Tmac vs Hitch (what is Hitch doing different than Tmac)

[Spawn]

Dinosaur Hitch puts Lucic out in the final seconds
McLellan is laughing somewhere

Dinosaur coach hired by a GM with dinosaur ideas about hockey decides to make the "identity" of the team a line that is old, slow, low skill, grinding and poor both offensively and defensively.

Yeah McLellan probably wouldn't have done that....

 

[edmoil3]

Listen to the first minute.

How can a team play with pace or on their toes when the coach just focuses on mistakes. How can the team keep any positivity and remain in the fight for 82 games listening to that everyday.

Why does the team sag? “I don’t have an answer for you”
Todd was sagging.


That one minute summarizes why Todd got fired.

 

[GameChanger]

There's an interesting article about Olli Jokinen and the Winnipeg Jets in a Finnish magazine Ilta-Sanomat. It contains some thoughts that IMO are closely related to this topic so please don't get offended by this one message talking about them. If you can't tolerate it just skip this

I haven't got enough time to translate everything, but here's a some quotes (bolded) translated freely in a hurry:


It's great to see the team succeed. They've done a bloody good job. They've built the team through their own picks. That's where the base comes from and then there are some specific players by free agents and trades.

I was there two seasons too early. Or on the other hand I wasn't. If the coach had been of a different kind I believe we'd been a playoff team then, too. After I left the team was on paper basically the same or even worse but they went to the playoffs.

The problem with the previous coach Claude Noel was that half of the team didn't respect him.

Everything changed when Maurice came. During the rest of the season we had a heck of a stretch and we got pretty close to a playoff spot.

Under him they have excellent practises where they don't "take it the easy way" at all. They do everything seriously.

Maurice said that the best and the most eye opening thing for him was to go to Magnitogorsk (KHL) for a year. That's when he understood how difficult it is e.g. for an European to come to the NHL: a strange country and strange culture, where they speak a different language.

Paul communicates with players. He's actually interested about how the wife is doing in Winnipeg and how the children are doing at school. The players get a feeling that the coach cares. The players can see through if the coach is just talking some blank talk and if he asks that kind of things because someone told him to. Maurice does those things naturally.

That's important and that's what the current players are used to. In the old times the coach may have said hello a few times in the aisles of the arena. If the coach then came and started to ask how you're feeling one started to wonder what's going on now. That did I do something stupid? It's a bit of the opposite nowadays.

However, Jokinen reminds that even today there are coaches who don't communicate much with the players.

Olli Jokinen lataa syyn, jonka takia Winnipeg Jets ei menestynyt hänen aikanaan – ”Puolet joukkueesta ei kunnioittanut häntä”

 

[stratedge]

Two biggest differences I see:

1. Hitch emphasizes defensive accountability. If you cheat the team, you'll hear about it continuously until you stop. Everyone has a responsibility to keep the puck out of their own net, no exceptions. Sure, to some level every coach will claim this is one of their tenets, but Hitch is willing to do what it takes (be the bad guy) to push and push players to make it actually stop. Probably Drai will be his biggest challenge, a massive cheater on defense, so we can use his progress as a measuring stick. With Todd, he was here years and nothing progressed defensively in my mind, not the team and not the individuals. Take Pulju as an example, it seems he hated his defensive game and yet what did he do about it? He simply folded in his battle with Pulju to get him to play the way he wanted, until the solution was to get Pulju to play for a different coach. It's like his approach was "I'll decide whether or not you're playing well enough" rather than "I'll get you playing well enough"; he was too much the judge and not enough the teacher.
2. Hitch actually takes accountability himself for the teams emotional state; whether they're ready to start the game and the effort is there. This has long been an Oilers weakness. TMac always had a "that's not my job" attitude towards the effort level of the players, was strictly X's and O's, and when the team was flat the only tool he had in his tool box to fix it was to juggle the lines. It was never something he said or did, neither between periods or in a timeout (did he ever take a time out?), that got things back on the rails. We're not in the room, but if you follow all the feedback of ex players he is infamous for his very poor communication... players were expected to watch their promotions/demotions and read into it whether they were doing the right thing. It was up to guys like McDavid and Lucic and I don't know who else to try to hold their peers accountable for their effort level, and neither in hockey nor in other professions does that shit work much if ever. The boss has to keep a finger on the pulse of the team and manipulate his points of leverage, carefully, to manage the vibe. I'm not sure Hitch will be great at this, but we know Todd wasn't good enough. At least Hitch sames to be well aware that it's a major problem with the team and it needs attention.

I don't want to get hyped up about Hitch because I've been an Oilers fan a very long time, and I've learned all my lessons about this team 5 times over. I won't believe anything until I see it anymore. But I wanted a coaching change and if I had my choice of coach it would have been Hitchcock. His specialties are exactly what the doctor ordered for the Oilers. Everything he says is wrong with the team rings true with me. Can he fix it though, that's a whole other thing. We'll see.

