Observations XXV

[Porter Stoutheart]

Lavy is one of the best playoff coaches in the league.

Every season has ups and downs and we're still really early into this system and trying to figure out who works best with what. Everyone settle down, and let's let it ride for a bit.

Most of the team hasn't been ready for the playoffs the last 2 years. Is that the players or the coach? I don't know. But as they always say, it's easier to change 1 coach than 20 players.

If I'm Poile I'd be pencilling in a list of replacement candidates now. And then maybe give the team until January to really show signs of getting their stuff together. There are just too many uneven efforts still. Some of the same stuff that has plagued us the last 2 years. Getting a lead and coasting, or getting behind and pulling off comebacks. At least half our games have been that way? I know there will always be SOME games like that. But the frequency is still just too high to take our team seriously as a Cup contender. That's what killed us the last 2 years, and for all that there are nice changes in other areas, that inconsistency doesn't (yet) appear to have changed. "Ride it out for a bit" is very much what everybody is saying. But then after "a bit" has passed and nothing more has changed... what then? Maybe some folks just don't like dealing in hypotheticals?

 

[OldFan]

Play super in the playoffs? Sure, great!
Win the cup? I’m all for that!
Coast through the regular season? Hold on, wait!
That’s not good and that’s what we’re seeing.
The season is 82 games. It’s supposed to be fun. We’re supposed to enjoy every game.
I don’t know about you but I don’t enjoy games like the last 2. I don’t enjoy all the Saturday game losses at home. I don’t enjoy $6-8M players not working. I don’t enjoy slow start 1st periods.
Yeah, give us a Cup but give us an exciting, fired up regular season.

 

[Armourboy]

Eh don't see Poile firing a coach that is making the playoffs. He may not renew him but I don't see him firing him.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Play super in the playoffs? Sure, great!
Win the cup? I’m all for that!
Coast through the regular season? Hold on, wait!
That’s not good and that’s what we’re seeing.
The season is 82 games. It’s supposed to be fun. We’re supposed to enjoy every game.
I don’t know about you but I don’t enjoy games like the last 2. I don’t enjoy all the Saturday game losses at home. I don’t enjoy $6-8M players not working. I don’t enjoy slow start 1st periods.
Yeah, give us a Cup but give us an exciting, fired up regular season.

I mean, I do still enjoy the games and we've had some real good ones this season. Along with the stinkers. I do find it fun either way. 80 pts or 100 pts, Cup contenders or coasters, it's still fun. I wouldn't say it's possible to enjoy EVERY game, since even the best teams have an off night once in a while, but at least I go into every game hoping/expecting to enjoy it.

It's just the current player personnel and recent successes have set an expectation level for me that comes in on another level as well. So even while all the above holds true, I'm also thinking there should be a progression in place that really does result in the team competing for the Cup. Treading water as a "pretty good" team isn't going to be the end of the world or anything. But I'd think the organization ought to have the highest possible aspirations at this point.

But maybe that's just antiquated thinking. Maybe in the modern NHL you can't really even be a "contender" anymore based on anything that happens in the regular season. Maybe parity, health, luck, all that being what it is, all you can really do is coast your way into the playoffs and hope your team is the one-in-sixteen that gets hot enough at the right time.

Maybe I also take the last 2 playoffs harder than some. I thought after the trip to the finals the team really came out flat 2 seasons running. I don't know where to set the threshold or whether I'd sign up to gamble on a coaching change before the playoffs. But for very sure another flat playoff like that again would definitely cause me to campaign for a change.

 

[OldFan]

Yes, I enjoy the anticipation of the games, too. It’s just I get frustrated during the games where they’re giving less than they should. When I worked, I was pretty good but I had to be pretty good every time even when I failed. I sense some complacency.
But come 9:00 tonight, I’ll be there the whole game, win or lose. I’m a fan!

 

[triggrman]

Yes, I enjoy the anticipation of the games, too. It’s just I get frustrated during the games where they’re giving less than they should. When I worked, I was pretty good but I had to be pretty good every time even when I failed. I sense some complacency.
But come 9:00 tonight, I’ll be there the whole game, win or lose. I’m a fan!

