Number1RedWingsFan52
Registered User
Yeah have that feeling that Richards will be our new PP coach once the World Championship is over next weekend.
Wings coaching rebuild: Houda and Torchetti new assistants
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FissionFire
Registered User
He had a pretty decent roster in CLB, but the whole team under-performed this year and he did win the Calder Cup in 03-04 with the Milwaukee Admirals (as an Asst.). I guess it's hard to get excited about an asst. coach.
A coach who had a decent roster that underperformed.....sounds familiar. Hardly inspires confidence that he is a guy who can help get this team back on track and motivated. Blashill Part 2, Assistant Version.
Henkka
Registered User
Columbus had huge injury bug and no one could have saved that tram from a bad season. Also those Johansen-problems weren't easy to handle.
Frk It
Mo Seider Less Problems
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For what it's worth, Ansar Khan of Mlive.com thinks Richards is the front-runner for the assistant's job :
He had a pretty decent roster in CLB, but the whole team under-performed this year and he did win the Calder Cup in 03-04 with the Milwaukee Admirals (as an Asst.). I guess it's hard to get excited about an asst. coach.
Well, he wouldn't be coming here to head coach.
All I really care about is can he make our power play better/more consistent.
Mister Ed
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- Dec 21, 2008
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CLB PP% 2012-2013 - 14.2%
CLB PP% 2013-2014 - 19.3%
CLB PP% 2014-2015 - 21.7%
He did have some success on the PP, but i'm not sure if he was responsible for it directly or not. Assumin
Frk It
Mo Seider Less Problems
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He was head coach during those years. I assume one of his assistants was in charge of the PP during this time frame.
TheOctopusKid
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It's very hard to get a bead on Richards and his ability to coach the PP. His reputation seems to be one of a high-tempo, aggressive offense and was his calling card throughout the AHL and ultimately landed him his three NHL jobs (SJ, MIN, and CBJ).
He seems to flirt around 18% on his PP - with the high water mark as the Assistant Coach in SJ, at north of 24%. But how much of that was McLellan - who was considered a PP guru himself, and how much was him? Who can tell...
I'm not sure what to think of this to be honest. His reputation sounds promising however his numbers don't exactly support it. Although again, how much of it is directly him versus his assistants? And how much of it is to do with the fact that MINN and CLB during those times weren't exactly worldbeaters?
The really great coaches that you would get excited about already have head coaching jobs. Funny how that works.
SpookyTsuki
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- Dec 3, 2014
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Could've just been Tom's natural progression/adjustment to pro hockey, but McCollum had his first good AHL season the year Salajko became the Griffins goaltending coach.
Little wary of promoting another coach without NHL experience after how Fersch and Blash looked this year, but at least he knows Pete.
Number1RedWingsFan52
Registered User
Figured this one out, He was their top choice. Has worked with Mrazek some logical choice imo.
We are talking about a goalie coach here. This isn't going to make or break our future.
FissionFire
Registered User
Of all the assistant positions, I'd guess the goalie coach would be least necessary to have NHL experience.
Even if you want to attribute San Jose's PP success to McLellan instead of Richards, at least Richards was on that staff and working under McLellan, so he might have learned something being in that system. Even if McLellan coached the PP unit, Richards might have ran the practices while McLellan observed the practice as a whole.
It's really hard to figure out which coach has what impact on any part of the game. It's easy to say Jim Hiller is a good PP coach because the PP was bad before him, was #1 with him, and then back to average-ish/bad when he left. It's also easy to say Ferschweiler is bad, because he was running the PP and he took a #1 PP unit and made them look horrible. But then you look at what Toronto did this year, and they were the second worst PP team in the league with Babcock and Hiller, who coached the top PP unit last year. Sure, Toronto was a bad team this year, they had the worst record and landed the #1 pick, but they got slightly worse than what they did the year before (dropped from 15.9% to 15.4%).
So I don't know. At the end of the day, the players need to execute and produce on the ice, and the head coach needs to answer for any weaknesses. So good on Blashill/Holland for deciding to change the coaching staff and looking to bring in someone with more experience and a NHL track record, but the players need to produce too.
The Zetterberg Era
Ball Hockey Sucks
Depends if he can make Mrazek a year in and year out top 5 netminder or perennial Vezina finalist it would mean a lot to our future.
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That'd be one hell of a coach. Rather he was working with our D at that rate though
The Zetterberg Era
Ball Hockey Sucks
My bad, long day at work. But hopefully he can help make one of the guys in front him into one of those.
Frk It
Mo Seider Less Problems
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Shoot... We need a wizard for that. Not a coach.
SpookyTsuki
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What was the number the year before hiller?
Hiller would have improved the powerplay. He had a worse roster and about the same percentage. Probably even more so with kessel
Oh yeah, there is no doubt that Toronto's general lack of talent limits their ability to produce on the PP. And trading away Kessel only makes it worse. But my general point is, I think any NHL caliber coach can draw up a PP strategy. These guys watch a ton of tape, they can figure out something that SHOULD work with the talent that they have at their disposal. The problem is making the right adjustments when things don't work.
A great coach can only do so much when you don't have the right players. There is some component of needing the players to execute properly. At times this season, the Wings were doing things that no coach should ever be telling the players to do on the PP. Like not moving and creating new shooting lanes. I remember a particular 5-on-3 in the Tampa series that the Wings had three guys even with the goal like and Tampa didn't even have to try hard to defend despite being down two men. Even the guy talking in the intermission said it was really bad execution of a 5-on-3. There is no way a coach should tell the players to do that, but the players should also know better than to do that... I don't know if it really was Ferschweiler's plan and the players were just following orders or what, but it was bad.
So a good coach needs to come up with a strategy and teach it to the players, and then adjust the strategy as things do or don't work with the given players. There's only so much you can do with a powerplay, it shouldn't be THAT hard to figure something out. So having a guy with an innovative offensive mind or a track record for PP success would be better than just some guy, I guess.
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