Paul MacLean Thread, Part II

[CanadianHockey]

Continue from previous thread.

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[pepty]

Benny FTW
Anderson was fantastic in Macleans first season.

Fantastic?

Anderson's GAA was 2.84 for 37th in the league and his save percentage .914 for 25th in the league.

Alex Auld was back up.So the Sens didn't get by on great goal tending that year.

They were picked to come in last by a number of pundits. Maclean was a Jack Adams nominee that year and it sure wasn't because of his goaltenders.

 

[Qward]

I actually prefer an engaged owner as long as it doesn't go too far. When the owner doesn't care you get a situation like the Islanders where Garth Snow has been allowed to ruin the whole team no questions asked.

If you really think that is the situation on long island, you are way off base.

Garth Snow is making every move he can with a budget that is tighter and harder than Ottawa's. Wang is nutso. A far worse owner than we have ever seen.

The guy is looking to sell the team just before they move to a new arena where people think they will reach new revenue records not seen before for the Islanders. The guy is buying high, selling low.

There was talk that Cameron was hired because of Melnyk.

Imagine what our special teams would look like if there was a guy that MacLean selected instead of that bozo. Mac ran the special teams in Detroit. When he was there, their PP and PK were in the top 10. Sometimes top 5.

 

[Benjamin]

Benny FTW
Anderson was fantastic in Macleans first season.

Fantastic?

Anderson's GAA was 2.84 for 37th in the league and his save percentage .914 for 25th in the league.

Alex Auld was back up.So the Sens didn't get by on great goal tending that year.

They were picked to come in last by a number of pundits. Maclean was a Jack Adams nominee that year and it sure wasn't because of his goaltenders.

I guess his stats weren't good but i remember Anderson being pretty good. Maybe it was just low standards due to Elliott.

 

[Langdon Alger]

If you really think that is the situation on long island, you are way off base.

Garth Snow is making every move he can with a budget that is tighter and harder than Ottawa's. Wang is nutso. A far worse owner than we have ever seen.

The guy is looking to sell the team just before they move to a new arena where people think they will reach new revenue records not seen before for the Islanders. The guy is buying high, selling low.

There was talk that Cameron was hired because of Melnyk.

Imagine what our special teams would look like if there was a guy that MacLean selected instead of that bozo. Mac ran the special teams in Detroit. When he was there, their PP and PK were in the top 10. Sometimes top 5.

There was talk of that, but does anyone know for sure that that is what really happened?

 

[EssendonBombers]

Benny FTW
Anderson was fantastic in Macleans first season.

Fantastic?

Anderson's GAA was 2.84 for 37th in the league and his save percentage .914 for 25th in the league.

Alex Auld was back up.So the Sens didn't get by on great goal tending that year.

They were picked to come in last by a number of pundits. Maclean was a Jack Adams nominee that year and it sure wasn't because of his goaltenders.

Anderson started shaky, became solid, and elevated to very good towards the end of the season.

Sv.%:
October-November: .892
December: .907
January-April: .931

 

[Burrowsaurus]

If you really think that is the situation on long island, you are way off base.

Garth Snow is making every move he can with a budget that is tighter and harder than Ottawa's. Wang is nutso. A far worse owner than we have ever seen.

The guy is looking to sell the team just before they move to a new arena where people think they will reach new revenue records not seen before for the Islanders. The guy is buying high, selling low.

There was talk that Cameron was hired because of Melnyk.

Imagine what our special teams would look like if there was a guy that MacLean selected instead of that bozo. Mac ran the special teams in Detroit. When he was there, their PP and PK were in the top 10. Sometimes top 5.

Maclean does run the PP and PK. Allegedly.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

I guess his stats weren't good but i remember Anderson being pretty good. Maybe it was just low standards due to Elliott.

11'12 Sens were much better than 12'13 Sens.

 

[pepty]

This morning after listening to Gord Wilson . it looks like Maclean is going to be made the scapegoat and heaved overboard by Murray.

According to Gord, the team itself is just fine and has made the playoff for 2 years with the "essentially the same core group of players" in place?

Really Gord-dont you think there are maybe a couple of changes? Hmmm?

No word about the same coach being in place.

And then the assertion that the former wins had nothing to do with coaching but
were all about goal-tending-when two years ago the goal-tending was less than mediocre.

So it looks like any failures this year had to do with coaching and all the positive results for a supposedly rebuilding team the last two years had to do with superb management and goalkeeping..

I didn't think they would be that stupid. But after listening to Gord, Murray's mouth piece, I am starting to think I may wrong.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

This morning after listening to Gord Wilson . it looks like Maclean is going to be made the scapegoat and heaved overboard by Murray.

According to Gord, the team itself is just fine and has made the playoff for 2 years with the "essentially the same core group of players" in place?

Really Gord-dont you think there are maybe a couple of changes? Hmmm?

No word about the same coach being in place.

And then the assertion that the former wins had nothing to do with coaching but
were all about goal-tending-when two years ago the goal-tending was less than mediocre.