This is why it drives me nuts when people say the guys aren't playing hard. Sometimes, it's not the effort it's the results that make you look bad, sometime, effort is there, but it's pointless effort (chasing) and it happens to every team. If you've ever played sports, especially hockey you know what I'm saying to be true, sometimes you get caught up and chase the puck and miss assignments, sometimes a team just figures out your breakout patterns for the night and they stop it, sometimes you fore-checking is just a bit behind, it's not effort, it just happens, and it seems to carry over, just like the good times seem to carry over, it happens, it's a long season.

Rarely is it really effort. Sometimes you get really pumped for a a game (like Colorado was after dropping 4 straight) and everything clicks and we say shit like (they were ready to play tonight)

 

[czechczech]

Granlund looked better on Sat. Visible and not afraid to go into the corners.

And projected lineup( from Mondays practice) for tonights at Vancouver:

Filip Forsberg - Ryan Johansen - Mikael Granlund
Calle Jarnkrok - Matt Duchene - Viktor Arvidsson
Rocco Grimaldi - Nick Bonino - Craig Smith
Austin Watson - Kyle Turris - Colton Sissons

 

[GoldOnGold]

Granlund looked better on Sat. Visible and not afraid to go into the corners.

And projected lineup( from Mondays practice) for tonights at Vancouver:

Filip Forsberg - Ryan Johansen - Mikael Granlund
Calle Jarnkrok - Matt Duchene - Viktor Arvidsson
Rocco Grimaldi - Nick Bonino - Craig Smith
Austin Watson - Kyle Turris - Colton Sissons

I had been wanting to see duchene tried with arvy, curious to see how they look.

 

[glenngineer]

Granlund looked better on Sat. Visible and not afraid to go into the corners.

And projected lineup( from Mondays practice) for tonights at Vancouver:

Filip Forsberg - Ryan Johansen - Mikael Granlund
Calle Jarnkrok - Matt Duchene - Viktor Arvidsson
Rocco Grimaldi - Nick Bonino - Craig Smith
Austin Watson - Kyle Turris - Colton Sissons

I had been wanting to see duchene tried with arvy, curious to see how they look.

I have been interested to see how Duchene and Arvy play together, just not with Jarnkrok on the other wing.

 

[Legionnaire11]

I'm just happy to see Duchene back at center, he seems to be a lot more dangerous there

 

[predfan98]

We went to cup finals one year, next year won just 1 round, next year lost in first round. I just don’t see how that makes lavy one of best playoff coaches in league.

We have spent the last 2 years after going to finals “learning Lavys system.”

I’m just tired of that. I think poile is coasting to retirement and is afraid of making a coaching change. I think he’s wasting our talent we have right now. We have duchene, finally.......

 

[predfan98]

Eh don't see Poile firing a coach that is making the playoffs. He may not renew him but I don't see him firing him.

I don’t either, and that is depressing as hell. We should demand better (as if we have a voice, lol) ....the owners must be making enough money so they think it’s ok to just make the playoffs each year.

 

[OldFan]

This is why it drives me nuts when people say the guys aren't playing hard. Sometimes, it's not the effort it's the results that make you look bad, sometime, effort is there, but it's pointless effort (chasing) and it happens to every team. If you've ever played sports, especially hockey you know what I'm saying to be true, sometimes you get caught up and chase the puck and miss assignments, sometimes a team just figures out your breakout patterns for the night and they stop it, sometimes you fore-checking is just a bit behind, it's not effort, it just happens, and it seems to carry over, just like the good times seem to carry over, it happens, it's a long season.

Rarely is it really effort. Sometimes you get really pumped for a a game (like Colorado was after dropping 4 straight) and everything clicks and we say **** like (they were ready to play tonight)

I know only the players know if they’re giving their proper effort but I can’t believe the Colorado game was a good effort or that this team as talented as it is said to be performs like it does so far.

 

[Predsanddead24]

We went to cup finals one year, next year won just 1 round, next year lost in first round. I just don’t see how that makes lavy one of best playoff coaches in league.

We have spent the last 2 years after going to finals “learning Lavys system.”

I’m just tired of that. I think poile is coasting to retirement and is afraid of making a coaching change. I think he’s wasting our talent we have right now. We have duchene, finally.......

He's won a Cup and been to the Finals two other times in his career. The only other active coaches with better resumes are Quennville and Sullivan and Babcoks has the same. I wouldn't necessarily mind a coaching change and in the immediate aftermath of the playoffs last year I thought it was something we should seriously explore, but Laviolette is absolutely one of the best coaches in the NHL. I think Laviolette should be on a warm seat right now and should be gone if we start to seriously struggle this season (i.e. fall out of a playoff spot for an extended time) or if we have another early playoff exit (we need to make the WCF at a minimum), but that's moreso just because I think a change in coaching is the next logical step if things don't work out for us rather than Laviolette being a bad coach.

