Maclean's coaching

[Magix]

Whats the logic of giving so much rope to one group of players (vets) and being stern on others (non vets). What kind of message is he trying to send to the team?

Why can anderson (early in the season) or spezza get so much leeway but a player like ryan or any of the young kids not get any? Its frustrating watching someone who is supposedly a top tier coach make stupid decision after stupid decision. When phillips gets healthy again I expect wiercioch to get the boot for no reason.

What was the mantra? Best players play.

Click to read more...

 

[Tragedy]

What was the mantra? Best players play.

Except after goals for and against, OT and any game played on a day that ends in 'y'.

 

[Icelevel]

Does Maclean coach?

 

[StefanW]

Hahahaha!

We lost a game so I was waiting for the panic threads to start popping up.

Step away from the ledge boys. Your moms still love you.

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

Does Maclean coach?

It's all about the polar vortex guys. Or being a fisherman. Or not knowing anything. Or Player X. It's ok, he won the Jack Adams last year. That means he can screw the pooch the rest of his life here.

Can't wait till we get a coach that can implement a defensive system and hold all players accountable...MacLean has worn out his welcome this year.

 

[Tundraman]

Someone posted about us having Torts in another thread (in jest I think). I'd love to have a real fiery coach like that (but just for a while). Although he doesn't have the Torts personality either, MacLean actually makes me miss Jacques Martin.

 

[Magix]

Hahahaha!

We lost a game so I was waiting for the panic threads to start popping up.

Step away from the ledge boys. Your moms still love you.

Panic threads? Ofc, because the season has been fine and dandy. Coaching has been consistent, players have been held accountable and this team has a playoff seeding and are in cruise control.

 

[StefanW]

Panic threads? Ofc, because the season has been fine and dandy. Coaching has been consistent, players have been held accountable and this team has a playoff seeding and are in cruise control.

No one said the season has been fine and dandy. However, coaching is far from our problem. Taking that road is as easy as setting up countless threads slamming Spezza after every loss.

 

[WhiteLight*]

You're all overreacting. You should all remain calm, the people on the Sens are perfect and don't deserve to be criticized

 

[PatrickEaves]

Someone posted about us having Torts in another thread (in jest I think). I'd love to have a real fiery coach like that (but just for a while). Although he doesn't have the Torts personality either, MacLean actually makes me miss Jacques Martin.

Dude that counterattacking 1-1-3 trap that Martin's Senators team played is still the best system that the Sens have ever played.

 

[Magix]

No one said the season has been fine and dandy. However, coaching is far from our problem. Taking that road is as easy as setting up countless threads slamming Spezza after every loss.

How is coaching not one of the core problems this year? When you play anderson consistently on a cold streak, give spezza/phillips/neil/greening/michalek plenty of ice time or consistently have some of the young dmen pinch in like they are karlsson. How are those not problems?

If the coach doesn't adjust who will?

 

[aragorn]

Don't read this if you are a Passifist

I blame the coach PM for the fiasco in Toronto, once he saw that the ref didn't make the call on Kadri & they allowed the goal he had a unique opportunity to turn the tide & change momentum & get his team some respect. He should have pulled Anderson & replaced him with Lehner. Then he should have sent out his 5 toughest guys for the drop of the puck & started a line brawl & Lehner could go after Bernier.

That would have sent a message to his team that they weren't going to take this **** anymore. It would also have sent a message to the refs that if you are not going to make calls then you are going to work your ass off for the next 10 minutes breaking up 5 or 6 fights. It would also send a message to the NHL that we are sick of this **** & constantly being cheated & force them out of their lazy boy chairs in a Leaf suite at the ACC drinking Lattes to review the game & make some decisions. It would have sent a message to the Leafs that this is war & we don't give a **** about the score, the standings, getting more penalties or the gifts they gave the ref to start the game. After that, the very next time Kadri touches the ice the closes player to him drops the gloves & just starts pounding on him. I'm sick of these guys laughing at our team every game, Kadri says playing in Ottawa is like a home game for them. Do what JM did in Philly & continue fighting every time the puck is dropped & make those ******* refs work their ***** off all game long for not making an obvious attempt to injure call. Ceci could have ended up in a wheelchair & nobody seems to give a ****.