So it looks like any failures this year had to do with coaching and all the positive results for a supposedly rebuilding team the last two years had to do with superb management and goalkeeping..

I didn't think they would be that stupid. But after listening to Gord, Murray's mouth piece, I am starting to think I may wrong.

*sigh* I really wish the hockey media in Canada actually cared about their hometown teams instead of doing everything they can to drum up controversy.

Maclean is a very good coach, and losing him would set this team back further than anything else Murray could do.

 

[Spez]

So it's Maclean's fault that the goaltending saved us last season? Last I checked goalies are part of the team and have jobs to do. If Maclean gets fired then I won't bother cheering for the team until Murray is gone. If he thinks that changing the coach is going to magically turn things around he's delusional. A new coach won't be able to make our d-men smarter in our own zone. A new coach isn't going to make Phillips play like he did in his prime. Coaches are capable of adjusting the system but part of the problem is if you don't have the right players for the system. Playing a puck possession style requires you to have smart players and we have too many dumb ones. I'm pretty sure Mac isn't telling the players to handle the puck like a grenade in their own zone or to chase players around in their own zone instead of boxing players out front.

 

[BloodRedArmy]

This morning after listening to Gord Wilson . it looks like Maclean is going to be made the scapegoat and heaved overboard by Murray.

My personal opinion is that if MacLean is indeed let go, this is a decision coming from Melnyk. I don't think Murray is that foolish, and I think there are a lot of things pointing to Melnyk making the call, whether they be rumor, speculation or whatever... where there's smoke, you know...

- The rumors floating around about Melnyk offering coaching strategies
- Melnyk is rash and seems to make hasty decisions based in emotion
- It's Melnyk's money. It's one thing to burn your own money, it's quite another to have someone burn it for you
- Melnyk's dealings with Alfie, whether you believe them to be true or not, have made for VERY bad PR this year. Any link between Alfie leaving and the disastrous season that followed would be a nightmare for him, so focus the blame elsewhere.

Anyway, all just opinion...

 

[Wondercarrot]

Benny FTW
Anderson was fantastic in Macleans first season.

Fantastic?

Anderson's GAA was 2.84 for 37th in the league and his save percentage .914 for 25th in the league.

Alex Auld was back up.So the Sens didn't get by on great goal tending that year.

They were picked to come in last by a number of pundits. Maclean was a Jack Adams nominee that year and it sure wasn't because of his goaltenders.

Im just spitballing here but i wonder if that season's success can be attributed to Spezza and Karlsson carrying 18 other players into the playoffs on the back of Hart like worthy play from both of them.

Sandwiched in between that year and this one was a 48 game season where the goalies played at an all time NHL record pace.

Its almost as if those guys are critical to the team's success and also almost as if missing a year of hockey impacted their play and by extension the team.

weird...

 

[Hossa18]

So it's Maclean's fault that the goaltending saved us last season? Last I checked goalies are part of the team and have jobs to do. If Maclean gets fired then I won't bother cheering for the team until Murray is gone. If he thinks that changing the coach is going to magically turn things around he's delusional. A new coach won't be able to make our d-men smarter in our own zone. A new coach isn't going to make Phillips play like he did in his prime. Coaches are capable of adjusting the system but part of the problem is if you don't have the right players for the system. Playing a puck possession style requires you to have smart players and we have too many dumb ones. I'm pretty sure Mac isn't telling the players to handle the puck like a grenade in their own zone or to chase players around in their own zone instead of boxing players out front.

But that's the thing, how do you know that it's Murray's decision to fire Maclean if he gets fired.....Again, Maclean was not the only problem but when you say that Maclean didn't tell the players to handle the puck like a grenade (Gryba, Phillips, Cowen), I would counter that those are the players that Maclean wanted to play.....Wiercioch sat on the bench for 8 straight games while Ottawa was on a 7 game losing string. Forcing GSN down our throats was also Maclean's doing.

 

[BatherSeason]

Playing Smith/Neil/Greening more than any other forwards at even strength all season is reason enough to can this bozo coach. If I were the owner, I would have stepped in too. Sure Smith is mediocre, but playing your fourth line players more than your scorers is reason enough to be canned.

Weircoch not playing is idiotic too. No reason Gryba or even Ceci should have been playing over Weircoch

Ya, ya, heart and soul Neil.... is a bunch of crap. Pretty sure Neil took a penalty late in every game we led all season long. No excuses.

 

[Hossa18]

My personal opinion is that if MacLean is indeed let go, this is a decision coming from Melnyk. I don't think Murray is that foolish, and I think there are a lot of things pointing to Melnyk making the call, whether they be rumor, speculation or whatever... where there's smoke, you know...

- The rumors floating around about Melnyk offering coaching strategies
- Melnyk is rash and seems to make hasty decisions based in emotion
- It's Melnyk's money. It's one thing to burn your own money, it's quite another to have someone burn it for you
- Melnyk's dealings with Alfie, whether you believe them to be true or not, have made for VERY bad PR this year. Any link between Alfie leaving and the disastrous season that followed would be a nightmare for him, so focus the blame elsewhere.

