How are coaches called "chokers"?

[MrSnrub]

You see it a lot with coaches who make the playoffs a lot but don't win the Cup. Boudreau gets it a lot. I've seen Vigneault called a "choker in later rounds". What's more likely? That these great coaches just somehow forget how to coach in April/May, that their "choking" somehow causes their players to lose the ability to score goals/their goaltenders to start letting in goals en masse, or is it that only one team can win the Cup per year and that making a deep playoff run also involves a lot of luck?

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[Goose]

Think of it like a guy who’s great at picking up women at the bar but then it all falls apart when he gets them back to his place.

Also, it’s a team sport with tons of chance involved and it’s hard to tag people accurately with a choker label.

 

[Khelandros]

Labeling a coach a "choker", is due to their inability to adapt to the situation at hand. When a coach has a good regular season but is then unable to do anything in the playoffs, consistently, they deserve the "choker" label. Being unable to adapt to what the other coach is doing, or even being better than the opposing coach, will seal their fate.

 

[Montreal Shadow]

Coaching decisions can be critical at times, especially in the playoffs. From memory Boudreau in the 2010 playoffs was completely outcoached by Martin.

 

[Hockeyholic]

A.V. in 2017 against Ottawa. Caps coach last year. Dan Bylsma in 2010 & 2012. Babcock last year. There are countless examples where coaches were a huge reason for their team losing a series. Being able to adapt, and not overthink things, are at least two critical areas when getting into a playoff series.

 

[Hockeyholic]

Coaching decisions can be critical at times, especially in the playoffs. From memory Boudreau in the 2010 playoffs was completely outcoached by Martin.

Washington outshot and out chanced Montreal consistently in that series. Sometimes it's just a bad case of running into a hot goalie.

 

[Shakey Rustie]

Think of it like a guy who’s great at picking up women at the bar but then it all falls apart when he gets them back to his place.

...

The coaches have whiskey dick?

 

[K Fleur]

How? By saying they are a choker.

 

[DownIsTheNewUp]

Choker is probably one of the greatest insult words you can use in sports. 90% of the time it's used around here it makes zero sense within the context it's used in. But people don't care about making sense, they care about making insults.

 

[North Cole]

"Players win games, coaches lose them."

- Bill Belichick (The Hoodie)

Good players cant overcome horrible coaching, that's what me makes laugh when people call players, "system players", like it's some kind of diss.

 

[CH]

Some coaches push their team to give 110% all the time (forgetting that it is by definition impossible to give 110%) and their team burns out and has no higher gear when they hit playoff time. However if they had a team that legitimately was the best team in the league or a Stanley Cup favorite, they would be hard to beat in any circumstances. Usually these "choker" coaches never had the best team that should have won the cup but they pushed their team to overachieve in the regular season. Generally if a team overachieves, overachieving will soon end and they will regress to the mean.

The moral, most of the time (if not always) calling a coach a choker coach shows that you don't understand hockey and you think that a top coach with an above average team should be able to beat top teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It doesn't work that way.

 

[Kranix]

What do coaches actually do?

 

[Kamiccolo]

What do coaches actually do?

Apparently nothing! They don't even scream at their players to shoot every time they grab the puck!

 

[Paul4587]

BB was definitely a choker. He normally started series well but as the series went on opposing coaches would make adjustments and BB would have no idea what to do and would eventually lose series he should have won.

He got absolutely schooled by Sutter and Quenneville in 14 and 15. The 2015 series against Chicago we were getting the better of and Q went and put Kane and Toews together to overwhelm the Getzlaf line. Instead of mixing things up in terms of our lineups Or even doing a bit more to avoid that matchup BB had absolutely no answer and let them dominate the matchup and win the series. In fairness to BB Andersen absolutely crapped the bed as well as he tends to do in the playoffs but coaching was a huge factor in us not making the SCF that year.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

Because their GMs keep f***ing them until they snap.

 

[MrSnrub]

Coaching decisions can be critical at times, especially in the playoffs. From memory Boudreau in the 2010 playoffs was completely outcoached by Martin.

Washington got Halak'd in that series. I have a hard time believing it was all down to Martin's coaching.

 

[castle]

I think that playoff coaching and regular season coaching are somewhat different. In the regular I think the on ice coaching is mostly on how your team wants to play regardless of the opposition, because the opposition is different every night. In the playoffs you can and should tailor your game plan to the strengths and weaknesses of a particular opponent. Maybe some coaches and just better at one or the other.

 

[Iapyi]

Think of it like a guy who’s great at picking up women at the bar but then it all falls apart when he gets them back to his place.

Also, it’s a team sport with tons of chance involved and it’s hard to tag people accurately with a choker label.

Then you get the guy who struggles getting her home but once there his game takes off.

 

[Voight]

Coaching decisions can be critical at times, especially in the playoffs. From memory Boudreau in the 2010 playoffs was completely outcoached by Martin.

Think it had more to do with Halak playing out of his mind that series.

Semin & Green playing sub par did not help the Caps either.

 

[Anisimovs AK]

BB was definitely a choker. He normally started series well but as the series went on opposing coaches would make adjustments and BB would have no idea what to do and would eventually lose series he should have won.

He got absolutely schooled by Sutter and Quenneville in 14 and 15. The 2015 series against Chicago we were getting the better of and Q went and put Kane and Toews together to overwhelm the Getzlaf line. Instead of mixing things up in terms of our lineups Or even doing a bit more to avoid that matchup BB had absolutely no answer and let them dominate the matchup and win the series. In fairness to BB Andersen absolutely crapped the bed as well as he tends to do in the playoffs but coaching was a huge factor in us not making the SCF that year.

Exactly this. Boudreau is 0-7 in game 7's. How can he not be labeled a choker

 

[Montreal Shadow]

Washington got Halak'd in that series. I have a hard time believing it was all down to Martin's coaching.

And when did I say it was all down to Martin’s coaching?

 

[Satoru Gojo]

Don't think its ever totally on the coach but they definitely deserve some of the choker label

 

[Adam da bomb]

Coaches don’t get love when things go well and are blamed when they don’t.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Boudreau “gets it a lot” because he consistently lost big games. Didn’t he lose Game 7 three years in a row or something like that?

 

[Adam da bomb]

Boudreau “gets it a lot” because he consistently lost big games. Didn’t he lose Game 7 three years in a row or something like that?

So he gets his team into game 7s seems like a good thing that his players had a good chance to take it the other way.