State of the Ducks

[ADHB]

I think what someone said earlier is true: they'll give him 10-15 games with a close to healthy roster, and if they suck those games, he will be gone.

I think we have to hope Eaves, Silf, Kase come back and the poor play continues if we want him fired. Getting Getzlaf, Kesler, and Ritchie back hasn't made us look any better as a team so far, so I think it's pretty realistic that we continue to suck when healthy.

That’s probably true and not criticizing your post, but just the general consensus. I hate the justification that he can’t be evaluated unless he has a fully healthy roster. This is hockey. Guys get injured. A lot. Most teams rarely have every player on the team at their disposal at once. Playoff time it’s even worse. After a round or two, most teams are missing at least 3-4 regulars. RC’s system is what it is. How poor it is can’t be ignored simply because we are missing a few guys. I mean, having Kase and Silf back will make a difference. But will the system automatically work just because they’re on the ice? No chance.

 

[KaseMeOutside]

Discuss

 

[WhatTheDuck]

^ Allowing our best player to get absolutely peppered on a nightly basis, at a time where he and others are complaining about the reduced equipment causing added wear and tear.

The part that scares me is that they may actually use last year's miracle run and the injury woes as excuses to just let this ride, and you just know that ends up with Gibby on the IR.

 

[pbgoalie]

I’ll harp on my concern
Lindholm, Fowler,Manson,montour

As a group look worse.
Individually, I’m less worried about regression in Lindholm than all the others

Development seems stalled. For that alone I’m not happy our strength, simply isn’t right now

 

[dracom]

No competent GM, coach, or player should be ok with how things are going, especially with how many high danger shots are being allowed. There's a serious issue with this team and it's not just because of injuries. I don't like the idea of owners getting involved with the teams, but at this point I would be completely ok with the Samueli's cleaning house and removing RC and BM.

 

[Paul4587]

Discuss

That’s a shitload of rubber he’s seeing. Even if he doesn’t manage to get hurt from a shot or someone crashing the net he’s still going to burn out due to doing twice as much work as normal.

 

[CrazyDuck4u]

Discuss

Reading an article today, I noticed a quote from Rakell.. That had me thinking.. Maybe this team is not comfortable playing a fast paced game.. Read for yourselves.
“When guys see you’re struggling with the puck, they’re going to launch at you. We give the puck away and we have to chase it the whole game. We’re not the fastest team to be on the forecheck and force other teams that way. Maybe that’s why we haven’t had much puck possession lately.” Those are Rakells words.. Sound like to me hes making a hint at the New System not being right for the mold of players we have.. Hes basically saying that they truly are not a fast team and because they are trying to play this certain way, Its throwing everything in the meantime they are loosing possession of the puck.. Seems about right to me.. So what now? The management clearly wants to play faster, Seems like the Veterans arent to happy about this new change.. Not looking good.

 

[Ducks DVM]

Discuss

There were 10 teams last year that only gave up 6 more TOTAL shots per game than that last year.

 

[TheGoodShepard1]

Discuss

In the words of Teemu, that stat is unbelievable

 

[Paul4587]

Reading an article today, I noticed a quote from Rakell.. That had me thinking.. Maybe this team is not comfortable playing a fast paced game.. Read for yourselves.
“When guys see you’re struggling with the puck, they’re going to launch at you. We give the puck away and we have to chase it the whole game. We’re not the fastest team to be on the forecheck and force other teams that way. Maybe that’s why we haven’t had much puck possession lately.” Those are Rakells words.. Sound like to me hes making a hint at the New System not being right for the mold of players we have.. Hes basically saying that they truly are not a fast team and because they are trying to play this certain way, Its throwing everything in the meantime they are loosing possession of the puck.. Seems about right to me.. So what now? The management clearly wants to play faster, Seems like the Veterans arent to happy about this new change.. Not looking good.

It’s pretty telling. Murray loves playing copy cat though which is pointless if you can’t put the right pieces in place to copy the team whose style he’s trying to emulate.

 

[ADHB]

Reading an article today, I noticed a quote from Rakell.. That had me thinking.. Maybe this team is not comfortable playing a fast paced game.. Read for yourselves.
“When guys see you’re struggling with the puck, they’re going to launch at you. We give the puck away and we have to chase it the whole game. We’re not the fastest team to be on the forecheck and force other teams that way. Maybe that’s why we haven’t had much puck possession lately.” Those are Rakells words.. Sound like to me hes making a hint at the New System not being right for the mold of players we have.. Hes basically saying that they truly are not a fast team and because they are trying to play this certain way, Its throwing everything in the meantime they are loosing possession of the puck.. Seems about right to me.. So what now? The management clearly wants to play faster, Seems like the Veterans arent to happy about this new change.. Not looking good.

That’s because they don’t have the speed to play what RC thinks is a faster system. Bob has said it in the past. You don’t have to have a fast team to play quicker. Quicker means moving the puck quicker, not skating faster. RC’s system can’t move the puck quickly because there is no close support. The players are way too spread out, and often stationary.

So in other words, it’s not that they can’t play at a quicker tempo. It’s that they can’t play this particular scheme, which is true. Then again, I don’t know if the fastest team in the league could play it, either.

 

[branmuffin17]

That’s because they don’t have the speed to play what RC thinks is a faster system. Bob has said it in the past. You don’t have to have a fast team to play quicker. Quicker means moving the puck quicker, not skating faster. RC’s system can’t move the puck quickly because there is no close support. The players are way too spread out, and often stationary.

So in other words, it’s not that they can’t play at a quicker tempo. It’s that they can’t play this particular scheme, which is true. Then again, I don’t know if the fastest team in the league could play it, either.

