Observations XXV

[AdmiralsFan24]

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

Just watching it, it kind of does. We have some dude just randomly chasing the puck all over the ice for some reason. One good pass completely takes him out of the play and creates basically a 5 on 3. Go back to their second PP goal and look at Watson. Puck gets passed across the ice and he's completely out of the play. Puck gets shot into traffic and they outnumber us 3 to 1 at the net. A couple seconds later the puck is in.

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

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.

I already placed an order for a new banner.

 

[Armourboy]

Just watching it, it kind of does. We have some dude just randomly chasing the puck all over the ice for some reason. One good pass completely takes him out of the play and creates basically a 5 on 3. Go back to their second PP goal and look at Watson. Puck gets passed across the ice and he's completely out of the play. Puck gets shot into traffic and they outnumber us 3 to 1 at the net. A couple seconds later the puck is in.

I'm talking personnel wise. It's the same guys we've had forever, it shouldn't be this bad.

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

I'm talking personnel wise. It's the same guys we've had forever, it shouldn't be this bad.

It shouldn't be this bad but we're doing stupid shit like I mentioned above that's making it bad. If we stop doing that stupid shit, it probably won't be bad anymore.

 

[zhok]

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

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

Pretty amazing Laviolette is still our coach.

I mean pretty depressing Laviolette is still our coach.

This dude is way past his shelf life.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

I blame the Preds pedal tavern. Our season was f***ed from the time they launched that abomination.

It curses us to this day

 

[Predsanddead24]

It shouldn't be this bad but we're doing stupid **** like I mentioned above that's making it bad. If we stop doing that stupid ****, it probably won't be bad anymore.

Sadly that seems to be the design of the penalty kill and has been all season. I've never seen a penalty kill like that before and it's pretty obvious why.

 

[Legionnaire11]

Maybe we can bring in a dedicated Penalty Kill coach next season

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

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.

I definitely don't think Poile is coasting. He's making bold moves all over the place... in terms of player personnel anyway. He's clearly doing his darnedest to make this team into a contender. And he's doing it pretty smart, fiscal responsibility and sustainability at the forefront.

But if he has a soft spot, it's probably with loyalty. You can't exactly blame a guy if that's his one "fault". Not a bad trait in general, right?

But now we've got a team that is essentially mid-pack, fighting for a wildcard spot in the playoffs. That's the standings today. That can't be what he was aiming for with his bold player personnel moves. It's early, but not too early. The team is having troubles in some areas that typically fall under the purview of the coaching staff. Inconsistent play, lack of preparation, terrible PK. Poile is loyal... to a fault?

He really has to be watching the coaching staff like a hawk right now. Everything is still very much salvageable. The first 20 games will go into the books as "inconsistent". Some great play, some horrible play, a total mishmash that averages out to "mediocre". I don't believe Poile is expecting this team to be mediocre. The next 20 games should be make or break for the coaching staff IMHO. The team will need to elevate. Another "mediocre" quarter can't be accepted.

 

[originalpredfan]

The real question is not about Poile's loyalty to his head coach, it should be about Lavy's loyalty to his coaching staff. Last year our power play was so bad they had to bring in a coaching specialist to improve it. This year our penalty kill is bad. When do you take a serious look at the two assistants that couldn't figure out the PP last year and obviously can't figure out the PK this year. I've been long retired, but in business when one of my employees couldn't do the job, I didn't hire someone at additional salary to do it for that person. They were let go!!!

 

[TitansVolsPreds615]

Isn't Muse the PK guru? I agree with others ITT that it looks different than years past. We are clearly trying to have the guy up top be more aggressive and try and pick off those point to point passes up high. It will get you a breakaway every now and then but when it doesn't work you're completely exposed until the guy up top can recover.

 

[predfan24]

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

Hmmm I don't think so. Clearly this team has the right pieces in place to contend for a SC. It really boils down to the fact that the NHL is a parity driven league at this point. The talent around the league is so high yet so diluted that the difference between the best teams and the worst teams is small. Essentially it takes getting hot at the right time and lots of LUCK to win the cup.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Hmmm I don't think so. Clearly this team has the right pieces in place to contend for a SC. It really boils down to the fact that the NHL is a parity driven league at this point. The talent around the league is so high yet so diluted that the difference between the best teams and the worst teams is small. Essentially it takes getting hot at the right time and lots of LUCK to win the cup.

Well, I speculated that in one of my own posts a while back. But even if that's the case, then we at least better not drop out of being positioned to make the playoffs. Which, don't look now, we're currently in danger of doing.

