Observations XXVII

[drwpreds]

Beyond whether we want to keep both or either, how much interest do Granlund and Smith even have in re-signing for this mess? That's 2 of our top 4 goal scorers this season (with Bonino, tied for the team lead, gone the following season).

This is just pure speculation and guess on my part, but I think Smith would re-sign here but I always kind of got the feeling that Granlund never really was crazy about being here. Again, I have no information to back that up- just a feeling...

 

[drwpreds]

Was thinking about this last night about this season:

We have the worst penalty kill in the league
Power play is near the bottom of the league
Goaltending (team save %) has been in the bottom 10 of the league most of the season
Since October, we have been the worst home team in the league.
Last 25 games, we are #29 in the league in goals scored per game.
Almost every one of our top 6 forwards are having terrible seasons.

Add all that together and my thought is- how in the heck do we even have as good a record as we do???

The fact that we were actually in a playoff spot yesterday is pretty incredible when you factor in all the issues we have.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Was thinking about this last night about this season:

We have the worst penalty kill in the league
Power play is near the bottom of the league
Goaltending (team save %) has been in the bottom 10 of the league most of the season
Since October, we have been the worst home team in the league.
Last 25 games, we are #29 in the league in goals scored per game.
Almost every one of our top 6 forwards are having terrible seasons.

Add all that together and my thought is- how in the heck do we even have as good a record as we do???

The fact that we were actually in a playoff spot yesterday is pretty incredible when you factor in all the issues we have.

It really is astounding. The Grimaldi-Bonino-Smith line and Josi-Ellis pairing have basically managed to keep us alive despite almost everyone else on our team underachieving.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I would assume Granlund hasn't had time to establish any real roots in Nashville... other than that Hynes seems inclined to give him a lot of icetime, I don't know what motivation he would have to stay? Smith at least maybe has settled down and planted some roots?

At this rate, we probably only have Bonino for like 3 quarters of next season, right? Up until the trade deadline, say...

 

[GoldOnGold]

The last three games have been a series of gut-punches

- Play well versus Colorado, then get screwed by a terrible call with 4 minutes left and lose in regulation.

- Head into the 3rd tied 3-3 against Edmonton, only to give up 5 goals in 6 minutes or whatever it was. A hugely embarrassing loss that the entire NHL got to enjoy.

- Lose against the Wild, who are led by a Fiala who appears to have finally reached his true potential.

 

[predhead1]

Simply unacceptable. And like I said before, head-scratching as why all of these guys went ice cold at the same time.

If you watch our top guys closely, the problem is that they are creating very few chances from high danger areas. Almost all of their shots are from the perimeter, and we usually don't have any traffic in front of the net when shots do get there.

There is a reason Bonino is scoring at a decent clip - he's not afraid to drive hard to the net and look for opportunities. Most of our "elite" forwards circle around the perimeter of the zone and pass aimlessly back and forth until someone fires a low-percentage shot that is either blocked or misses the net. In fact, I've never seen a team miss the net as much as we seem to do every game. They keep wanting to pick the corners and score highlight reel goals, and it's simply not working. To me, this is the fundamental shortcoming in our offensive production this year (even on the PP) and it's not getting better any time soon.

 

[originalpredfan]

At the risk of repeating myself, I urge all who post here to go to a practice and watch closely. Practically all of our players seem to get great joy at shooting the puck into the glass behind the net just to hear the sound. It may be heresy to many of you, but when Radulov was a Pred he spent a lot of practice shooting the puck into the net from all angles. YOU PLAY HOW YOU PRACTICE. If anyone has ever played on a basketball team most coaches have their players take plenty of free throws at the end of practice. Just saying.

 

[triggrman]

At the risk of repeating myself, I urge all who post here to go to a practice and watch closely. Practically all of our players seem to get great joy at shooting the puck into the glass behind the net just to hear the sound. It may be heresy to many of you, but when Radulov was a Pred he spent a lot of practice shooting the puck into the net from all angles. YOU PLAY HOW YOU PRACTICE. If anyone has ever played on a basketball team most coaches have their players take plenty of free throws at the end of practice. Just saying.

what I'm telling you is every hockey team I've ever played on tries to pick crossbars when there's no goalie in the net, during warm-ups.

 

[LCPreds]

I mean if we want to take that further then I would argue they must practice shooting at the goalies chest quite a bit.

