New Head Coach search

[Hockey Sports Fan]

Of the names assumed to be in play, my hierarchy would be
Sullivan/Keefe
Woodcroft
Berube
Anyone else

With the caveat that I'm firmly in team most coaches won't meaningfully change the results.

In the short term i think this is almost guaranteed to be the case. Literally anyone could come in and look like a genius because the Devils will almost certainly (about to knock on an entire forest’s worth of wood here) have better injury luck next year, they’ll almost certainly have upgraded the goalie position(s), and a whole lot of players are gonna be heading into the offseason and into training camp with massive chips on their shoulders.

But a coach is gonna be the major factor in assessing the roster over the next few years and attempting to mold it into a team that’s prepared for deep playoff runs. That’s where i feel like they really need to find the right guy, but of course there’s no way for us fans to judge whether that’s successful until after the fact.

 

[HersheyBob27]

Berube rumours . Oh ya

 

[JrFischer54]

devils couldn't ask for a better summer to be looking for a coach. if fitz messes this up hes toast

 

[Better Call Sal]

This is interesting at least. Of course, it still falls on him as a coach that he couldn't get the stars to understand after all this time that you have to commit to playing a certain way in the playoffs, but he certainly identified the issues they had some time ago.

Makes it at least pretty clear that the players there couldn't get the message.

 

[guitarguyvic]

This is interesting at least. Of course, it still falls on him as a coach that he couldn't get the stars to understand after all this time that you have to commit to playing a certain way in the playoffs, but he certainly identified the issues they had some time ago.

Makes it at least pretty clear that the players there couldn't get the message.

I’m not sure this is a positive thing for Keefe. He’s making a correct observation but a sort of common/obvious one. The role of the coach is not just to identify what the issues are, but to give the players the best odds of correcting those issues through teaching, accountability, systems, and strategies.

How much of it is on the players is always hard to say. But this video doesn’t really tell me anything one way or the other.

 

[MartyOwns]

respect to this man

pure class there. maybe i'm reading too much into it, but the fact that he has made peace with the firing hours after it happened makes me think 1) he's almost relieved to get away from that circus and 2) something is already in the works to get him behind another bench.

does fitz have any ties to him?

 

[guitarguyvic]

That’s a real nice and classy message.

 

[Guadana]

I’m not sure this is a positive thing for Keefe. He’s making a correct observation but a sort of common/obvious one. The role of the coach is not just to identify what the issues are, but to give the players the best odds of correcting those issues through teaching, accountability, systems, and strategies.

How much of it is on the players is always hard to say. But this video doesn’t really tell me anything one way or the other.

Leafs were managed poorly. Very poorly. They always very in the mix but always loose because depth was not good enough. Other teams were just better. Ovechkin couldnt win something before caps built good depth, Gretzky didnt win SC outside Oilers, etc. Toronto stars played really well but they were always targeted by opponents.



Overall if not Sullivan - im in for Keefe.

 

[R8Devs]

Friedman thinks the Leafs will go through the process unless someone forces their hand (this is referring to NJ with Berube since he even says that he wagers Berube is on the top of the Leafs list-- so might have to offer him the job soon or he might not be there).

As for what he says about the Devils - Berube and Woodcroft are the serious contenders and Mclellan might get a 2nd interview.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Good

 

[R8Devs]

Conspiracy minded people might say the Devils put that out there to put pressure on Dubas to make a decision on Sullivan lol

My guesses:
Devils - Woodcroft
Leafs - Berube
Penguins - Sullivan but with Keefe getting the assistant job

 

[Oneiro]

Keefe or Sullivan works for me.

We need to play tighter without losing speed, that will happen with both of these guys.

 

[hockey20000]

keefe would probs do well with the devils hes a decent coach andbeingaway from the leafs circus will show that

 

[Devils Trap]

Keefe is probably my #1 if Sullivan isnt attainable

LOVE that we give him the chance

 

[TrufleShufle]

I’m warming up to Keefe. Outside of not switching goalies soon enough, did he show any other warts in that series? I have heard that he’s been “out coached” in previous post-seasons but not sure the specifics of that criticism?

I mean in one way he admitted it himself. By saying something along the lines of, teams always play us a certain way to stop us doing our thing. It's like a boxer saying, I keep losing title fights because guys know I'm going to go for the huge right hook and they are always focusing on it. If you know that......

I mean I respect that he's taking accountability, but he's essentially saying he got out coached himself. Plenty of board/stream watching showed a lot of anger with his line combos and timings as well.

