Food for thought

[Cole Caulifield]

If you were a coach, would you use all your best ideas at game #1 knowing that a team is a living breathing organism that needs regular jump starts and inflections of energy throughout the regular season ?

Would you use all of your best line combos that make the most sense giving every other team tons of footage of what you will do in the playoffs ? And will your answer change if you have a truly elite team for which you don't need to keep stuff hidden because no other team can really match your roster and everyone knows what you will do anyway ?

What's the real objective behind the regular season ? Is it to go through it expanding every and all efforts to be the best you can be for the regular season ? Or is it a platform for the playoffs ?

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[Mad Habber]

This is the NHL. The top league in the world. The best of the best. You better be ready on Game 1 because you only have 81 more chances to get more than 94 points or better before the other teams do.

If your coach isn't going all out, why should the players. And why should the GM keep the coach around. What exactly are you saving it for anyway. No point saving your best tricks for the playoffs if you don't get to the playoffs.

Besides, what works on Game 1, may not work Game 2 and so on. Every team makes adjustments throughout the year and also throughout games.

 

[Rapala]

There are no real secrets anymore...
No ones going to get blown away by someone's amazing strategy.
The idea is to be able to execute whatever it is that is asked of you as a professional.
Now if that isn't happening there is a problem.
Teams can give you a multitude of different looks on 5-5 PP and PK.
The successful teams can play those varying styles.
This is what has many up in arms here.
We seem to be struggling with one style.
I've always looked at the regular season as a chance to master the playbook whatever it is.
This way when the playoffs come around your team is executing on instinct not having to think out there.
When a team becomes really good at something it is very hard to break them.

 

[BaseballCoach]

If you were a coach, would you use all your best ideas at game #1 knowing that a team is a living breathing organism that needs regular jump starts and inflections of energy throughout the regular season ?

No, I would use the Scotty approach from Star Trek. Let everyone on board think "sheeze barning up" then make it look like at the last minute you saved the day.

 

[groovejuice]

No, I would use the Scotty approach from Star Trek. Let everyone on board think "sheeze barning up" then make it look like at the last minute you saved the day.

Kinda like our playoffs last year?

 

[Swarez]

So having the power play run at like 12% for about 11 months now is all part of the plan

 

[Miller Time]

If you were a coach, would you use all your best ideas at game #1 knowing that a team is a living breathing organism that needs regular jump starts and inflections of energy throughout the regular season ?

Would you use all of your best line combos that make the most sense giving every other team tons of footage of what you will do in the playoffs ? And will your answer change if you have a truly elite team for which you don't need to keep stuff hidden because no other team can really match your roster and everyone knows what you will do anyway ?

What's the real objective behind the regular season ? Is it to go through it expanding every and all efforts to be the best you can be for the regular season ? Or is it a platform for the playoffs ?

improve improve improve. Build build build.

that's what the regular season is for.

7 months is a long time, players can improve immensely over that time, you want your team to be driven to keep improving (bound by fatigue/injuries of course).

building team culture/identity also takes times.


that's why the W/L record, beyond doing enough to confidently make the playoffs, is irrelevant. Home ice is an edge, but less of an edge than having a team with the internal confidence that they have grown together, share the same performance values, and have their focus on the right thing (winning when it matters).


and that's why a coach who yo-yo's players without rhyme or reason, and whose team shows no sign of a clear identity despite being in charge for multiple seasons, is such a bad fit for an organization that aspires to excellence.

 

[HBDay]

no... It's entertainment... I don't watch hockey like it's my job... They better put on a show everytime they hit the ice. And recently they haven't. Do you know how cheated I feel when I have a day marked where I'm off and have the game circled on my calender. Looking forward to it for a week or more, going to the movies with my girl in the afternoon and having an early dinner so I can watch the game, only to be treated to a ****ing ball of ****, a **** ball??? Yeah, makes me angry.

I have Boston on Thursday circled, better be a show, or I'm done watching for awhile.

 

[habtastic]

You try to win every single damn game.

Apart from the Kings, aren't the President's trophy winners or close runners up usually the champs?

 

[WeThreeKings]

It's about establishing strategies and systems that make sense. Building on regular season success so that when the play-offs come around your execution is top notch and you are confident in the systems you are using so that you can play your game without skepticism.

 

[Rapala]

You try to win every single damn game.

Apart from the Kings, aren't the President's trophy winners or close runners up usually the champs?

True you try to win every game...
However there is an End Game it's called the Stanley Cup.
A completely new and taxing affair that is described as the hardest professional sports playoff that exists. One of the most important assets a coach can possess is vision. The ability to foresee which players are going to be your go to guys when the trials and tribulations begin. Unfortunately we are blessed with a coach who has perhaps the least vision I've ever encountered. It is apparent in game it is apparent in his personnel choices and it is apparent in his game plan.

Not a winning formula sorry...

 

[Bob Cole]

 

[Hackett]

I would still go with my best lineup available. I want the team to play on my terms, and let the chips lie where they may.

Probably the hardest thing about being a fan is accepting the fact that we have no control over the decisions. It doesn't matter if we have mike Babcock or Michel therrien, coaches will always be criticized because every fan has their own ideas that they want to apply.

One common denominator on these boards since I started reading them in the late 90s is that our coaches are all idiots, and that won't change moving forward.

 

[Spearmint Rhino]

So we break out the flying V to stun the opposition in the playoffs

Maybe you try your best to win every game but evolve in-game and between games to adapt to slumps and other teams defences and systems

If all you have is a game plan to start the year - which honestly looks like what MT has - I think you'll be out-coached on most nights