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Willie D's Decisions lately.


Totes McGoats

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TSN 1040, think it was Matt Sekeres said Willie doesn't like calling the timeouts too often as it can make the other team think the Canucks are in crisis mode.

You view may differ.

Thats a silly view to have. Time outs are a great way to slow down another teams momentum. Like in the SJ game, I agree with the OP a time out should have been used after the third goal, maybe even the 2nd, just to take away SJ's momentum, and get the group focused and cleared up a little

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TSN 1040, think it was Matt Sekeres said Willie doesn't like calling the timeouts too often as it can make the other team think the Canucks are in crisis mode.

You view may differ.

Against the Blues we were definitely in crisis mode, and you can bet St Louis knew that after they scored the 5-4 goal even if he called a timeout. We were being outplayed in the 3rd period, and he still didn't call it. Same thing for yesterday's game against the Yotes, where Lack had to make three really good saves to keep us in the game while everyone else were committing turnovers.

That's where Tortorella was good. I'm a big fan of timeouts. When used properly, it can change the whole game.

Also, just read on twitter that Kenins is an extra on practice. He has been one of the most physical forwards in the team and works hard as hell, just the type of player we were missing. I'm not even close to Willie's knowledge, but c'mon.

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I think you've made some great points and agree with much of what you're saying. The thing that must be considered, though, is that you have the luxury of hindsight and seeing how things play out. Willie's doing it in the moment and on the fly, so decisions are made by him that he feels are right at the time, without knowing what the end result will be. You, yourself, have alluded to that with "split second decisions". They are just that and it's all a gamble at that point. Some things'll work, others will not. For us, in evaluating after the fact, it's a much different deal.

Only decision I question is taking Vey out of the line-up, before and after seems like a bad call to me,

Over-all though, I tend to agree with 99% of what WD does, thus far he's one of my favourite Canucks coaches ever.

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I feel like he's a coach this season that lets the game just play out; regardless of the situation. It's probably not a good thing, but I think with the slapped together team that we have this year, he's done enough to justify a good year.

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Jump into the wayback machine.

What was one of the complaints about AV? He didn't call timeouts. Another one was defend the lead at all costs, which wound up costing us games.

Willie is similar to AV, with a more flexible approach. Is anyone going to give him credit going with Lack? He could have put in Markstrom. Lack basically stole us a point.

He's not perfect. But he's better than Tort's last year. And for a coach who's first time in the NHL, he's got us into a playoff position in March. Which is better than where we were last season.

He's going to make mistakes, just like Bo will make mistakes. I think Willie will learn, and get better as hopefully the Canucks team will.

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Jump into the wayback machine.

What was one of the complaints about AV? He didn't call timeouts. Another one was defend the lead at all costs, which wound up costing us games.

Willie is similar to AV, with a more flexible approach. Is anyone going to give him credit going with Lack? He could have put in Markstrom. Lack basically stole us a point.

He's not perfect. But he's better than Tort's last year. And for a coach who's first time in the NHL, he's got us into a playoff position in March. Which is better than where we were last season.

He's going to make mistakes, just like Bo will make mistakes. I think Willie will learn, and get better as hopefully the Canucks team will.

Defend the 0-0

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Why are we playing Glendening instead of Biega? He makes the simple plays, knocks guys down and isn't afraid to mix it up. Glendening is doing his Bieksa impersonation in front of the net trying to stick check guys and looking at the puck instead of removing players from in front of Lack so that they can't get second and third chances.

Also, for WD set a goal for shots. Tell his team he wants 35 shots in the game and everyone crashing the net. Way too much fancy passing against a vulnerable team like Arizona last night. Shoot the puck from anywhere if there is not a clear path to the net. Vrbata is the only guy who constantly does this.

Glendening = fourth line forward for the Detroit Red Wings.

Clendening = RHD playing for the Canucks, recently acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks for prospect Gustav Forsling, and the subject of Tyndall's rant on Willie's deployment of d-men.