Calgary has played pretty well since their brawl, it seems to have brought their team together. Colorado has played well all yr since Roy went crazy & Ottawa has played well in the past after a few brawls, I think it helped them to beat Montreal in last yr's playoffs. This team needs something to bring them together & brawls have a way of doing this. It's the only thing the refs understand, it's the only thing the NHL understands & it's the only thing the Leafs understand, you have to fight fire with fire, you have to stand up for yourself & make a statement that we are not going to take this **** anymore. OR you can be passive as this team always seems to be & turn the other cheek & continue to have sand kicked in their face & hope the refs will eventually come to our defence because we are too gutless to do it ourselves. Just because they never have before doesn't mean they won't in the future or does it?

 

[WhiteLight*]

I blame the coach PM for the fiasco in Toronto, once he saw that the ref didn't make the call on Kadri & they allowed the goal he had a unique opportunity to turn the tide & change momentum & get his team some respect. He should have pulled Anderson & replaced him with Lehner. Then he should have sent out his 5 toughest guys for the drop of the puck & started a line brawl & Lehner could go after Bernier.

That would have sent a message to his team that they weren't going to take this **** anymore. It would also have sent a message to the refs that if you are not going to make calls then you are going to work your ass off for the next 10 minutes breaking up 5 or 6 fights. It would also send a message to the NHL that we are sick of this **** & constantly being cheated & force them out of their lazy boy chairs in a Leaf suite at the ACC drinking Lattes to review the game & make some decisions. It would have sent a message to the Leafs that this is war & we don't give a **** about the score, the standings, getting more penalties or the gifts they gave the ref to start the game. After that, the very next time Kadri touches the ice the closes player to him drops the gloves & just starts pounding on him. I'm sick of these guys laughing at our team every game, Kadri says playing in Ottawa is like a home game for them. Do what JM did in Philly & continue fighting every time the puck is dropped & make those ******* refs work their ***** off all game long for not making an obvious attempt to injure call. Ceci could have ended up in a wheelchair & nobody seems to give a ****.

Calgary has played pretty well since their brawl, it seems to have brought their team together. Colorado has played well all yr since Roy went crazy & Ottawa has played well in the past after a few brawls, I think it helped them to beat Montreal in last yr's playoffs. This team needs something to bring them together & brawls have a way of doing this. It's the only thing the refs understand, it's the only thing the NHL understands & it's the only thing the Leafs understand, you have to fight fire with fire, you have to stand up for yourself & make a statement that we are not going to take this **** anymore. OR you can be passive as this team always seems to be & turn the other cheek & continue to have sand kicked in their face & hope the refs will eventually come to our defence because we are too gutless to do it ourselves. Just because they never have before doesn't mean they won't in the future or does it?

well. That would have been cool to watch

 

[Satoru Gojo]

Maybe the players have tuned him out? For sure there's been a lack of effort here and there this season

 

[Spez]

Martin's system was good for the regular season but not good come playoff time. There is a reason the team underachieved in his time here and part of it was how stubborn he was and his inability to adapt to change in the postseason. Maclean is not perfect but it's laughable to think there will be a coaching change. You'll see a lot of trades before he gets replaced not to mention there isn't anyone else out there who would have this team in a better spot. I also laugh at the notion of Torts as this amazing coach. Since he's won the cup he's done jack squat except for that run in 2012 and even then it was only cause of Lunqdvist that they got that far. Right now his team looks worse than ours does and Vancouver has more talent on their team than we do. They are on the verge of collapsing down the stretch and could very well miss the playoffs if the kings, wild and coyotes start heating up.

 

[Magix]

I blame the coach PM for the fiasco in Toronto, once he saw that the ref didn't make the call on Kadri & they allowed the goal he had a unique opportunity to turn the tide & change momentum & get his team some respect. He should have pulled Anderson & replaced him with Lehner. Then he should have sent out his 5 toughest guys for the drop of the puck & started a line brawl & Lehner could go after Bernier.