And that plus the fact that our team has looked bad in the last two playoff tries doesn't really paint an optimistic picture. If it takes 16 consecutive years of making the playoffs in order to luck out and be the team that gets hot at the right time in a parity-driven random-chance league... welll... maybe that's just reality. But not exactly an attractive one.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

The real question is not about Poile's loyalty to his head coach, it should be about Lavy's loyalty to his coaching staff. Last year our power play was so bad they had to bring in a coaching specialist to improve it. This year our penalty kill is bad. When do you take a serious look at the two assistants that couldn't figure out the PP last year and obviously can't figure out the PK this year. I've been long retired, but in business when one of my employees couldn't do the job, I didn't hire someone at additional salary to do it for that person. They were let go!!!

I dunno... don't you place the ultimate responsibility on the Head Coach? I don't know who has what specific duties on our staff, but... in the old days you didn't really need this level of specialization. It's still not rocket science. If the HC doesn't have an answer, or can't manage his staff to produce an answer, I think you can still blame the HC, regardless of what his underlings are doing. Which would have held true for last season's PP as well.

This is not to say I'm panicking about the current disappointing results. 18 games is just 18 games. But let it get to 40+ like this... and then I can't guarantee I won't be

 

[originalpredfan]

I dunno... don't you place the ultimate responsibility on the Head Coach? I don't know who has what specific duties on our staff, but... in the old days you didn't really need this level of specialization. It's still not rocket science. If the HC doesn't have an answer, or can't manage his staff to produce an answer, I think you can still blame the HC, regardless of what his underlings are doing. Which would have held true for last season's PP as well.

This is not to say I'm panicking about the current disappointing results. 18 games is just 18 games. But let it get to 40+ like this... and then I can't guarantee I won't be

I agree, it is Lavy's ultimate resonsibility.

 

[predfan24]

Last night's game was one of those weird ones that happens a few times a year. We should have won. They were better in period 1, but we had the upper hand in 2 and 3. I'm not one that usually blames the refs, but the terrible call on Ekky and the missed trip against Grimaldi and subsequent call againt Turris combined with the PK deciding to go 0-fer decided this game. It was quite amazing. Right before Grimaldi got tripped I was thinking to myself how the refs owed us one and we would likely get a chintzy call. I was amazed that they missed Grimaldi's trip but then called Turris. Combine that with the PK and it was just one of those nights.

Joey looks to be in one of his lazy spurts. Wasn't impressed with him. Duchene looks off. The acceleration isn't there. He's mishandling pucks. I can't help but wonder if that injury that took him out a few games is nagging him. Fabbro actually looked rookie-ish. Forsberg looks super dangerous right now. Nice tip by Granlund. Hopefully he builds off that.

 

[predfan24]

Well, I speculated that in one of my own posts a while back. But even if that's the case, then we at least better not drop out of being positioned to make the playoffs. Which, don't look now, we're currently in danger of doing.

And that plus the fact that our team has looked bad in the last two playoff tries doesn't really paint an optimistic picture. If it takes 16 consecutive years of making the playoffs in order to luck out and be the team that gets hot at the right time in a parity-driven random-chance league... welll... maybe that's just reality. But not exactly an attractive one.

18 games into the season I'm not worried about the standings. This early I'm more worried about the guys consistently playing good inspired hockey. I view the regular season as a progression. You want the team to steadily get better as the season goes along and you want them to hit their peak come playoffs.

In fact, with this team, I'm not worried about the playoffs at all. The playoffs shouldn't even be a question with this team. If they miss the playoffs that's a fireable offense. If they even struggle to get in that's a fireable offense.

This is likely nitpicking, but I don't think they have looked bad the last two playoffs. Last year? Sure....but almost anybody could see that coming. They came into the playoffs with a stink on them. 17-18? Avs were up and coming and played well. Anytime you can take out MacKinnon in 6 games or less is an accomplishment. They played hard. Losing in 7 to that iteration of the Jets doesn't constitute a bad outing either. Winnipeg was really, really good that year.

I think parity is going to reach an even higher level now that teams can't hand out cap-circumventing contracts and the all the guys who signed those contracts are on the downside of their careers.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I really really really thought Winnipeg looked awful against us. I know the regular season argued something different for both our teams. But both of our teams were just going through the motions that round. The series got to 7 games because they both deserved to lose and both would have gotten put down in 4 or 5 games by any other team still going.