 

[ILikeItILoveIt]

So, I have a new theory to explain our poor play that digs deeper than “we suck”. Now we may just suck, but if that’s all there is, then life becomes uninteresting.
Our team under Trotz (circa 2013-2014) was a non-playoff, defense-first, dump-and-chase team. We brought in Lavy, and he implemented a forechecking, carry-the-puck-in, pressure offense. He made personnel decisions and unleashed our O-minded d-men to play a 200-foot game and not worry about being the last-line-of-defense. His system taught the forwards to cycle to the natural d-man area if the d-man pinched or was playing deep in our zone.
It worked and we loved the up-tempo, attack style. JOFA became a Top 10 line and even though we didn’t have top-flight Top 6 forwards, we scored more and won more. We went on a 5-year run of not only making the playoffs, but truly contending for the Cup.
Poile believed in the players and one-by-one, locked them into long term contracts. Joey got big money based on his tenure and not wanting to lose him after the Jones trade, while the rest got signed to extensions at lower rates, followed by stats that made them bargains (Eck, Josi, Ellis, Forsberg, Arvy).
Poile also made win-now deals based on strengthening weaknesses (center) and giving up players who played positions of strength to us (d-men). So, he did the following:
· Hornquist for Neal
· Jones for Joey
· Weber for Subban
· Girard for Turris
· Fiala for Granny
· Subban for Duchene (effectively)
As we sat on 1/1/20, pre-Lavy-firing, we were not in a playoff spot and believing Lavy’s message had gotten stale. The thought of wasting a year while making moves as a win-now team was more than Poile could take. Convincing himself his prize players needed a new voice to get them playing to their potential, he cans Lavy in January and hires the best coach available (Hines).
Hines is Trotzion in his style and expectations. You earn your minutes. You play solid zone defense. You balance offensive pressure with responsible d-zone coverage. To right the loose defense, you restrain the O-first mindset. There’s nothing wrong with Hines’ approach, except his personnel isn’t aligned with the approach. Just like Lavy had to make changes post-Trotz to get players who could play his style well, Hines is converting Lavy players into Hines players. The result has been a confusing mess.
The defense has improved. The offense has suffered. We win when we get great goaltending, but we’ve lost the ability to dominate anyone. We win 1 goal games and lose 3-to-5 goal games. Our best players are no longer our best players. Joey, Forsberg, and Arvy, our 3 best players under Lavy, have been displaced by Bonino and Granlund. JOFA, as individuals, have lost their confidence and had their playing time stripped.
Team confidence is lost. When they went into slumps under Lavy, they could lean on the fact they always found a way out of it under Lavy and made the playoffs. When Poile pulled the Lavy plug in January, he took a huge risk. If the players he’d signed to long term contracts did not revive under Hines, we lose, and he’s stuck with players he can’t move without eating salary. This is exactly what’s happened. We’ve lost our mojo, and Hines is using his infamous you-earn-your-minutes approach to play Joey on the 4th line and play Forsberg 12 minutes a game. He’s treating the Bonino line as his #1, which I get cuz they’ve performed, but they have a low ceiling. When they’re good, they’re pretty good, but they’re not JOFA circa 2018.
My guess is, if we had retained Trotz during the Lavy years, Forsberg would have never become a 30-goal scorer and Joey wouldn’t be a mid-60’s assist machine center. Arvy would not have played on the 1st line. Trotz used to play Ellis protected minutes because he was small. He would not have put up with Fil’s hotdog moves, and Joey would have been Torts’d by Trotz (too lazy). They weren’t his type of players, and I’m afraid they’re not Hines type of players either.
