.

We're in a different division now, where is Detroit & Buffalo when we needed them?

 

[Burrowsaurus]

We're in a different division now, where is Detroit & Buffalo when we needed them?

We didn’t look this embarrassing last year against the good teams...