That would have sent a message to his team that they weren't going to take this **** anymore. It would also have sent a message to the refs that if you are not going to make calls then you are going to work your ass off for the next 10 minutes breaking up 5 or 6 fights. It would also send a message to the NHL that we are sick of this **** & constantly being cheated & force them out of their lazy boy chairs in a Leaf suite at the ACC drinking Lattes to review the game & make some decisions. It would have sent a message to the Leafs that this is war & we don't give a **** about the score, the standings, getting more penalties or the gifts they gave the ref to start the game. After that, the very next time Kadri touches the ice the closes player to him drops the gloves & just starts pounding on him. I'm sick of these guys laughing at our team every game, Kadri says playing in Ottawa is like a home game for them. Do what JM did in Philly & continue fighting every time the puck is dropped & make those ******* refs work their ***** off all game long for not making an obvious attempt to injure call. Ceci could have ended up in a wheelchair & nobody seems to give a ****.

Calgary has played pretty well since their brawl, it seems to have brought their team together. Colorado has played well all yr since Roy went crazy & Ottawa has played well in the past after a few brawls, I think it helped them to beat Montreal in last yr's playoffs. This team needs something to bring them together & brawls have a way of doing this. It's the only thing the refs understand, it's the only thing the NHL understands & it's the only thing the Leafs understand, you have to fight fire with fire, you have to stand up for yourself & make a statement that we are not going to take this **** anymore. OR you can be passive as this team always seems to be & turn the other cheek & continue to have sand kicked in their face & hope the refs will eventually come to our defence because we are too gutless to do it ourselves. Just because they never have before doesn't mean they won't in the future or does it?

Its strange though, he sent the goons after boyle who did less.

 

[StefanW]

How is coaching not one of the core problems this year? When you play anderson consistently on a cold streak, give spezza/phillips/neil/greening/michalek plenty of ice time or consistently have some of the young dmen pinch in like they are karlsson. How are those not problems?

If the coach doesn't adjust who will?

Well, for starters anyone who, at the start of the year, thought this was anything more than a bubble team was completely delusional. Many people here predicted that we would be in a fight for a wildcard spot. So now that we are in a fight for a wildcard spot, what exactly is the big surprise?

Your points do remind me of exactly why this fan base can piss me off from time to time. We rode Andy because he is our number 1 guy, and we were only ever going to get as far as he would carry us. Andy started poorly, but since Dec 1st he has completely turned it around. We would not have even had a point from the game if it was not for Andy stealing it for us. Yet the same tired argument about riding Andy gets repeated. It is as though portions of the fan base have their heads lodged so far up their own ***** they can't see the games anymore. MacLean was right to continue to play Andy. Get over it.

I agree that he plays Greening/Smith/Neil too much. But the thing is that a coach only has the players on the bench to pick from. The Turris line comes off, and when he looks down the bench he has the Smith line, a struggling line, and then a line centered by a guy who was in Bingo a week or two ago. Assuming Turris has to rest once in a while, who does he play? The coach does not pick the players on the team, he only gets to pick out of the ones he has. I would say at least half of our forwards have been through brutal slumps this year, and a portion of those have never even had a stretch of three games in a row where they played up to expectations. And don't even get me started on the D and where they sit, player by player, compared to where the team expected them to be this season. Add in a "impact of being a small budget team" reference here.

But lets leave any sort of detailed discussion aside because we are too ****ing lazy to give this any thought. It is much easier to blame the coach, so lets just do that instead.

 

[BonkTastic]

Well, for starters anyone who, at the start of the year, thought this was anything more than a bubble team was completely delusional. Many people here predicted that we would be in a fight for a wildcard spot. So now that we are in a fight for a wildcard spot, what exactly is the big surprise?

Your points do remind me of exactly why this fan base can piss me off from time to time. We rode Andy because he is our number 1 guy, and we were only ever going to get as far as he would carry us. Andy started poorly, but since Dec 1st he has completely turned it around. We would not have even had a point from the game if it was not for Andy stealing it for us. Yet the same tired argument about riding Andy gets repeated. It is as though portions of the fan base have their heads lodged so far up their own ***** they can't see the games anymore. MacLean was right to continue to play Andy. Get over it.