Now you may be saying, “dang right Joey’s lazy and Fil likes mustard on his dog”, but these are our long-contract guys. Because of the change in philosophy, and the lack of looking like a playoff team right now, Hines will need to force Poile’s hand and rebuild around different guys. That will take years because of our contract situations.
Can’t help but wonder what would have happened if we had retained Lavy. My bet is, we would have bounced back, Forsberg would have 25 goals, Rinne would look like Rinne because he would have been allowed to play consecutive games, and the team would have the confidence they earned via the banners hanging from the rafters, and played Lavy-style hockey as they were assembled to play.
The unfortunate villain in this drama is Poile. Re-look at those trades he made I listed above. NONE of the receiving teams would voluntarily reverse their deals today, not even Montreal. Most of those deals looked reasonably good in their first year or two, but none of them have aged well. We’re playing Tinordi, Hammer, and Y. Weber instead of Jones, Girard, and S. Weber. Pens win Cups via Horny (with 2017’s winning goal as painful as it gets) while we give away Neal to Vegas to hold onto switchblade Yarny for value purposes. Fiala blossoms into the force we dreamed he would be, while we get 25% of one season out of Granny before we don’t re-sign him. Jones, Sammy, and Fiala could be the young nucleus of our team right now. But Poile made win-now bets and then didn’t have the fortitude to stick with those guys after he signed them by keeping the system and coach that they thrived under to get the contracts in the first place.
Hence, we’re “lost” (defined as having no confidence in our direction or leadership) for the first time in our franchise history. Barry changed our diapers, built our playoff team with low-rent parts, and got us to respectability. We always believed in him and Poile. Poile switched horses the right way in 2014. Two full year non-playoff teams. Great run by Trotz. Classy send off and the right off-season hire in Lavy. When Poile did the mid-year switch, it was out of desperation and frustration, and to protect himself from criticism over who he gave long term contracts to. If he had waited until the season was over, we’d have known if the players, once again, would re-group under Lavy and make the playoffs, and if they didn’t, we’d have selected a better coach in the offseason plus known definitively that Lavy had lost the room.
Hines has f’d the minds of Rinne, Forsberg, Joey, Duchene, and Arvy. It’s tough to watch. Hines keeps talking about the Preds playing to their identity. It’s not their identity, it’s HIS identity. This team was not built to win 2-1. I think he’s lost the room. Our best players (except Josi and Ellis) are playing at 60% of their potential. It’s on them but Hines has not made it better and Poile has no more bullets in his gun.
We’re 1-to-2 points out of WC2, and we’re lost. Can we still make it? Sure. Saros is going to have to play out-his-bottom and Pekka is going to have to not-spit-the-bed in the backend of back-to-backs. That’s the only way. We’ll need our secondary, hard-working Hines-boy guys to play elite minutes and play above their heads. I’m the eternal optimist. I so want Fil to go on a tear and Joey to make did-you-see-that kinda passes. I want Duchy to score at his 31-goal pace and Arvy to find his lost alter-ego, Arvy Hustle. But we’re running out of games and Hines continues to make them “earn” their spots back. Nothing like Joey feeding that sniper Sissons or Turris not understanding how to setup Fil for goals. I’m afraid, all we’re going to “earn” is a better draft pick slot.
How about this: Fire Hines and hire back Lavy. Hines can coach Team USA. Now that would get everyone’s attention.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