I would say if you're not worried about making the playoffs with this team, you might be missing what's going on? The team has 21 pts in 18 games. And not a particularly stacked schedule or anything. And not really any big injury crises. We're fighting for a wildcard spot today. Maybe the players are a little too smug about making it as well?


But I guess that begs the question. Do you only fire the coaching staff after the fact if this continues? Or is there any argument for being more proactive? My threshold is hitting the New Year. I don't think we can continue to wallow in mediocrity past that point. Maybe we could have if this was a one-off season, but to me the last 2 have ended in disappointing underperformances too, so that slack is already pulled in.

 

[TitansVolsPreds615]

I think you have to get Lavi the full season in case the team just craters. It's way too early in the season to be paying attention to the standings. Find your identity, establish it and try and stay as healthy as possible.

 

[nine_inch_fang]

Re: Penalty Kill

The "system" they are using for the penalty kill completely flies in the face of classic hockey wisdom and for the life of me I can't figure out what the coaching staff sees as the logic behind it. It hasn't worked and I highly doubt it ever will. I've started paying more attention to other teams PK's set ups to see if anyone else is using it but having been able to tell yet.

There are sooooo many glaring problems that this system causes I don't know where to start. It would be more time efficient to list the positives of the system and I will do so below.

...

 

[PredsHead]

The last week or so has only reinforced my opinion that this team's leadership issues are on the bench not behind it. If they we're just looking completely lost and disinterested, then yes I would be on the Lavi needs to go bandwagon. That is not what I am seeing though, this to me is a team that struggles to maintain focus throughout a whole game. They go through stretches where they play either selfishly or selflessly, but can't seem to do either one for a whole 60 minutes. I see that as a lack of a Fisher or Weber type that was the toughest guy in the room, so when he spoke you had to listen. Not sure Josi, Ellis, Ekholm, Forsberg, or Johansen are that guy or have the personality to call someone out when they need to. IMO this team needs a "heart and soul" type player who has enough clout and respect in the locker room to get the guys to rally around him when things get tough, someone who is hungry for a Cup and sees the potential in this group.

 

[triggrman]

That's funny, I heard Weber was the quietest guy in the locker-room and was really only a lead by example guy.

 

[predfan24]

I really really really thought Winnipeg looked awful against us. I know the regular season argued something different for both our teams. But both of our teams were just going through the motions that round. The series got to 7 games because they both deserved to lose and both would have gotten put down in 4 or 5 games by any other team still going.

I would say if you're not worried about making the playoffs with this team, you might be missing what's going on? The team has 21 pts in 18 games. And not a particularly stacked schedule or anything. And not really any big injury crises. We're fighting for a wildcard spot today. Maybe the players are a little too smug about making it as well?


But I guess that begs the question. Do you only fire the coaching staff after the fact if this continues? Or is there any argument for being more proactive? My threshold is hitting the New Year. I don't think we can continue to wallow in mediocrity past that point. Maybe we could have if this was a one-off season, but to me the last 2 have ended in disappointing underperformances too, so that slack is already pulled in.

I'd argue if you are worried about making the playoffs when sitting in playoff position 18 games into a 82 game regular season then you might be too worried and over analyzing.

9-6-3 with a +9 goal differential. This team that is talented and deep up front. Has three great defensemen and a rookie who looks to be playing beyond his years. A goalie who is still playing at a high level. No, I'm not worried about making the playoffs. If towards the end of the regular season I'm worried about the team making the playoffs then something has went terribly wrong.

The regular season is long and draining and there will be up and downs. It makes zero sense to push the panic button right now. The level of play doesn't warrant that.

 

[predfan24]

That's funny, I heard Weber was the quietest guy in the locker-room and was really only a lead by example guy.

Probably one of the biggest misnomers I've seen repeated year after year was that Weber was this stone-cold captain that put up with no BS. Shut people down, held them accountable, motivational speaker etc. I'm not saying these things didn't happen time to time. I'm sure they did. However, Weber is a quiet and laid back guy. The only time he showed a high level of emotion was when he got pissed off from time to time (RIP Zetterburg's face).

He led by example with great effort, hard shots, big hits. Josi leads by example with great effort skating all over the damn place every night, leading the rush, providing offense.

 

[PredsHead]

That's funny, I heard Weber was the quietest guy in the locker-room and was really only a lead by example guy.

Have you ever seen Shea Weber glare at someone? That would say more than any speech or pep talk he could give. You also had Fisher on the team all but the first half a season that Weber was captain, who from all accounts could be very vocal in the locker room.