Back to OP:

The only thing that Willie's done (or not done) that is bit of a head scratcher for me is how he doesn't play Matthias on the PP. Willie has stated that he only likes to deploy players in certain roles if they have practiced it, so if that's the case, maybe Matthias should be given some looks on the PP during practice so that Willie is comfortable with putting Matthias out on the PP during game time situations. This I don't get.

Other than that, he's got the team in the playoff race (though we seem to be trending in the wrong direction right now) and has dealt with the rash of injuries like a pro, so I can't complain too much about the job Willie's done.

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I'm a big Canucks fan, and feel management and Willy have shown some respect for the existing players, by not making whole sale changes this year. The current Canucks have to work very hard to be successful, but when the trade deadline passed, and their jobs were a little more secure, they went into the tank. Hopefully Willy will give them an attitude adjustment, as I've never seen such a lack of effort, and poor mental decisions as in the Phoenix game. They were bad in the Buffalo game, but no where near as bad as the Phoenix game after the trade deadline.

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I think the problems stem from lack of fundamentals being practiced. Passing, tape to tape, shots on goal, going to the dirty areas, no turnovers at key points on the ice..so many pucks are just being thrown in areas when there is no one there or the other guy is not expecting it... in skates or too far ahead. Also, changing the lines is good thing once in awhile, but when you change the lines too much, or the people on the power play, for example, you don't trust where your teammate is going to be. You throw the puck to the point thinking someone will be there, but the D-man is 10 ft from the wall and misses the puck, or put it in the corner and nobody is going for it..

Anyway, when we had so many guys out, the team was playing a simple game, now that the injured guys are coming back, you had a little rust and added to it, you had guys not making the simple play, and not trusting each other so there is more chasing the puck happening.

This is just my take on things I have noticed and were bugging me, you may see something different

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My opinion on a separate note:

Edler, Weber, Clendening are the more offensive defensemen on the team that can skate, pass, shoot, and have a more offensive creativity.

So why is Hamhuis lugging the puck and maning the point on the second PP? Weber has 6 goals to Hammer's 0, Clending was said to be a guy that could get his shot through at the point but he is passing almost every chance he gets..The Sedins create their own offensive opportunities, but the D-men can't be afraid to shoot for fear they aren't getting the Sedins the puck

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My observations that need attention are these:

- Shoot the puck! Stop trying to pass it, just shoot and hope for a rebound.

- Powerplay needs traffic in front, we can't keep shooting at the goalie hoping for that tape to tape one timer. When we had Burrows in front we started scoring gritty goals and those are the ones that win you games. Have someone planted there in front of the goalie.

- 2nd power play unit needs fresh blood, we haven't scored all year, we won't start now. Maybe Matthias or even Kenins, just try something new to inject some energy and fire.

- Bring Biega back. He may be a rookie that makes mistakes, but he hit everything in site, caused turnovers and scored the game winning goal for us. Clendenning needs some AHL time I think.

- Stop benching Zack when half the team is doing worse then him. He's on way too short a leash and we need his energy and brute with the Sedins to get going.

- Willie needs to be able to call timeouts. After the first 3 goals it was kind of too late, but OT had two separate 2 on 0 breakaways. You gotta know when to settle your crew down.

- He also needs to shake up a line of it's played bad the whole game, just don't shake it up with players from another line that's hot.

- Bonino is coming into his own on faceoffs, but other then that he's practically invisible, I dunno what to do, but something's gotta change.

I'm not saying fire the coach or am even unhappy with him, he's done a fantastic job with a team held together by duct tape to have us in a playoff position. If we want to keep that though there's gotta be a few changes and I think these would go a long way to getting us back to our early season form.

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I realize yesterday was a loss, and I'm anything but a fairweather fan, so this isn't a "sky is falling" post.

But - I'm starting to be concerned about WD's confidence, and his ability to make split second decisions.

These are the things I'm noticing that are of concern:

1. Pulling the goalie. Every time he pulls the goalie, we're getting scored on because he hasn't given the team the time to set up in the zone. When you pull the goalie early, at say 2:30 left... you'd better be damn sure your team has possession.

2. Not using Time-Outs at key moments. For example, we got scored on 3 times in short order against San Jose the other day, and though he pulled the goalie, he didn't stop the team, and provide any sort of refocus.