Boston's game plan allowed the Leafs to run around the outside as much as they wanted basically tuckering themselves out and getting nothing of value. Keefe had no answer for it with some of the top paid forwards in the league.

There is no one answer to why they lost, there is a lot that went wrong, it's a decent list. But if you just look at coaching in a vacuum, and judge that, he lost that battle.

Would he be a good fit for the Devils? No clue, with everything else going on with that team compared to this team, too much to considered for me to either be excited or pissed if he ended up signing here. But he definitely got "out coached."

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Sullivan
Woodcroft/Keefe

My top choices

 

[stickty111]

Hey guys Leafs fans here. Here is some intel on Keefe if you guys hire him.

First of all he's a good coach. He's failed in the playoffs no doubt and outcoached in most series.
-excellent systems coach. He's always had a good system in place no matter what roster he had.
-Best attribute is his defensive structure. Even with lackluster D cores, he made them work. They were always an above average or better defensive team sometimes great.
- first time this year the PK was bad. Other years it's been good
- when he didn't have to cater to stars egos, he was excellent. Look at the record when a star wasn't in the lineup.
-changed lines a lot in games. Some coaches just stick with it no matter what but Keefe constsntly shuffled lines looking for answers.

Weaknesses
-playoffs is the main thing. Outcoached simple as that.
-experimented in season with different combos, but maybe not enough.
-few times in big games, did things hoping they would stick
-youngters tolerance for mistakes were a bit lower compared to others.

 

[Bcap88]

Sullivan
Woodcroft/Keefe

My top choices

Yup same here.

I prefer woodcraft to keefe tho by a slight margin

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Hey guys Leafs fans here. Here is some intel on Keefe if you guys hire him.

First of all he's a good coach. He's failed in the playoffs no doubt and outcoached in most series.
-excellent systems coach. He's always had a good system in place no matter what roster he had.
-Best attribute is his defensive structure. Even with lackluster D cores, he made them work. They were always an above average or better defensive team sometimes great.
- first time this year the PK was bad. Other years it's been good
- when he didn't have to cater to stars egos, he was excellent. Look at the record when a star wasn't in the lineup.
-changed lines a lot in games. Some coaches just stick with it no matter what but Keefe constsntly shuffled lines looking for answers.

Weaknesses
-playoffs is the main thing. Outcoached simple as that.
-experimented in season with different combos, but maybe not enough.
-few times in big games, did things hoping they would stick
-youngters tolerance for mistakes were a bit lower compared to others.

Can you elaborate on how he was out coached in the playoffs? Kind of a vague statement

 

[Mgd31]

The Devils need a good systems coach more than anything so if Keefe is that guy I am all for it.

 

[ZYXWVUT]

Sullivan
Woodcroft/Keefe

My top choices

This is where I am at I think. I like that Fitz seems to be casting a wide net, or at least it appears that way given he has presumably allowed a brand new candidate to get in the mix.

 

[stickty111]

Can you elaborate on how he was out coached in the playoffs? Kind of a vague statement

More in the sense he couldn't adjust his gameplan. Teams shutdown the middle of the ice, and he kept doing the same thing hoping now it will work. He also kept going to Matthews Marner together even though it wasn't working.

In fairness, this year he did the outcoaching and didn't do the stuff mentioned above so credit to him.

All that being said, he's a good coach and someone who will learn from mistskes and improve in his next job

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Hey guys Leafs fans here. Here is some intel on Keefe if you guys hire him.

First of all he's a good coach. He's failed in the playoffs no doubt and outcoached in most series.
-excellent systems coach. He's always had a good system in place no matter what roster he had.
-Best attribute is his defensive structure. Even with lackluster D cores, he made them work. They were always an above average or better defensive team sometimes great.
- first time this year the PK was bad. Other years it's been good
- when he didn't have to cater to stars egos, he was excellent. Look at the record when a star wasn't in the lineup.
-changed lines a lot in games. Some coaches just stick with it no matter what but Keefe constsntly shuffled lines looking for answers.

Weaknesses
-playoffs is the main thing. Outcoached simple as that.
-experimented in season with different combos, but maybe not enough.
-few times in big games, did things hoping they would stick
-youngters tolerance for mistakes were a bit lower compared to others.

the bolded is exactly what this team needs, so if that really is true, I would actually welcome him.

 

[stickty111]

the bolded is exactly what this team needs, so if that really is true, I would actually welcome him.

Lots of experts have marvelled at how organizied Leafs were defensively

 

[Goptor]

Can you elaborate on how he was out coached in the playoffs? Kind of a vague statement

We saw him put in Samsonov for the first 4 games. You'll get outcoached by Travis Green doing that stuff.