 

[stratedge]

I know for a fact that Hitch is done after this season, a mod can PM me for a source? I don't know how it works. I haven't had one in the hockey world before.

I know for a fact that Hitch is retiring last year. A mod can PM me for a source.

 

[Stoneman89]

He's putting players in a role that suits them instead of arranging his lineup by salary and draft position.

He also actually coaches his players differently. He isn't telling Lucic to go out there and try to play like he's told McDavid how to play.

Like killing off a 6 on 5 situation for Looch? Lol.

 

[Stoneman89]

I know for a fact that Hitch is retiring last year. A mod can PM me for a source.

Good intel.

 

[McDNicks17]

Like killing off a 6 on 5 situation for Looch? Lol.

They were having a solid game.

Klefbom's boneheaded move that caused the goal doesn't make it a mistake to put him out there.

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

I looked into this "claim" that Hitchcock worked with "5 or 6" star players and got them going to start their career or reclamated them.


Dallas -
95-96 - Jere Lehtinen and Jamie Langenbrunner
99 - Brendan Morrow

Philly
05-06 Mike Richards and Jeff Carter

CBJ
08-09 Jakub Voracek

STL
11-12 Alex Pietrangelo, Jaden Schwartz
14-15 Vlad Tarasenko

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

honestly not seeing much difference between Hitch and McLellan

other than some B.S line called the "identity" line...which still doesn't do much

somewhere back in SJ, McLellan is having a good laugh

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

New coach, same result.

 

[Soundwave]

Not scoring is part of the identity of the "Identity Line" though, lol.

 

[Soundwave]

honestly not seeing much difference between Hitch and McLellan

other than some B.S line called the "identity" line...which still doesn't do much

somewhere back in SJ, McLellan is having a good laugh

It's almost as if the roster is the problem.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

It's almost as if the roster is the problem.

no kidding

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

You can change from man v man to zone and build all the identity lines you want. You can’t make chicken soup with chicken shit. It doesn’t matter who the cook is.

 

[Soundwave]

no kidding

Told you guys this last year, but I guess we had to flush another year because we needed to bet the farm again on this GM to make sure he sucked.

Predictable result.

 

[Oilhawks]

Told you guys this last year, but I guess we had to flush another year because we needed to bet the farm again on this GM to make sure he sucked.

Predictable result.

Huh, it’s almost like we as fans could do something to actually get the front office cleaned out.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Told you guys this last year, but I guess we had to flush another year because we needed to bet the farm again on this GM to make sure he sucked.

Predictable result.

wow congratz

you get a cookie

 

[Soundwave]

wow congratz

you get a cookie

Just want the dunce in the front office fired. He can have the cookie as a consolation.

 

[yababy]

What's the point of bringing up Puljujarvi to play him for 7:43?

 

[oobga]

Where is McLellan anyways? Do the Oilers make their coaches sign NDA's or something? I wanna hear what McLellan felt went wrong with his time here. Bet management would be mentioned if he was being fully candid.

Eakins got to do his "Craig's on it" routine, fired in a very similar situation with lots of contract time left.

 

[oobga]

What's the point of bringing up Puljujarvi to play him for 7:43?

Gotta be at least a tiny bit patient in this instance. Hitch is seeing the kid for the first time. If this is still happening in a couple weeks though, holleeeee sheeet.

 

[FlameChampion]

I do think that Hitchcock is a better coach from what I have seen. He has gotten more out of the Lucic - Brodziak - Kassian line than McLellan ever has (at least from an effort point of view). The PP seems to make more sense. I still think we have to see what he can do for McDavid on home ice, when he last change (something that McLellan never took advantage of). I think Hitchcock can get a bit more out of the roster, get them to play more defensively and compete harder.

Unfortunately from what I have seen so far, this roster has a lot of problems. I was hoping that Hitchcock that could get more secondary scoring out of it, but at this point I am skeptical. I think everyone pretty much knew but its just confirming that Chiarelli has done a poor job with the roster. Theres not enough wingers on this team and offense from the defense, who move the needle and can capitalize on their chances.

Generally speaking the Oilers are out chancing most of the teams they play against but when you dont have players who are good enough at scoring, its basically 50/50 whether they will win or not.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Gotta be at least a tiny bit patient in this instance. Hitch is seeing the kid for the first time. If this is still happening in a couple weeks though, holleeeee sheeet.

And most of that ice time was with McDavid and he didn't even register a shot attempt.

Seemed to me the low ice time was warranted for the game.

 

[oobga]

And most of that ice time was with McDavid and he didn't even register a shot attempt.

Seemed to me the low ice time was warranted for the game.

Now what do we do about that turd Spooner, lol. 1 missed shot in 14 mins with McDavid and Drai (3 more in just this game than Pulju has played with McDavid all season) vs Pulju's 3 mins with McDavid and Khaira. Think we're gonna be seeing a Hitch blender soon.