3. Not adjusting to things when we are struggling. For example, last night against Arizona we're getting just KILLED down low. There wasn't anything there all night. And though I can understand that the Sedin's might not necessarily play a different style... It's on Willie to switch up the style of play that isn't working.

4. Not adjusting lines when necessary. For example, Dorsett/Horvat/Kenins played absolutely the best hockey of their year together. Dorsett was an integral part of that. Instead of keeping them together, he's throwing Dorsett out there with Bonino and Vrbata.

I realize I'm not an NHL coach, so I am not saying that anything he's doing are "wrong" or whatever... I just am concerned at this growing trend of continuing the same things even when they aren't successful. The power play has been abismal all year and it's up to Willie to resolve that.

The success that this team has had, is based around getting shots to the net, getting bodies to the net, and scoring dirty goals. If we rely on "Sedinery" every night... then we'll lose IMHO.

It's also important that the "sedin effect" doesn't rub off too much on the rest of the team. Nobody does what the Sedins can do... and it's annoying as hell to watch the other lines all try to be the Twins. Coach needs to get them back "playing their game".

What's everyone's thoughts on this? Is Willie just dealing with his first set of Adversity or is this going to be an ongoing problem?

Back when we had AV, when we first got him he juggled his lines FAR too much for the first season. After that he settled down, and we had some success... I personally am hoping for a similar outcome with Willie, as I really love the guy.

1. How many empty net goals amount to "every time". How many of these occurred with our rejigged D. You have to consider all aspects of the team before making such an accusation. You can beckon the goalie to come off and in a wink you have lost the puck. We were playing with a lot of inexperienced guys on the D lately.

2. If he pulled the goalie surely that is as good as a time out. It gives the team time to take a breather and to re group. Why waste a time out as well. It was the goalie who malfunctioned not the D although I put two of the goals down to damn bad luck.

3. Again I don't know what you want him to do. He was making tactical changes throughout the game by varying who was on with the Sedins, Did you want him to drop the Sedins to the second line? Bonino and Burrows were clearly rusty and suffering from lack of match fitness, Kenins, Bo, Matthias and Dorsett all looked like they were jaded from carrying the load too long due to injury and massive performances on PK over the past weeks.

4. I disagree Kenins, Horvat and Hansen were playing as well if not better than Dorsett, Horvat and Hansen. Everyone was impressed with it. Dorsett was being used for exactly what you are accusing Willie of NOT doing and that was bringing energy to other depleted or low performing lines. It is obvious to most now he has the skill and the energy to do it.

No, I totally disagree, Willie is a very pro-active coach (far more than Tortorella or AV) and it was remarked on the telecast other night, by one of the commentators, how he is prepared to change things around to get a spark.

Frankly, I find your whole post reactionary and unfair to the coach after two poor games. Both of these games we came back from hellish starts BECAUSE OF the coaches willingness to change things. He has also used his tactics, time outs, goalie pulls to win this season against other "harder" teams.

We have had these type of performances for a few years now from these core players, under different coaches, and I suspect most teams do. Other teams (Boston, LA, Philly, Chicago even Detroit) have the luxury of resorting to bully boy tactics when they are pinned by a "lesser team" unfortunately that is not yet our style.

Our rookie coach has coped better in adversity than most of our past coaches , while for the most part playing entertaining hockey and bringing through and encouraging rookie prospects. I think he should be congratulated for that whether we make the playoffs or not.

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I haven't watched barely one game lately because of work but I like Biega if he was hitting like I've read..we need hitters esp on D..and the PP what about 2 units Sedin vs \Sedin on each unit..the twins can battle out who's PP is best!

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I haven't watched barely one game lately because of work but I like Biega if he was hitting like I've read..we need hitters esp on D..and the PP what about 2 units Sedin vs \Sedin on each unit..the twins can battle out who's PP is best!

That's an interesting concept and may lead to both being a bit more direct. I like it. :)

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The only thing Bonino is doing is taking up a roster spot...since he has been back, it seems the line he is on is not really doing anything. It seems that he doesn't bring energy or goes to the dirty areas to make plays...Bonino hasn't helped the Canucks.

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