I want to throw up. He's the perfect candidate for an assistant coach. Excellent motivator. Excellent friend to the players. And obviously got good results out of Slafkovsky, but I wager Cunneyworth could have got the same results. Slafkovsky was never failing.
He is terrible at adapting. He tinkers with lineup far, far too often. He, like any coach, plays favourites... but to a terrible degree. Usually coaches have favourites who given 138042% every single shift but really don't have that much talent... not St. Louis. You can be the biggest floater ever and if he likes you, you stay.
I'm still annoyed Kovacevic played so little. Is Kovacevic a hill worth dying on? Probably not. Is Kovacevic going to change our woes? Obviously not. But how players like him get removed from the lineup every other game when players like Josh Anderson can float without care is absolutely mind-boggling.
Whatever your take is on advanced stats (you don't need them to see that Anderson is an absolutely terrible hockey player) - do you know who Anderson had the same point share as? Kirby f***ing Dach and Logan f***ing Mailloux. Both of those players contributed the same this season as Josh Anderson... and both of them did it in... 2 games or LESS (and yes, I know ice-time is taken in account). What's Anderson there for? Offense? He ranked last on our team. Even Kovacevic ranked higher than him in offensive point shares. Defense point shares? Kovacevic lead the team and it really wasn't even that close. Again, whether or not you think point shares (or advanced stats in general) are a good tool... the eye test, as well as other stats would tell the same story. Even the most simple and probably most flawed stat, in +/- shows my point.
At the end of the day, I don't hate Marty. But I think he's better suited as an assistant. Maybe he'll grow some more... it's not like the GMs gave him much to work with this season (97 defenseman, 36 goalies, etc).
To be honest if Anderson wasn't the player he liked you would love Marty as a coach. Andy had a bad year, no doubt about it. Marty was right to stick with him because Andy did show up and push himself to be relevant mid-season. He was the hardest working guy on the team for the first 40 games. Then he fell off again and Marty responded and moved him down the lineup. Something we never saw with Desharnais and Therrien (or any other coaches pet players), who got infinite chances until Bergevin was forced to trade him at the deadline and not re-sign him to a lesser role because Therrien would not stop giving him top 6 minutes. DD was out of the league a year later. Andy will come into camp next year penciled for a bottom six role and it will be up to him to even earn that spot or get Armia'd. I don't think he is traded or bought out, but I think they likely talked with Andy about what they expect next year in training camp.
I'm sure we'll also find out Andy had a knee, calf, or leg injury mid-season because he suddenly lost all his explosiveness after that game or two he missed with a lower body injury. In the end, Andy's ice time dropped by an average of four minutes a game over the course of the season. Marty did adjust, we just didn't have anything to work with at forward. Having guys like Andy, Gally, Armia, Dvorak, and Pearson making more than McDavid and Draisatl combined, plus an extra two million, for less offensive contribution than either of them, and not even close to McDavid, is a big issue. 5 guys for 23 mil putting up 98 points. Not much Marty can do with that, it's not just Andy's fault solely. Not to mention he shot at less than half of his career average. He should have put up 10 more goals. That kind of luck (or unluck) usually normalizes one way or another.
Plus Gallagher was just as brutal, if not more, for the majority of the season, but the consensus is that he is back because he put up 10 points in the last eight games after we were already eliminated. A lot of the scapegoats showed up in the final two weeks.
Kovacevic's offensive numbers and metrics were also skewed by a flurry of points in April after we were already out. He's definitely serviceable but he's not a key piece. He's one of those guys whose metrics are good because they play so little. Playing him more would drive down his defensive impact, not bring the team metrics up.
Andy is also irrelevant to his role because we are deep at D and paper thin at forward. Who would Andy even sit for? We didn't have any actual NHLer forwards sitting at any point this season in the press box. None of the call ups impressed except Roy. Was Kovacevic worth playing over Xhekaj or Harris or the plethora of other young dmen that needed ice time to develop? I will admit Struble probably could have went back to Laval to lessen the rotation but Matheson was the only D who played 82 games. Guhle is the only other D that didn't get scratched. Kovacevic was third in games played, though obviously behind Savard who missed time for injury.
Marty did a lot with the roster he was given. There should not have been a step forward with the complete lack of off-season moves compounded by losing Dach in game 2. And yet we must have been close to leading the league in one-goal games. He probably does need a more seasoned assistant for certain aspects but that's for him to decide. This is the first coach that hasn't ruined our prospects in my conscious lifetime. The boys play harder for him than I've seen in this organization in a long time.
The bigger issue is guys like Ylonen and RHP not claiming spots. They need established NHLers in those roles if they want to compete for the playoffs. Nick Suzuki proved this year that anyone playing with him will put up points or at least contribute to his production, and RHP proved that not playing with Nick Suzuki cratered his offensive production. I could see them both being traded in change of scenery scenarios, they're both 25 going into next season and RHP will turn 26. Andy already had multiple 20 goal seasons at that age. Gally more. I would guess Dvo also will be dealt because we can't walk into next year with multiple injury-riddled centers.
One thing I think you do overlook with Andy is he does play a significant number of games. He does usually get banged up because of his play style and miss a few, but he still plays roughly 70+ a year. Compared to Dach who missed 80 games, Dvo who missed 50, Pearson who missed 30, The thing is Josh also led the team in penalties drawn by a ton. His 31 penalties drawn at our 17.5% PP is 5 and a half goals. If we'd had a normal PP it would be closed to 8-9. He took a few too but he was still positive in penalty differential. Not like Guhle, Slaf, Xhekaj, Kovacevic, Savard, etc who all likely contributed to an extra 3-6 goals against each with our brutal PK. Josh is consistent in that he plays the right way typically, eats minutes, and offers more positives than negatives. More offensive contribution would be nice, but he's not a brutal below replacement level player like a RHP or Ylonen.
Also just bringing up advanced stats briefly, Josh was the most "unlucky" forward on the team this year with his xgoals expected being far higher than his actual goal total. While Gallagher and Armia both scored far above their expected. In almost every metric Ylonen and RHP were beneath or equal to Anderson. Guys trying to crack the league being worse than a guy who is having a career worst season. To to mention Anderson taking heavier minutes against better players skewing his numbers downwards.
Now you know how the rest of the forum felt during the Desharnais era at least.