So, I have a new theory to explain our poor play that digs deeper than “we suck”. Now we may just suck, but if that’s all there is, then life becomes uninteresting.
Our team under Trotz (circa 2013-2014) was a non-playoff, defense-first, dump-and-chase team. We brought in Lavy, and he implemented a forechecking, carry-the-puck-in, pressure offense. He made personnel decisions and unleashed our O-minded d-men to play a 200-foot game and not worry about being the last-line-of-defense. His system taught the forwards to cycle to the natural d-man area if the d-man pinched or was playing deep in our zone.
It worked and we loved the up-tempo, attack style. JOFA became a Top 10 line and even though we didn’t have top-flight Top 6 forwards, we scored more and won more. We went on a 5-year run of not only making the playoffs, but truly contending for the Cup.
Poile believed in the players and one-by-one, locked them into long term contracts. Joey got big money based on his tenure and not wanting to lose him after the Jones trade, while the rest got signed to extensions at lower rates, followed by stats that made them bargains (Eck, Josi, Ellis, Forsberg, Arvy).
Poile also made win-now deals based on strengthening weaknesses (center) and giving up players who played positions of strength to us (d-men). So, he did the following:
· Hornquist for Neal
· Jones for Joey
· Weber for Subban
· Girard for Turris
· Fiala for Granny
· Subban for Duchene (effectively)
As we sat on 1/1/20, pre-Lavy-firing, we were not in a playoff spot and believing Lavy’s message had gotten stale. The thought of wasting a year while making moves as a win-now team was more than Poile could take. Convincing himself his prize players needed a new voice to get them playing to their potential, he cans Lavy in January and hires the best coach available (Hines).
Hines is Trotzion in his style and expectations. You earn your minutes. You play solid zone defense. You balance offensive pressure with responsible d-zone coverage. To right the loose defense, you restrain the O-first mindset. There’s nothing wrong with Hines’ approach, except his personnel isn’t aligned with the approach. Just like Lavy had to make changes post-Trotz to get players who could play his style well, Hines is converting Lavy players into Hines players. The result has been a confusing mess.
The defense has improved. The offense has suffered. We win when we get great goaltending, but we’ve lost the ability to dominate anyone. We win 1 goal games and lose 3-to-5 goal games. Our best players are no longer our best players. Joey, Forsberg, and Arvy, our 3 best players under Lavy, have been displaced by Bonino and Granlund. JOFA, as individuals, have lost their confidence and had their playing time stripped.
Team confidence is lost. When they went into slumps under Lavy, they could lean on the fact they always found a way out of it under Lavy and made the playoffs. When Poile pulled the Lavy plug in January, he took a huge risk. If the players he’d signed to long term contracts did not revive under Hines, we lose, and he’s stuck with players he can’t move without eating salary. This is exactly what’s happened. We’ve lost our mojo, and Hines is using his infamous you-earn-your-minutes approach to play Joey on the 4th line and play Forsberg 12 minutes a game. He’s treating the Bonino line as his #1, which I get cuz they’ve performed, but they have a low ceiling. When they’re good, they’re pretty good, but they’re not JOFA circa 2018.
My guess is, if we had retained Trotz during the Lavy years, Forsberg would have never become a 30-goal scorer and Joey wouldn’t be a mid-60’s assist machine center. Arvy would not have played on the 1st line. Trotz used to play Ellis protected minutes because he was small. He would not have put up with Fil’s hotdog moves, and Joey would have been Torts’d by Trotz (too lazy). They weren’t his type of players, and I’m afraid they’re not Hines type of players either.
Now you may be saying, “dang right Joey’s lazy and Fil likes mustard on his dog”, but these are our long-contract guys. Because of the change in philosophy, and the lack of looking like a playoff team right now, Hines will need to force Poile’s hand and rebuild around different guys. That will take years because of our contract situations.
Can’t help but wonder what would have happened if we had retained Lavy. My bet is, we would have bounced back, Forsberg would have 25 goals, Rinne would look like Rinne because he would have been allowed to play consecutive games, and the team would have the confidence they earned via the banners hanging from the rafters, and played Lavy-style hockey as they were assembled to play.
The unfortunate villain in this drama is Poile. Re-look at those trades he made I listed above. NONE of the receiving teams would voluntarily reverse their deals today, not even Montreal. Most of those deals looked reasonably good in their first year or two, but none of them have aged well. We’re playing Tinordi, Hammer, and Y. Weber instead of Jones, Girard, and S. Weber. Pens win Cups via Horny (with 2017’s winning goal as painful as it gets) while we give away Neal to Vegas to hold onto switchblade Yarny for value purposes. Fiala blossoms into the force we dreamed he would be, while we get 25% of one season out of Granny before we don’t re-sign him. Jones, Sammy, and Fiala could be the young nucleus of our team right now. But Poile made win-now bets and then didn’t have the fortitude to stick with those guys after he signed them by keeping the system and coach that they thrived under to get the contracts in the first place.
Hence, we’re “lost” (defined as having no confidence in our direction or leadership) for the first time in our franchise history. Barry changed our diapers, built our playoff team with low-rent parts, and got us to respectability. We always believed in him and Poile. Poile switched horses the right way in 2014. Two full year non-playoff teams. Great run by Trotz. Classy send off and the right off-season hire in Lavy. When Poile did the mid-year switch, it was out of desperation and frustration, and to protect himself from criticism over who he gave long term contracts to. If he had waited until the season was over, we’d have known if the players, once again, would re-group under Lavy and make the playoffs, and if they didn’t, we’d have selected a better coach in the offseason plus known definitively that Lavy had lost the room.
Hines has f’d the minds of Rinne, Forsberg, Joey, Duchene, and Arvy. It’s tough to watch. Hines keeps talking about the Preds playing to their identity. It’s not their identity, it’s HIS identity. This team was not built to win 2-1. I think he’s lost the room. Our best players (except Josi and Ellis) are playing at 60% of their potential. It’s on them but Hines has not made it better and Poile has no more bullets in his gun.
We’re 1-to-2 points out of WC2, and we’re lost. Can we still make it? Sure. Saros is going to have to play out-his-bottom and Pekka is going to have to not-spit-the-bed in the backend of back-to-backs. That’s the only way. We’ll need our secondary, hard-working Hines-boy guys to play elite minutes and play above their heads. I’m the eternal optimist. I so want Fil to go on a tear and Joey to make did-you-see-that kinda passes. I want Duchy to score at his 31-goal pace and Arvy to find his lost alter-ego, Arvy Hustle. But we’re running out of games and Hines continues to make them “earn” their spots back. Nothing like Joey feeding that sniper Sissons or Turris not understanding how to setup Fil for goals. I’m afraid, all we’re going to “earn” is a better draft pick slot.
How about this: Fire Hines and hire back Lavy. Hines can coach Team USA. Now that would get everyone’s attention.

