News Article: Dave Feschuk: Stubborn Babcock passes on change with Leafs special teams falling short

[ErnieLeafs]

He and other Toronto media also steal from another board I'm on regularly.

Pm me a link to this other board, please.

 

[6ix]

Excellent article. Bang on. Hit the nail in the head.

Feschuk is voicing the exact frustrations and idiotic decision making that leafs nation has with Egocock. I’m a believer if we even had AVERAGE coaching tactics, we would of closed this series out in 6 or less games.

 

[Ratboy]

One would think marginal calls will be let go tonight but officials never fail to surprise.

No accountability. They can call anything or nothing and change the severity of what they call at any point.

 

[MarnerElite]

Thanks Feschuk! Don't expect the small minded folks to take it too well though.



Feschuk HFBoards lurker confirmed

I liked this one too!

I stopped reading after he said to load up the lines..Pure stupidity. After 30 years its not the dumbest thing i've read(usually young kids who are new to the game think of simple stuff like that). Imagine Matthews, Willy and Marner and the best one along the wall fighting for the puck is the pretty boy Swede while the other 2 are just waiting for it(because that's what they usually do majority of the time)..And it's out of the zone with B's dominating now in our zone. This isn't hard to predict because if you don't think Babcock has tried that in practice(to see how it would work) and he didn't like what he saw, then i don't know what to tell you. That's not some imaginative stuff or anything, it's been tried and it does not work most of the time.

That reporter is the same guy that basically ran Phil Kessel out of town, wasn't it? He was the one Phil called idiot for getting all the blame for the loss or something.

 

[IPS]

I stopped reading after he said to load up the lines..Pure stupidity. After 30 years its not the dumbest thing i've read(usually young kids who are new to the game think of simple stuff like that). Imagine Matthews, Willy and Marner and the best one along the wall fighting for the puck is the pretty boy Swede while the other 2 are just waiting for it(because that's what they usually do majority of the time)..And it's out of the zone with B's dominating now in our zone. This isn't hard to predict because if you don't think Babcock has tried that in practice(to see how it would work) and he didn't like what he saw, then i don't know what to tell you. That's not some imaginative stuff or anything, it's been tried and it does not work most of the time.

That reporter is the same guy that basically ran Phil Kessel out of town, wasn't it? He was the one Phil called idiot for getting all the blame for the loss or something.

No you're right.

Why load Matthews up with JT/Marner in the last 2 minutes of the game when you're trailing by a goal? Awful, awful, awful idea!! I mean all 30 other teams in the league who do it truly have no idea what they're doing.

Remarkable how ahead of the curve Babcock is. You stick with your matchups no. matter. what. If Bergeron comes on the ice in the last minute, you take your best player off, no. matter. what.

 

[MarnerElite]

No you're right.

Why load Matthews up with JT/Marner in the last 2 minutes of the game when you're trailing by a goal? Awful, awful, awful idea!! I mean all 30 other teams in the league who do it truly have no idea what they're doing.

Remarkable how ahead of the curve Babcock is. You stick with your matchups no. matter. what. If Bergeron comes on the ice in the last minute, you take your best player off, no. matter. what.

Yes yes..This is why all the top teams are going out and the bottom ones moving on because coaching the star players has been so easy apparently. Maybe we should get Cooper next time eh? Hahaha.

 

[AllDay28]

based on the replies in this thread, obviously no one read the article..

 

[Diamond Joe Quimby]

No you're right.

Why load Matthews up with JT/Marner in the last 2 minutes of the game when you're trailing by a goal? Awful, awful, awful idea!! I mean all 30 other teams in the league who do it truly have no idea what they're doing.

Remarkable how ahead of the curve Babcock is. You stick with your matchups no. matter. what. If Bergeron comes on the ice in the last minute, you take your best player off, no. matter. what.

A like for the cheekiness.

 

[HandshakeLineRespect]

Feschuk>Miller tho am I right?