I agree that he plays Greening/Smith/Neil too much. But the thing is that a coach only has the players on the bench to pick from. The Turris line comes off, and when he looks down the bench he has the Smith line, a struggling line, and then a line centered by a guy who was in Bingo a week or two ago. Assuming Turris has to rest once in a while, who does he play? The coach does not pick the players on the team, he only gets to pick out of the ones he has. I would say at least half of our forwards have been through brutal slumps this year, and a portion of those have never even had a stretch of three games in a row where they played up to expectations. And don't even get me started on the D and where they sit, player by player, compared to where the team expected them to be this season. Add in a "impact of being a small budget team" reference here.

But lets leave any sort of detailed discussion aside because we are too ****ing lazy to give this any thought. It is much easier to blame the coach, so lets just do that instead.

 

[DrunkUncleDenis]

I blame the coach PM for the fiasco in Toronto, once he saw that the ref didn't make the call on Kadri & they allowed the goal he had a unique opportunity to turn the tide & change momentum & get his team some respect. He should have pulled Anderson & replaced him with Lehner. Then he should have sent out his 5 toughest guys for the drop of the puck & started a line brawl & Lehner could go after Bernier.

That would have sent a message to his team that they weren't going to take this **** anymore. It would also have sent a message to the refs that if you are not going to make calls then you are going to work your ass off for the next 10 minutes breaking up 5 or 6 fights. It would also send a message to the NHL that we are sick of this **** & constantly being cheated & force them out of their lazy boy chairs in a Leaf suite at the ACC drinking Lattes to review the game & make some decisions. It would have sent a message to the Leafs that this is war & we don't give a **** about the score, the standings, getting more penalties or the gifts they gave the ref to start the game. After that, the very next time Kadri touches the ice the closes player to him drops the gloves & just starts pounding on him. I'm sick of these guys laughing at our team every game, Kadri says playing in Ottawa is like a home game for them. Do what JM did in Philly & continue fighting every time the puck is dropped & make those ******* refs work their ***** off all game long for not making an obvious attempt to injure call. Ceci could have ended up in a wheelchair & nobody seems to give a ****.

Calgary has played pretty well since their brawl, it seems to have brought their team together. Colorado has played well all yr since Roy went crazy & Ottawa has played well in the past after a few brawls, I think it helped them to beat Montreal in last yr's playoffs. This team needs something to bring them together & brawls have a way of doing this. It's the only thing the refs understand, it's the only thing the NHL understands & it's the only thing the Leafs understand, you have to fight fire with fire, you have to stand up for yourself & make a statement that we are not going to take this **** anymore. OR you can be passive as this team always seems to be & turn the other cheek & continue to have sand kicked in their face & hope the refs will eventually come to our defence because we are too gutless to do it ourselves. Just because they never have before doesn't mean they won't in the future or does it?

This would have been glorious.

You make a great point. Honestly, **** the game. Send a message. It's worth losing one game (which we lost anyway) to show that we won't stand for it. I loved last year's team, and the year before - we all did. They had so much heart, they were so easy to love. This year's team is so passive, no one seems to give a damn. It's a real shame, and it sucks for us fans. I want to be proud of my team. But they are making that real hard to do this year.

This year's vs last year's teams are really only separated by a few points. We hung around 6th-7th last year, while we are hanging around 10th this year. That's only a few points different. Yet, our feelings towards the two teams are completely different due to they way they conduct themselves.

I can't stand Kadri, man. As if we let that punk get away with it.

We need more Carkner.

 

[Spez]

Thank you StefanW for bringing in some great thought into the discussion. I think a big reason people are freaking out on this board is a lot of them probably thought we were a team that would be a lock for the playoffs all because they won a round last season. I don't know why anyone honestly could have thought that this team was going to be a lock and not a bubble team. It was clear as the sky itself that the goaltending numbers were going to go down and that there were holes on the back end. The fact is this team will be a bubble team as long as Melnyk refuses to allow the team to spend to the cap. If this team was a cap team I'd have a lot of confidence they'd be up there battling Boston and Tampa for the division.