I like the sheer volume of information and breakdown here, if not the final conclusion.

Obviously Poile can't flip-flop on coaches now. Obviously he's not going to give up on Hynes anytime soon. But Hynes himself could just shift into desperation mode and play the heck out of his top players again. I don't know that Turris or Granlund had really done anything particularly noteworthy prior to Hynes suddenly gifting them bigger roles. But he did it anyway. And they responded. So they kept those minutes. Maybe it's time for another Merry Christmas gift to some of the others.

It's basically Hail Mary desperation time anyway, I don't know what the team really has to lose at this point. They have to go at least 10-6 the rest of the way, maybe 11-5.... I guess you might as well do that running your highest-paid players out there as much as possible and see where it gets you. Bonino et co. have certainly done their part. And it still hasn't been enough, alas. Bless their hearts. But it's time for the big boys to step up now. And if they don't, at least you know you gave them every inch of rope to hang themselves with.

 

[drwpreds]

So, I have a new theory to explain our poor play that digs deeper than “we suck”. Now we may just suck, but if that’s all there is, then life becomes uninteresting.
Our team under Trotz (circa 2013-2014) was a non-playoff, defense-first, dump-and-chase team. We brought in Lavy, and he implemented a forechecking, carry-the-puck-in, pressure offense. He made personnel decisions and unleashed our O-minded d-men to play a 200-foot game and not worry about being the last-line-of-defense. His system taught the forwards to cycle to the natural d-man area if the d-man pinched or was playing deep in our zone.
It worked and we loved the up-tempo, attack style. JOFA became a Top 10 line and even though we didn’t have top-flight Top 6 forwards, we scored more and won more. We went on a 5-year run of not only making the playoffs, but truly contending for the Cup.
Poile believed in the players and one-by-one, locked them into long term contracts. Joey got big money based on his tenure and not wanting to lose him after the Jones trade, while the rest got signed to extensions at lower rates, followed by stats that made them bargains (Eck, Josi, Ellis, Forsberg, Arvy).
Poile also made win-now deals based on strengthening weaknesses (center) and giving up players who played positions of strength to us (d-men). So, he did the following:
· Hornquist for Neal
· Jones for Joey
· Weber for Subban
· Girard for Turris
· Fiala for Granny
· Subban for Duchene (effectively)
As we sat on 1/1/20, pre-Lavy-firing, we were not in a playoff spot and believing Lavy’s message had gotten stale. The thought of wasting a year while making moves as a win-now team was more than Poile could take. Convincing himself his prize players needed a new voice to get them playing to their potential, he cans Lavy in January and hires the best coach available (Hines).
Hines is Trotzion in his style and expectations. You earn your minutes. You play solid zone defense. You balance offensive pressure with responsible d-zone coverage. To right the loose defense, you restrain the O-first mindset. There’s nothing wrong with Hines’ approach, except his personnel isn’t aligned with the approach. Just like Lavy had to make changes post-Trotz to get players who could play his style well, Hines is converting Lavy players into Hines players. The result has been a confusing mess.
The defense has improved. The offense has suffered. We win when we get great goaltending, but we’ve lost the ability to dominate anyone. We win 1 goal games and lose 3-to-5 goal games. Our best players are no longer our best players. Joey, Forsberg, and Arvy, our 3 best players under Lavy, have been displaced by Bonino and Granlund. JOFA, as individuals, have lost their confidence and had their playing time stripped.
Team confidence is lost. When they went into slumps under Lavy, they could lean on the fact they always found a way out of it under Lavy and made the playoffs. When Poile pulled the Lavy plug in January, he took a huge risk. If the players he’d signed to long term contracts did not revive under Hines, we lose, and he’s stuck with players he can’t move without eating salary. This is exactly what’s happened. We’ve lost our mojo, and Hines is using his infamous you-earn-your-minutes approach to play Joey on the 4th line and play Forsberg 12 minutes a game. He’s treating the Bonino line as his #1, which I get cuz they’ve performed, but they have a low ceiling. When they’re good, they’re pretty good, but they’re not JOFA circa 2018.