 

[GoldOnGold]

Last year was definitely majorly disappointing, but I think the 2017-2018 run was closer to the SCF run than last year. We lost in 7 games to the 2nd best team in the league in the 2nd round, and Rinne let in two trash goals in game 7. It's not like last year where we barely did anything for a majority of the games.

 

[GoldOnGold]

He's won a Cup and been to the Finals two other times in his career. The only other active coaches with better resumes are Quennville and Sullivan and Babcoks has the same. I wouldn't necessarily mind a coaching change and in the immediate aftermath of the playoffs last year I thought it was something we should seriously explore, but Laviolette is absolutely one of the best coaches in the NHL. I think Laviolette should be on a warm seat right now and should be gone if we start to seriously struggle this season (i.e. fall out of a playoff spot for an extended time) or if we have another early playoff exit (we need to make the WCF at a minimum), but that's moreso just because I think a change in coaching is the next logical step if things don't work out for us rather than Laviolette being a bad coach.

I don't think Laviolette's going anyway until we miss the playoffs.

 

[predfan24]

Last year was definitely majorly disappointing, but I think the 2017-2018 run was closer to the SCF run than last year. We lost in 7 games to the 2nd best team in the league in the 2nd round, and Rinne let in two trash goals in game 7. It's not like last year where we barely did anything for a majority of the games.

Yep, Lavy has been here 5 full seasons and had 1 disappointing year where the team underachieved. Talking about firing him is straight up crazy talk.

 

[predfan24]

I’m just tired of that. I think poile is coasting to retirement and is afraid of making a coaching change. I think he’s wasting our talent we have right now. We have duchene, finally.......

Looking at Poile's moves since he traded Jones for Johansen he is clearly not coasting to retirement.

 

[Armourboy]

We went to cup finals one year, next year won just 1 round, next year lost in first round. I just don’t see how that makes lavy one of best playoff coaches in league.

We have spent the last 2 years after going to finals “learning Lavys system.”

I’m just tired of that. I think poile is coasting to retirement and is afraid of making a coaching change. I think he’s wasting our talent we have right now. We have duchene, finally.......

If Poile was coasting to retirement he wouldn't have made the Granlund, and Subban trades nor would he have signed Duchene. When you look at what's out there you could be doing a heck of a lot worse than a SCF appearance, a President's Trophy and being at the top of the Division in two years. Last year is the first year where I think things were truly lackluster, and while he gets the blame for the PP woes imo, that Dallas series was on the guys, not him imo.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Last year was definitely majorly disappointing, but I think the 2017-2018 run was closer to the SCF run than last year. We lost in 7 games to the 2nd best team in the league in the 2nd round, and Rinne let in two trash goals in game 7. It's not like last year where we barely did anything for a majority of the games.

Yeah, I didn't get that vibe from 2018 at all. It was more like just the same as 2019. A lot of uneven play and players not playing up to their potential. We just got lucky that we played a weaker team in Round 1 and that Winnipeg was playing just as awful and uneven as us in Round 2.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Yep, Lavy has been here 5 full seasons and had 1 disappointing year where the team underachieved. Talking about firing him is straight up crazy talk.

That's sort of like saying talking about winning the Stanley Cup is straight up crazy talk. Maybe it is.

 

[predfan98]

I Have to laugh, I was all for patience with trots and poile and I’m on the opposite side with lavy and poile.
1/2 the league makes the playoffs, it’s just not good enough for me anymore......
And I just think poile is coasting in not wanting to fire the coach, I totally agree with the people who disagreed and brought up the player trades. You’re right , some of those trades don’t show a coasting to retirement , poile.

 

[GoldOnGold]

Having a bad penalty kill is worse than having a bad powerplay.

 

[Armourboy]

Having a bad penalty kill is worse than having a bad powerplay.

Yeah and it being that bad all of the sudden makes zero sense.

 

[GoldOnGold]

Yeah and it being that bad all of the sudden makes zero sense.

If we follow up having the worst PP in the league with having the worst PK in the league we should get some kind of award.

2017-2018 - We took the most penalties in the league

2018-2019 - We had the worst PP in the league

2019-2020 - ???