The bottom line is people can keep questioning coaching, bashing Spezza, bashing Simmer, bashing Mendes, bashing Dean Brown, but it's just difficult in today's NHL to be an upper echelon team if your payroll is a lot lower than most of the teams you are chasing. This team could easily get a top 4 defenseman and a top 6 forward if Melnyk loosened the purse strings. Yet in some people's minds trading Spezza and firing the coach/GM will all of a sudden turn this team from a bubble team into a team that would be a lock for the playoffs.

 

[ChocolateLeclaire]

Well, for starters anyone who, at the start of the year, thought this was anything more than a bubble team was completely delusional. Many people here predicted that we would be in a fight for a wildcard spot. So now that we are in a fight for a wildcard spot, what exactly is the big surprise?

Your points do remind me of exactly why this fan base can piss me off from time to time. We rode Andy because he is our number 1 guy, and we were only ever going to get as far as he would carry us. Andy started poorly, but since Dec 1st he has completely turned it around. We would not have even had a point from the game if it was not for Andy stealing it for us. Yet the same tired argument about riding Andy gets repeated. It is as though portions of the fan base have their heads lodged so far up their own ***** they can't see the games anymore. MacLean was right to continue to play Andy. Get over it.

I agree that he plays Greening/Smith/Neil too much. But the thing is that a coach only has the players on the bench to pick from. The Turris line comes off, and when he looks down the bench he has the Smith line, a struggling line, and then a line centered by a guy who was in Bingo a week or two ago. Assuming Turris has to rest once in a while, who does he play? The coach does not pick the players on the team, he only gets to pick out of the ones he has. I would say at least half of our forwards have been through brutal slumps this year, and a portion of those have never even had a stretch of three games in a row where they played up to expectations. And don't even get me started on the D and where they sit, player by player, compared to where the team expected them to be this season. Add in a "impact of being a small budget team" reference here.

But lets leave any sort of detailed discussion aside because we are too ****ing lazy to give this any thought. It is much easier to blame the coach, so lets just do that instead.

Good God, I don't think a better post has ever been written on this site in its history.

Of course this logic will be completely lost on the posters who would rather fling their feces around stomping up and down like they were yelper monkeys.

Bravo StefanW, bravo!

 

[Benjamin]

I still like Maclean and dont want him fired. The players aren't helping him at all.

However his season summed up in a gif:

 

[Hale The Villain]

I blame the coach PM for the fiasco in Toronto, once he saw that the ref didn't make the call on Kadri & they allowed the goal he had a unique opportunity to turn the tide & change momentum & get his team some respect. He should have pulled Anderson & replaced him with Lehner. Then he should have sent out his 5 toughest guys for the drop of the puck & started a line brawl & Lehner could go after Bernier.

That would have sent a message to his team that they weren't going to take this **** anymore. It would also have sent a message to the refs that if you are not going to make calls then you are going to work your ass off for the next 10 minutes breaking up 5 or 6 fights. It would also send a message to the NHL that we are sick of this **** & constantly being cheated & force them out of their lazy boy chairs in a Leaf suite at the ACC drinking Lattes to review the game & make some decisions. It would have sent a message to the Leafs that this is war & we don't give a **** about the score, the standings, getting more penalties or the gifts they gave the ref to start the game. After that, the very next time Kadri touches the ice the closes player to him drops the gloves & just starts pounding on him. I'm sick of these guys laughing at our team every game, Kadri says playing in Ottawa is like a home game for them. Do what JM did in Philly & continue fighting every time the puck is dropped & make those ******* refs work their ***** off all game long for not making an obvious attempt to injure call. Ceci could have ended up in a wheelchair & nobody seems to give a ****.