My guess is, if we had retained Trotz during the Lavy years, Forsberg would have never become a 30-goal scorer and Joey wouldn’t be a mid-60’s assist machine center. Arvy would not have played on the 1st line. Trotz used to play Ellis protected minutes because he was small. He would not have put up with Fil’s hotdog moves, and Joey would have been Torts’d by Trotz (too lazy). They weren’t his type of players, and I’m afraid they’re not Hines type of players either.
Now you may be saying, “dang right Joey’s lazy and Fil likes mustard on his dog”, but these are our long-contract guys. Because of the change in philosophy, and the lack of looking like a playoff team right now, Hines will need to force Poile’s hand and rebuild around different guys. That will take years because of our contract situations.
Can’t help but wonder what would have happened if we had retained Lavy. My bet is, we would have bounced back, Forsberg would have 25 goals, Rinne would look like Rinne because he would have been allowed to play consecutive games, and the team would have the confidence they earned via the banners hanging from the rafters, and played Lavy-style hockey as they were assembled to play.
The unfortunate villain in this drama is Poile. Re-look at those trades he made I listed above. NONE of the receiving teams would voluntarily reverse their deals today, not even Montreal. Most of those deals looked reasonably good in their first year or two, but none of them have aged well. We’re playing Tinordi, Hammer, and Y. Weber instead of Jones, Girard, and S. Weber. Pens win Cups via Horny (with 2017’s winning goal as painful as it gets) while we give away Neal to Vegas to hold onto switchblade Yarny for value purposes. Fiala blossoms into the force we dreamed he would be, while we get 25% of one season out of Granny before we don’t re-sign him. Jones, Sammy, and Fiala could be the young nucleus of our team right now. But Poile made win-now bets and then didn’t have the fortitude to stick with those guys after he signed them by keeping the system and coach that they thrived under to get the contracts in the first place.
Hence, we’re “lost” (defined as having no confidence in our direction or leadership) for the first time in our franchise history. Barry changed our diapers, built our playoff team with low-rent parts, and got us to respectability. We always believed in him and Poile. Poile switched horses the right way in 2014. Two full year non-playoff teams. Great run by Trotz. Classy send off and the right off-season hire in Lavy. When Poile did the mid-year switch, it was out of desperation and frustration, and to protect himself from criticism over who he gave long term contracts to. If he had waited until the season was over, we’d have known if the players, once again, would re-group under Lavy and make the playoffs, and if they didn’t, we’d have selected a better coach in the offseason plus known definitively that Lavy had lost the room.
Hines has f’d the minds of Rinne, Forsberg, Joey, Duchene, and Arvy. It’s tough to watch. Hines keeps talking about the Preds playing to their identity. It’s not their identity, it’s HIS identity. This team was not built to win 2-1. I think he’s lost the room. Our best players (except Josi and Ellis) are playing at 60% of their potential. It’s on them but Hines has not made it better and Poile has no more bullets in his gun.
We’re 1-to-2 points out of WC2, and we’re lost. Can we still make it? Sure. Saros is going to have to play out-his-bottom and Pekka is going to have to not-spit-the-bed in the backend of back-to-backs. That’s the only way. We’ll need our secondary, hard-working Hines-boy guys to play elite minutes and play above their heads. I’m the eternal optimist. I so want Fil to go on a tear and Joey to make did-you-see-that kinda passes. I want Duchy to score at his 31-goal pace and Arvy to find his lost alter-ego, Arvy Hustle. But we’re running out of games and Hines continues to make them “earn” their spots back. Nothing like Joey feeding that sniper Sissons or Turris not understanding how to setup Fil for goals. I’m afraid, all we’re going to “earn” is a better draft pick slot.
How about this: Fire Hines and hire back Lavy. Hines can coach Team USA. Now that would get everyone’s attention.