 

[WestCoastLeafs]

I hate the “never laced up” agruement. Looking back, the majority of the people I played hockey with growing up didn’t have some magical knowledge that a casual fan wouldn’t have.

My best friends dad has been around hockey his entire life. Played in the OHL, and has coached AAA for years now. He absolutely hates it when teams play 4 Forward and 1 D on the power play. Why? Because a forward isn’t used to creating offence from near the blue line. The analytics indicate that 4 F 1 D is the way to go and the fact that it’s been adopted by so many teams probably shows this to also be true. Just because my friends dad has “laced them up” doesn’t mean his opinion means anything.

Don Cherry "laced them up". Enough said.

 

[NightTrain1]

The only thing that matters is results and right now this team is not getting them. I dont care about the past 11424 teams since 1542 blah blah blah



What I am personally seeing on the ice and what is happening results wise are matching up. And even though the regular season PP numbers seem not too bad, this is a case where I feel the results didnt match the performance. The numbers were inflated based on sheer talent and not on the quality of the PP itself. This series, watching the Bruins walk repeatedly into our zone unimpeded is making me furious and then on the flip side watching the Leafs run that same frickin play over and over and over and over, i just want to scream.

 

[qqaz]

I hate the “never laced up” agruement. Looking back, the majority of the people I played hockey with growing up didn’t have some magical knowledge that a casual fan wouldn’t have.

My best friends dad has been around hockey his entire life. Played in the OHL, and has coached AAA for years now. He absolutely hates it when teams play 4 Forward and 1 D on the power play. Why? Because a forward isn’t used to creating offence from near the blue line. The analytics indicate that 4 F 1 D is the way to go and the fact that it’s been adopted by so many teams probably shows this to also be true. Just because my friends dad has “laced them up” doesn’t mean his opinion means anything.

I'm completely with you. Not to mention that the “never laced them up” argument is usually used to discredit anyone that "never made it to the show." Which means that pretty much all women (and people with a significant enough disability) are somehow barred from having a valued opinion. My uterus won't put up with that!

note: I'm not implying that anyone in this thread went that far. Just taking the opportunity to bash a narrative that needs to die.

 

[Myopic]

I hate when the default position from the homers is to defend everything Leafs. These passive aggressive clowns aren't capable of rational thought.

Pierre McGuire, who is not a dummy, also criticized Babcock's PK system last week. He even offered an alternative PK system that is very successful in the game today.

Ray Ferraro had similar criticisms of the Leafs penalty kill.

It's not a good thing to have a closed mind. I'm disappointed that Babcock isn't even considering a change because it's been brutal. Some would say that they don't have enough time to make a change but I disagree. These are smart athletes who have played hockey their whole lives. It's not rocket science.

 

[qqaz]

I hate when the default position from the homers is to defend everything Leafs. These passive aggressive clowns aren't capable of rational thought.

Pierre McGuire, who is not a dummy, also criticized Babcock's PK system last week. He even offered an alternative PK system that is very successful in the game today.

Ray Ferraro had similar criticisms of the Leafs penalty kill.

It's not a good thing to have a closed mind. I'm disappointed that Babcock isn't even considering a change because it's been brutal. Some would say that they don't have enough time to make a change but I disagree. These are smart athletes who have played hockey their whole lives. It's not rocket science.

I think Babcock's been pretty badly misquoted and misunderstood so far in this thread. The article from Feschuk made it sound like Babcock said there would be 100% no changes to the PK. But the actual exchange was this:

Reporter: You obviously want to stick to what has given you guys success, but in Game 7, do you start taking any risks or trying different things?

Babcock: No. 100% the opposite of that piece of advice.

So, it's not specifically about the PK. In fact, it's specifically a response about taking risks. Putting a different player in to take a PK face off instead of Hyman isn't what I would call "risky". I don't think he has eliminated that possibility, at all. A risky change would be to sit Marleau, or move Marner to a new line. That ain't happening. But he never said "I will not consider making a single adjustment of any kind."