Yeah, Nino had a couple of chances. Pominvilled one.
I don't think Yeo is a bad coach, nor Fletcher a bad GM. Every team goes through a slump just about every year. Would you rather be STL or the AVS who slump in the playoffs?
Having said that, Yeo's lack of attention to detail, and blind spots in certain areas, are disturbing.
- I said this at the beginning of the year and was pooh- poohed. Don't think I will be anymore. Yeo has done a bad job preparing the team for 3v3 this year, and it might cost us a playoff spot.
- Yep's personnel decisions are odd, and conducive to team disunity. Different players are held to different standards. Prosser has no business taking a regular shift in the NHL. Pominville has no business getting first line and #1 PP TOI. Hard working players are benched, for no discernible reason. Where is the accountability?
- Power Play is bad. Both personnel choices, strategy, and execution are poor. This is not a new problem, and has been allowed to fester.
- After saying he was going to limit our best player's TOI this year so his play wouldn't suffer, we find ourselves playing him over 30 min. Per game now. Yes, there are injuries now, but we were remarkably healthy during the rest of the year. Even if we do make it through to the playoffs, Suter will have nothing left.
- this is a more vague criticism, and I don't know if I'm completely comfortable with it, but the team shows a lack of goal scoring from our forward unit. I wonder how much scoring is taught, and encouraged. We seem to revert to the cycle(which is very much a coached behavior), and don't have much of a net front presence. Our prettiest goals recently have come from our fourth liners, for god's sake! Where are the deflections and dirty goals. Sure as hell aren't coming from Granlund and Pominville, two players who appear to be favorites of Yeo.
As a coach of my son's once said, "If you want bread, go to a bakery. If you want goals, go to the net".
That third goal last night had nothing to do with skill, but with Parise's and Dumba's hunger to go crash the net. We need to see more of that. I also can't recall the last time I saw a goal off a deflection for someone standing in front of the net, unless it's in front of OUR net.
Fletcher has made one really bad deal, the Pominville one. The Vanek one isn't too bad, it'll be over with next year. The Backstrom one wasn't great either. Cooke was good for us, then got injured(damn groins are killers) and bought out. No biggie. Vanek has been far less than hoped for, but Pominville is a disaster. OTOH, Fletcher has locked up all our young Dmen with the exception of Dumba, stole Dubnyk and signed him for a reasonable deal, locked up Coyle, and has refrained from giving long term deals to Nino, Zucker, and Granlund. He also had to deal with very difficult circumstances with Harding and Backstrom, and I Thought did OK. Backstrom is an arse to have not accepted a buyout earlier. If he had, he would probably be playing somewhere else now, at least as a backup.
I don't know that I'm ready to dump Fletcher, unless some can't miss replacement candidate comes available.
I'm giving Yeo three more games to turn it around. I think he deserves that much. After that, all bets are off.
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