Outstanding post man- you said a mouthful there, and I agree with almost everything you said. I do think Laviolette's time was done here though, but looking back now, we should have either stuck with him through this season, or just went the interim coach route (Milwaukee) so that we had an entire offseason (and a bigger pool of candidates) to find the right coach.

 

[drwpreds]

. But Hynes himself could just shift into desperation mode and play the heck out of his top players again.

This is absolutely what should happen, but coaches are so stubborn, Hynes included, that I fear it will not- I will believe it when I see it.

 

[Scoresberg]

The team had plenty of time to right the ship under Lavy this year and didn't do so. Nothing about that time would make me think that they were anymore capable of making a run than they do now.

Let's not act that Forsberg or Johansen were some high-end 1st liners under Lavy. His system didn't produce a single 70-p player during all those years, and all the offensively talented players brought in during Lavy era took a step back production-wise.

 

[Predsanddead24]

The team had plenty of time to right the ship under Lavy this year and didn't do so. Nothing about that time would make me think that they were anymore capable of making a run than they do now.

Let's not act that Forsberg or Johansen were some high-end 1st liners under Lavy. His system didn't produce a single 70-p player during all those years, and all the offensively talented players brought in during Lavy era took a step back production-wise.

Pining for Laviolette back is just absurd to me. Hynes took over a sinking ship and hasn't managed to fix it and he's the guy people want to blame instead of all the people who are responsible for it sinking in the first place? Did everyone just forget what happened to us in November and December. From the Halloween game against Calgary to the time he was fired we had a 0.483 points percentage. Since Hynes took over he's stabilized that to a 0.540 points percentage. That's not great and Hynes may indeed be an awful coach, but he's had barely two months to try and fix this. However, the core of this team has been this bad for almost two seasons now. Ultimately, with how things have played out since his firing it seems like Laviolette may not have ultimately be the problem with the team, but he certainly hadn't shown anything in the last two seasons to suggest he was the solution either.

 

[drwpreds]

I really don't think there is hardly anyone who wants Laviolette back as the permanent coach. I certainly do not- his time was up here, it was obvious.

But again, my point is, and of course hindsight is always 20/20- we would have been better off just not making a change mid-season. Because now it looks like we still aren't going to make playoffs and now we have a bunch more problems (as detailed by I Like it's post).

I have also been thinking about this- although our record is slightly better under Hynes, does he really deserve the credit for that- is it really because of him??

If you examine our play since the coaching change, what has really changed?? Not much- although we are giving up slightly fewer goals, does anyone think our defense is really that much improved?? We are still giving up way too many chances and HD chances game after game. The penalty kill and power play are still awful. And our top forwards are actually getting worse. The problems we had under Lavi are still there.

For me, the one thing that is different now vs Laviolette- and is the sole reason we have a slightly better record under Hynes- is Juuse Saros has played great. That's it. And I don't think that has anything to do with Hynes. Had Saros played this way under Laviolette, we would probably be in the playoffs and there would not have been a coaching change.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Practically speaking, we all know Hynes is going to get all next season to try to complete his fixes to the team. And I think that's totally fair. You make the decision to hire him with the expectation that (unless he pulls a Montgomery or something) you are going to give him time to do his thing.

We aren't locked in very long with him past that. But I do think you have to take a much longer view than our traditional 3-game losing streak panic attacks. The fix isn't going to be easy, it clearly has not been immediately apparent to the professional hockey coaches we've been hiring to figure it out. Asking Hynes to perform miracles if the real issue is with the player personnel is a little too much. Poile already axed one coach when I don't think he really wanted to, while publicly acknowledging the blame rested with the players. I doubt he does that again.

Player changes will eventually be the next step. I am guessing that's not too likely this summer - or not at a "housecleaning" magnitude, anyway. I see this timeline looking forward:

• Summer 2020: roster "tweaks" (fill in for departing UFAs mostly)
• 2020-21 season: Hynes shows what he can do in a full season with the tweaked team
  • Team succeeds:
    • yay, we go back to being Happy Preds Fans for the next TBD seasons
  • Team fails:
    • the players are in big trouble
    • Summer 2021 sees much bigger player personnel changes (starting with Seattle draft)
    • 2021-2022 season: Hynes shows what he can do with new roster...

... so I'm thinking we should plan either way on having Hynes around for the next 2 seasons. Because if nobody figures things out in the meantime, it will be during or after the 2021-2022 season when the window may next open up for a new coach.

