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Ian Esplen Nails The Coaching Problem (Must Read)


jonnycanuck46

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Not exactly a fan of Esplen (liked Peter Tessier better) but he makes some good points. AV is a good coach but is he right for this team? At this point I don't know the answer and I don't know what the future holds as far as coaching is concerned.

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I said it back when he won the Jack Adams and I said it yesterday I'll say it again, and I will say it again in the future when needed, AV only won the Jack Adams award in his first year coaching BECAUSE of Luongo! Not because of his coaching, his coaching was even worse in his first year here, no offense all defense and all it ever was, was the other team having scoring chances after scoring chances and just sitting back and waiting for 1 little mistake, but if it wasn't for Luongo having his best year ever in wins AV would of never won that award because he never deserved it.

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http://www.puckprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1208

"It's often said that coaches are hired to be fired. It's a funny quip that makes light of how frequently the axe falls in the NHL, but looking at some statistical trends in the wake of past coaching changes, it appears that a coach's impact between his hiring and firing is fairly minimal. In truth, the coach is seldom at fault for a team's struggles, and the improvement teams experience after he's canned is not completely because of the new face behind the bench.

Aside from the fact a general is limited by the quality of his troops, so to speak, what we most often see play out in today's NHL is coaches being sacrificed before the percentages can correct themselves into a true representation of the team's talent. More specifically, when a team goes on a bad run because of a below average shooting percentage or save percentage, the coach gets the pink slip."

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Regardless of whether people want AV to stay or go they should not expect significant positive changes in performance.

Ed Willes had an article about coaching changes a while back:

http://www.theprovince.com/sports/Willes+coaching+changes+make+difference/6206626/story.html

“I've thought about it,” says TV analyst Marc Crawford, who's been let go four times in his career. “I want to work again in this league so I better be careful of what I say, but I think the big thing is who gets influenced. You have to have a good relationship with your GM. That's so important.

“Then there's incompetence. Those are the two reasons. Anything short of that, teams should stay the course.”

Last year Crawford coached the Dallas Stars to a 42-29-11 record. They missed the playoffs by two points and he was replaced by Glen Gulutzan.

This year the Stars were 31-26-4 and again hovering around the final playoff spot.

Their record is a reflection of their ability. No more. No less. As such, it doesn't really matter if the blond or the redhead is the coach.”

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The thing is, you cant really overhaul the whole team but something needs to change. AV has lots of talent to work with but it seems the talent isn't working for him. I'm not saying AV cant be a good coach but let's be honest, he hasn't won anything worth mentioning. Regular season accomplishments are nice but nobody cares about that anymore, it is all about the playoffs and AV hasn't won d*ck all in that regard. Personally I think he has lost the team, if he does say anything to the team I'll bet that they just tune him out. He needs to go.

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The thing is, you cant really overhaul the whole team but something needs to change. AV has lots of talent to work with but it seems the talent isn't working for him. I'm not saying AV cant be a good coach but let's be honest, he hasn't won anything worth mentioning. Regular season accomplishments are nice but nobody cares about that anymore, it is all about the playoffs and AV hasn't won d*ck all in that regard. Personally I think he has lost the team, if he does say anything to the team I'll bet that they just tune him out. He needs to go.

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The Canucks wasted energy last game just to go out of position to hit and get perimeter low percentage shots. Even Sutter doesn't care that LA is being outshot because they aren't dangerous shots.

A good coach would make the team either conserve energy and make the game close and/or draw up plays and positioning to get more effective offense.

Part of the problem is the system and the players automatic mindset in making certain plays like going off the wall or drop passes. Even on faceoffs other teams sometimes almost lose because they're instead in position to counteract the set plays. The team isn't trained to think on the fly effectively and make different plays that are coordinated.

This I see as coaching criticism. Sure the team has some injuries but all teams do. If anything the Canucks should have little excuse because they pride themselves on depth. I think even if AV could coach team Canada he'd have a hard time because his system and points of emphasis wouldnt be effective.

It's time for a change. I know some ppl still love AV but I think in this case if you hire a replacement based upon skillset rather than name it will be successful similar to Blysma's initial playoff run and hitchcocks current run.

