Serial_Derecho
Registered User
Not sure what thread this best belongs in, but Vogel posted a really interesting chat-wrap with McPhee:
http://dumpnchase.monumentalnetwork.com/2014/05/01/seventeen-years-in-the-rear-view
Makes me despise that pompous ass of a coach even more!
http://dumpnchase.monumentalnetwork.com/2014/05/01/seventeen-years-in-the-rear-view
With respect to this past season, [then-Caps coach] Adam [Oates] wanted to change the way the goalies played, which ran entirely counter to [former Caps goaltending coach] Dave Prior’s philosophy on that. Looking back, it seems like the clash between Adam and Dave last season ended up hurting the team a bit.
“You can’t change people. You can help them, but you don’t want to change their styles. Dave was a big loss for the organization. That was really one of the toughest decisions I had to make because I really didn’t want him to go. I tried to referee it the first year, but when it was clear over the summer that the two of them weren’t going to get along, and the head coach wanted to do what he thought was right to win. So you throw your support behind the head coach, because that’s what you’re supposed to do. But it was a big loss for the organization.
“Dick had mentioned to me before the season that the thing he was worried about was how the guys are when they come back from the Olympics. And I said, ‘We need a big year from the goalies.’ It’s time for the goalies to have a big year for us, and coming back from the Olympics, how is it going to be? We didn’t get the big year from the goalies, but that doesn’t mean that Braden Holtby isn’t going to be a hell of a goalie, because he is. He is a good goalie. He’s a character guy who doesn’t wilt under pressure and he battles. He is going to be a good one. But that hurt us this year. It hurt us a lot.â€
The decision to go with three goaltenders in December, was that more your decision or Adam’s?
“I honestly can’t remember how we got to that. But Grubauer was playing so well, and I don’t mind keeping a guy here when he is hot. And he was playing great. But I remember going into New York in January and I thought it was time for him to go down. He was struggling. I actually saw it in the pregame skate in the morning that it was time; he was wilting. It happens with young guys. He was wilting and I had a really bad feeling in the morning skate that he was going to have a tough time in the game and he did. But it was after that game that I walked into the coach’s office and said, ‘Enough. This kid is going down. No more three goalie stuff.’ And it wasn’t open for debate. There just aren’t enough netsfor three goalies.â€
Makes me despise that pompous ass of a coach even more!