Anyway, all just opinion...

Careful, some people in here don't take rumours lightly

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

So dumb that Murray is going to hire a fifth coach, total bush league.
Yeah, Mac has made some questionable line decisions but if there's even an inkling of truth to the rumours that there were outside pressures on his roster management then Melnyk and Murray need to take stock of themselves.

 

[tony d]

We should keep Maclean as coach but hire a strong assistant to keep both Maclean and the players accountable.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Im just spitballing here but i wonder if that season's success can be attributed to Spezza and Karlsson carrying 18 other players into the playoffs on the back of Hart like worthy play from both of them.

Sandwiched in between that year and this one was a 48 game season where the goalies played at an all time NHL record pace.

Its almost as if those guys are critical to the team's success and also almost as if missing a year of hockey impacted their play and by extension the team.

weird...

If you look at the shortened season last year, the entire team was much tighter defensively. The shots we allowed on goal, for the most part, were from the perimeters of the ice...not exactly prime scoring areas. We were also much more aggressive in front of the net, by both clearing out the rebounds in a hurry and being aggressive against any skaters anywhere near the crease or slot.

In short, the system last season helped a helluva lot to obtain those historic goaltending numbers.

Not saying our goalies are awful, but this his how hockey works. Everything on a team is connected. The skaters make things easier on the goalies and give them a better chance of success, the forwards can help or hurt the defense, the defense can help or hurt the forwards...when all 3 parts are working in harmony, it makes everyone look good. When one (or more) of the parts fail, it can make all three parts look horrible.

 

[Hossa18]

We should keep Maclean as coach but hire a strong assistant to keep both Maclean and the players accountable.

My first choice to bring in as an assistant coach would be Richardson but he doesn't want to be an assistant........I would love to bring in someone like Craig Ramsay to run our defense again.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

If they fire the coach I might have to boycott the team for a year

 

[pepty]

Well lets hope they dont go down that road The players had really positive things to say about the coaches today, I don think there's any way he has lost the to room at all.

 

[HSF]

If they fire the coach I might have to boycott the team for a year

i doubt you would do that

overdramatic

 

[arglebargle]

MacLean has a couple of things to answer for IMO

1) Scratching Wiercioch for almost half the season, and giving him 12-15 minutes a game while Cowen played most of the year at 20+ minutes, despite playing about as badly as anyone has ever seen a D-man play in Ottawa. Cowen was worse than Kuba in 10-11.

2) Playing Greening - Smith - Neil. Smith's a pretty good player, but Greening and Neil scramble around hitting people, and that's about all they do. Smith and Neil put the team on the PK 79 times. I'm fine with giving the 4th line 12-13 minutes a game, but not when the two wingers are awful hockey players. Had he played this line less, or scratched Greening and Neil more often in favor of Grant or some other callups the team would have done better.

3) Anderson had a very poor stretch early, then got injured, and Lehner was red hot when he replaced him. Then Anderson comes back "healthy" and continues his slump while Lehner cools off on the bench and the team allows 4 goals/game. Had he just played the hot goalie, they probably 2-3 more wins in October and November.

4) Constant line juggling. How are players supposed to get better at playing together when they switch linemates every 4 shifts?


Put all these things together and they probably win 3-5 more games and make the playoffs. I think that's where a lot of fans' problems with MacLean are coming from.

 

[Tundraman]

The reason I mainly blame MacLean for the team missing the playoffs is imo because he chose the wrong playing style for the roster they had. They needed to shelter the young D by having the forwards play well in their zone. So many practices were spent on getting the guys to jump out of the zone quickly. His style was all about counter attacking asap and the guys were jumping out of the D zone anticipating the puck would clear. There is nothing wrong with a good attack but how many games did they lead and then take unnecessary risks in the opposing zone and get caught with odd man rushes and breakaways.

These guys never did learn how to defend properly. A few ex-players said the Sens were playing a weird defensive style misusing their centres compared to other teams which seemed to cause a lot of the confusion...e.g. on the Sens, the 1st forward back takes the centre D responsibilities but what happens if 2 or 3 guys are close. Also the D chase up the boards, in the corners and often up to the blue line instead of defending the front of the net. In the D zone it's always massive confusion as to who covers who that why the D guys are constantly pointing while leaving the dangerous man uncovered. Five games into the season maybe that would be tolerable but come on really after 30 games, 40 games, 50 games,.... 82 games and they still didn't have it right!

MacLean also stuck with things that didn't work such as overplaying certain vets (read Phillips, + the 3rd line) plus Cowen while giving other guys the short leash. So many of his decisions are hard to explain. I'll bet he couldn't and he really never did have to answer for them. MacLean pat answer of "Didn't play hard enough long enough" let him off the hook time after time because the press were too busy laughing at his quips.

Maybe MacLean didn't get enough help from the assistant coaches but he had control so in the end the buck stops with him.