Calgary has played pretty well since their brawl, it seems to have brought their team together. Colorado has played well all yr since Roy went crazy & Ottawa has played well in the past after a few brawls, I think it helped them to beat Montreal in last yr's playoffs. This team needs something to bring them together & brawls have a way of doing this. It's the only thing the refs understand, it's the only thing the NHL understands & it's the only thing the Leafs understand, you have to fight fire with fire, you have to stand up for yourself & make a statement that we are not going to take this **** anymore. OR you can be passive as this team always seems to be & turn the other cheek & continue to have sand kicked in their face & hope the refs will eventually come to our defence because we are too gutless to do it ourselves. Just because they never have before doesn't mean they won't in the future or does it?

Agreed. This team just seems to have no balls whatsoever, which makes sense considering our captain is probably the last player in the NHL who should be wearing a C on his jersey, our coach is afraid to bench our veteran players or discipline the team in any way after a lazy effort, and our GM (to my knowledge) refuses to consider dealing guys like Spezza and Phillips, despite their value dropping by the day.

I'd love a coach like Torts on our team. Someone who won't hesitate to fill your ear with expletives after a stupid play or staple your ass to the bench if you won't move your feet. If this team had a coach that preached accountability and didn't accept lazy, uninspired play on a daily basis we would be much higher in the standings.

 

[BankStreetParade]

Thank you StefanW for bringing in some great thought into the discussion. I think a big reason people are freaking out on this board is a lot of them probably thought we were a team that would be a lock for the playoffs all because they won a round last season. I don't know why anyone honestly could have thought that this team was going to be a lock and not a bubble team. It was clear as the sky itself that the goaltending numbers were going to go down and that there were holes on the back end. The fact is this team will be a bubble team as long as Melnyk refuses to allow the team to spend to the cap. If this team was a cap team I'd have a lot of confidence they'd be up there battling Boston and Tampa for the division.

The bottom line is people can keep questioning coaching, bashing Spezza, bashing Simmer, bashing Mendes, bashing Dean Brown, but it's just difficult in today's NHL to be an upper echelon team if your payroll is a lot lower than most of the teams you are chasing. This team could easily get a top 4 defenseman and a top 6 forward if Melnyk loosened the purse strings. Yet in some people's minds trading Spezza and firing the coach/GM will all of a sudden turn this team from a bubble team into a team that would be a lock for the playoffs.

This is probably my favorite point of all of them. Let's see how easy this is.

Ok, you have the green light to spend to the cap. Please tell us who you are spending the money on.

I love when people say it as if it's the simplest and most obvious thing ever. "If we could only spend to the cap..." SPEND TO THE CAP ON WHO????? David Clarkson? Stephen Weiss? Ryan Clowe?

 

[aragorn]

Agreed. This team just seems to have no balls whatsoever, which makes sense considering our captain is probably the last player in the NHL who should be wearing a C on his jersey, our coach is afraid to bench our veteran players or discipline the team in any way after a lazy effort, and our GM (to my knowledge) refuses to consider dealing guys like Spezza and Phillips, despite their value dropping by the day.

I'd love a coach like Torts on our team. Someone who won't hesitate to fill your ear with expletives after a stupid play or staple your ass to the bench if you won't move your feet. If this team had a coach that preached accountability and didn't accept lazy, uninspired play on a daily basis we would be much higher in the standings.

Well to be fair I was really only talking about that Leaf game, they bring out the worse in me it seems. PM has made some unusual or iffy calls but I also agree with Stefanw that he hasn't had much choice & I have defended PM in the past. It was that Leaf game that I wanted to see PM make a stand in the hope that it would bring the team together & I think he lost an opportunity there.

Tonight's game was another frustrating game to watch as Pens stars get to skate through our zone & never seem to get touched but at least the Sens played them into overtime & got a point. I just fine our team is easy to play against now, maybe it's because they are afraid & can't catch a break with refs who are constantly being called for cheap or ghost penalties. IMO Ottawa also has too many nice guys on the roster who are soft players who don't hit & prefer fly byes & don't seem to be working hard enough or trying hard enough. I don't think any team is afraid to play Ottawa, they are not hard to play against, they don't make the opposition pay the price, the only guy that really concerns them is Neil's physical play & Karlsson's speed.