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I said it back when he won the Jack Adams and I said it yesterday I'll say it again, and I will say it again in the future when needed, AV only won the Jack Adams award in his first year coaching BECAUSE of Luongo! Not because of his coaching, his coaching was even worse in his first year here, no offense all defense and all it ever was, was the other team having scoring chances after scoring chances and just sitting back and waiting for 1 little mistake, but if it wasn't for Luongo having his best year ever in wins AV would of never won that award because he never deserved it.

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I vote for Classy Freddy Blassie as our coach. He led the Iron Shiek and Nikolai Volkoff to the tag team belts back in the day and could do the same for us with the Cup. As soon as Brown skates anywhere near the bench, KABLAMMO! Hit him with his cane. I know what I am talkin about. It would work.

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Chicago last year? We won. Chicago the previous two times? They had the better team, but even so, we were one boneheaded Willie Mitchell mistake with 2 minutes left in game 4 from being up 3-1 in the series. Was AV supposed to have held the Dman's hand before sending him out for that fateful shift?

Boston? We were decimated by injury, yet still came up one game short.

Sutter? Were you tooting Sutter's horn when he couldn't get anything done in the playoffs with San Jose with very good teams? He's been living off his underdog run with Calgary in their finals loss to Tampa for a decade. Just wait till the players tune out Sutter. It'll be Keenan all over again, and it'll start next year. Think Doughty and Penner and Jeff Carter are going to like playing for that hard-ass for an entire season, let alone six years?

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Management must agree with the system AV has in place for now.

It isn't the fault of the coach that he has square pegs and round holes.

This new physically aggressive game teams are adopting makes our puck

possession game real difficult. We need space and time for our system

to work, and these new 1 on 1 systems are a perfect counter. Our losing

to Boston in the SCF is evidence we are not suited to play against it.

Gillis correctly recognized this and tried to change the make-up of our

team and wasn't (reasonably) able to find the right pieces.

The league is evolving into a headhunting sport, which means AV is

going to have to evolve too. This gentlemen's game (whistle to whistle)

that we play now isn't going to cut it much longer.

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In a war situation I would tend to trust the calm guy more. I don't want to see the coach throw a Tort or start gumming a load of bull in the players ears like Suter. These are not single brain cell soccer players they are highly intelligent hockey professionals who know the score.

Did it ever occur to you the reason we don't have bampots on our team is they are "screened for the right stuff" before we acquire them. We have elite leaders in the team itself and I'm sure if something needs said by AV and his coaches it gets passed on in a quiet controlled manner...............Focus and keep doing what the situation requires.

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Management must agree with the system AV has in place for now.

It isn't the fault of the coach that he has square pegs and round holes.

This new physically aggressive game teams are adopting makes our puck

possession game real difficult. We need space and time for our system

to work, and these new 1 on 1 systems are a perfect counter. Our losing

to Boston in the SCF is evidence we are not suited to play against it.

Gillis correctly recognized this and tried to change the make-up of our

team and wasn't (reasonably) able to find the right pieces.

The league is evolving into a headhunting sport, which means AV is

going to have to evolve too. This gentlemen's game (whistle to whistle)

that we play now isn't going to cut it much longer.

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Didn't read article, as it appeared to be a bunch of blathering nonsense.

If the Canucks are indeed swept, you have to wonder if that's it for AV.

I don't think it's entirely his fault that his team has primed itself to be in this position at the moment. Imo it's been coming since our series vs Boston. Ie. It's pretty darn difficult to repeat long runs.

If AV is canned anyway, it'll mean that MacT would come in. MacT is another coach who lost in game 7 of the finals only to find himself jobless soon after. But the team that ended MacT's time in the NHL was honestly bad and fairly young.

The advantage of MacT coming in is that he knows the current Wolves prospects very well now and he is also a guy who prefers vets. He's a been more emotional than AV, but does that mean we'd automatically play better? Not really. Edmonton's trip to the finals was apparently all Pronger's doing.

Not sure if MacT is an upgrade on AV, but sometimes change itself is good. We'll see if Gillis makes a move. Cheers.

TOML

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Who the F is Ian Esplen and why the hell should I care about what he has to say? This is not an "article", this is a ranting blog that is littered with poor English and spelling mistakes. Let me guess, OP is Ian Esplen? Fail.

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