 

[FossilFndr]

******* we would have been better off just not making a change mid-season. Because now it looks like we still aren't going to make playoffs and now we have a bunch more problems (as detailed by I Like it's post).****.

I'm not sure about that. If the change had been after the end of the season then next season started with a new coach and the same situation happened revealing that coaching wasn't the only problem we would have possibly crapped the bed 2020 - 2021. I'm glad additional shortcomings were highlighted.

 

[Predsanddead24]

I really don't think there is hardly anyone who wants Laviolette back as the permanent coach. I certainly do not- his time was up here, it was obvious.

But again, my point is, and of course hindsight is always 20/20- we would have been better off just not making a change mid-season. Because now it looks like we still aren't going to make playoffs and now we have a bunch more problems (as detailed by I Like it's post).

I have also been thinking about this- although our record is slightly better under Hynes, does he really deserve the credit for that- is it really because of him??

If you examine our play since the coaching change, what has really changed?? Not much- although we are giving up slightly fewer goals, does anyone think our defense is really that much improved?? We are still giving up way too many chances and HD chances game after game. The penalty kill and power play are still awful. And our top forwards are actually getting worse. The problems we had under Lavi are still there.

For me, the one thing that is different now vs Laviolette- and is the sole reason we have a slightly better record under Hynes- is Juuse Saros has played great. That's it. And I don't think that has anything to do with Hynes. Had Saros played this way under Laviolette, we would probably be in the playoffs and there would not have been a coaching change.

We're more or less the same team regardless of who the coach is it seems. I've said it before but I'm not really sure any coach could solve the issues with this team at the moment. For example, we've had what 4 or 5 different people look at the power play and try and revamp with different strategies and its still awful. At some point it just comes down to execution and we just simply can't make tape to tape passes and that makes it nearly impossible to have an effective powerplay. What's an NHL coach supposed to do when his top players seemingly can't handle the puck?

I don't think Hynes really deserves any credit for anything positive nor does he necessarily deserve the criticism for a lot of our other issues. In the same way you could say our better defensive numbers are due to Saros playing better you could also say our drop in offensive numbers was due to losing Ellis and the Bonino line regressing back to their true capabilities. I just thinking saying we'd be doing better if we'd just give our top guys more minutes is disingenuous given that's what we tried the first half of the season with the same results.

 

[PredsV82]

The games in hand are gone and they are out of the playoffs. I'm ready to just tank and be done with it. Let's finish like its 2002....

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

We're more or less the same team regardless of who the coach is it seems. I've said it before but I'm not really sure any coach could solve the issues with this team at the moment. For example, we've had what 4 or 5 different people look at the power play and try and revamp with different strategies and its still awful. At some point it just comes down to execution and we just simply can't make tape to tape passes and that makes it nearly impossible to have an effective powerplay. What's an NHL coach supposed to do when his top players seemingly can't handle the puck?

I don't think Hynes really deserves any credit for anything positive nor does he necessarily deserve the criticism for a lot of our other issues. In the same way you could say our better defensive numbers are due to Saros playing better you could also say our drop in offensive numbers was due to losing Ellis and the Bonino line regressing back to their true capabilities. I just thinking saying we'd be doing better if we'd just give our top guys more minutes is disingenuous given that's what we tried the first half of the season with the same results.

You can also only line blender the "top 6" so much with heavy minutes before you need to look for other options, especially since JOFA should not be a thing anymore. Not only has their play together gotten too comfortable and complacent, they directly cost us two points against the Blackhawks a couple of weeks ago (offensive zone penalties on back-to-back stoppages with a goal on the ensuing PP and a very poor line change that created the deciding goal).

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

The games in hand are gone and they are out of the playoffs. I'm ready to just tank and be done with it. Let's finish like its 2002....

With our luck the top 5 BPA at our draft slot will be defensemen (that's probably not such a bad thing at this point though).

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

They should just sneak the whole Milwaukee Admirals lineup onto the ice one of these games, wearing Preds jerseys. Is there a convenient break in the Ads schedule sometime soon that would allow this? Just to see...

 

[101st_fan]

Four teams are within a point percentage that results in a two point spread over an 82 game season. Only two of them will make the playoffs. It's a very tight race down the stretch. Buckle up or hide your eyes if its too much for you.

 

[LCPreds]

Buckle up or hide your eyes if its too much for you.

I may have to bring a newspaper with me to the game tomorrow night.