Yup, basically what I was saying in the original post. Stretch passes and forcing the puck forward to forwards that are too far away from their defense. D is often standing still at that point that they pass, which increases the gap. Any turnover at that point creates odd-mans the other way. And it's hard to receive if you're moving straight up. They should be cutting more, sticking with 15 feet to move the puck quickly, give and go, etc.

I have this problem in my beer league, and I'm one of those D telling my forwards not to leave the zone too soon.

 

[pbgoalie]

That’s because they don’t have the speed to play what RC thinks is a faster system. Bob has said it in the past. You don’t have to have a fast team to play quicker. Quicker means moving the puck quicker, not skating faster. RC’s system can’t move the puck quickly because there is no close support. The players are way too spread out, and often stationary.

So in other words, it’s not that they can’t play at a quicker tempo. It’s that they can’t play this particular scheme, which is true. Then again, I don’t know if the fastest team in the league could play it, either.

Yup, but.......
When you can’t make or receive passes clearly, can’t move yourselves quickly,mand don’t look to be able,to think quickly, maybe there IS a problem

 

[ADHB]

Yup, but.......
When you can’t make or receive passes clearly, can’t move yourselves quickly,mand don’t look to be able,to think quickly, maybe there IS a problem

True there does seem to be a fundamental problem. But like others have said, making and receiving passes in this scheme isn’t simple. I bet the passes would be a lot crisper and more cleanly handled if you’re making a series of 15-foot passes to guys cutting across the ice, as opposed to throwing it 50 feet past 3 defenders while the guy trying to accept the pass is either standing still at center ice with a d-man right on top of him, or skating up ice trying to look over his shoulder for the puck.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Discuss

We didn't retain Trent Yawney. Yawney would never separate team M&M (Magnus Manson).

 

[pbgoalie]

True there does seem to be a fundamental problem. But like others have said, making and receiving passes in this scheme isn’t simple. I bet the passes would be a lot crisper and more cleanly handled if you’re making a series of 15-foot passes to guys cutting across the ice, as opposed to throwing it 50 feet past 3 defenders while the guy trying to accept the pass is either standing still at center ice with a d-man right on top of him, or skating up ice trying to look over his shoulder for the puck.

Sadly, we didn’t exactly wear out sticks with tape to tape passes last year either

As bad as Sustr is, he does make some nice passes at least

 

[ADHB]

Sadly, we didn’t exactly wear out sticks with tape to tape passes last year either

As bad as Sustr is, he does make some nice passes at least

Yeah under RC there has always been an awful lot of dumping it out, followed by dumping it in. Dump is definitely the key word.

 

[pbgoalie]

Yeah under RC there has always been an awful lot of dumping it out, followed by dumping it in. Dump is definitely the key word.

As in DUMPster fire system

 

[CrazyDuck4u]

Yeah under RC there has always been an awful lot of dumping it out, followed by dumping it in. Dump is definitely the key word.

Just like how they are playing right now.. Looks like a big pile of Dump.. lol

 

[robbieboy3686]

RC was told by BM that the team needs to play faster, so he tried to change his entire coaching philosophy to accommodate . Since when do former Norris trophy winners say “ no Bob, I can’t make this adjustment ?” You always want to think the best. Funny nobody has mentioned the fact that some major moves could be coming . And imo that means trades...

 

[Exit Dose]

There were 10 teams last year that only gave up 6 more TOTAL shots per game than that last year.

Those were the best teams in the league, right?

 

[alcolol]

In my opinion, if Eakins weren't penciled in to replace Carlyle, GMBM's trigger finger would be much less reluctant to fire Carlyle mid-season.

The journalistic freedom that comes with working for the Athletic has manifested in much improved articles by Stephens. His latest, Ducks continuing shot disparity struggles show strong start..., features many damning quotes from the players.

Gibson - “We’re going to have adversity. I think it just hit some guys a little harder. Because we got off to a good start, they thought maybe things were a little better than we were. I think reality is setting in a little bit. And this is what we got.”

Lindholm - “Offense is the best defense [...] There’s something true in that.”

Finger-pointing this early in the season is not a good sign of things to come.

 

[AngelDuck]

Wow that Gibson quote. I can’t say I blame him. We need change BAD.

 

[The Duck Knight]

There was another Gibson quote that was great after the Vegas game.

All Gibson could do was state the obvious. You will not win scoring one goal per game. “I’m doing my job,” he said. “Playing hockey. That’s all I can control. The rest? Can’t score goals. Can’t make it past the red line. I do what I can do.”

 

[Reveille1984]

It goes both ways, usually. If your defenders can't get the puck cleanly out of their zone and have no outlets, as well as being forced by their "fast system" to move the puck up the ice at all costs, you're going to get exactly what we've been seeing. This playstyle is also causing dmen that can actually skate like Montour and Fowler to try and do too much. The forwards are always way too far up the ice or clogged behind dudes in the neutral zone, so instead of trying to make another failure area pass they dangle through traffic or along the boards and make sloppy turnovers.

Our forwards are also so bad at keeping possession that our defenders are gassed playing high stress minutes in the d-zone rather than contributing to the flow of play. Lack of NHL forward talent on the roster obviously isn't helping this, but I honestly think Carlyle is just in over his head. If you don't want to play dump and chase, you need personnel that can regularly carry the puck into the offensive zone without having a panic attack. The only forward on our roster with the speed and puck handling to do this regularly is Rakell, and then his next pass is immediately fumbled by the receiver or nobody is open and it gets tossed along the boards never to be seen again.

Until we get better coaching or better players back from injury, we're kind of stuck in the no man's land that we've been seeing. Our forwards aren't skilled enough to play an uptempo/clean passing game, and they're not physical enough to win puck battles and grind it out in the dirty areas.