Master of coaching ingenuity decides to break up the two best defenseman on the team in Hejda and Barrie early against the Sharks, and then throws out a line consisting of two snipers and a grinder, with no centerman in Jones, Hejduk, and McLeod.
I got to admit I was a little surprised at the Jones - McLeod - Hejduk line. I knew he was capable of some dumb moves, but that really takes the cake.
I was baffled when I saw that. This team has such little center depth it is almost funny. With Duchene hurt, it is basically just Stastny and Mitchell. Olver just isn't capable of playing center at a NHL level, and the others that he tried probably haven't played center in 10 years. If Duchene is out for a few games, and Sgarbossa is suspended, it would really be best to just try Landeskog as a center.
Avs management are becoming so complacent with mediocrity. How Sacco has not been fired yet is beyond me, he leads terrible special tems, sits on leads by simply playing not to lose, and is clueless when it comes to matchups. Just an example from last night, He throws hunwick - O'byrne against Thornton's to start the game. The result? Hunwick can't muscle big Joe off the puck and O'byrne isn't quick enough to react to his pass into the slot, giving couture a gimme from the slot and we're down 1-0 just 25 seconds in. That just boils down to carelessness and a lack of attention to detail.
What's Cooper's background, why would you want him? Coaches in the NHL are one area I don't know much about beyond the current ones.
He coached his AHL team to the longest winning streak in the history of hockey, a team by all means not the most skilled but that played the best team hockey in the minors. Cooper has jumped through the hockey world pretty quickly, winning wherever he's gone.
His team is currently #1 in the AHL again, despite losing its leading scorer from last year in Conacher and Aulie being on the main team.
He's a former lawyer that got involved in coaching youth hockey and got so hooked he coached professionally... simply put he's perhaps one of the most intelligent coaches to rise up the ranks of late. He's not at all remotely stuck in his ways like ex-players are that turn into coaches and his players love him.
A young team like ours that needs structure and a coach which can instill some confidence in them would flourish under Cooper. I highly doubt he'd cost the Avs a big salary if we gave him a shot in the NHL and if you ask any TBL fan, they'd swap him for Boucher in a nanosecond given the chance.
Unfortunately the Avs are too set in their ways to make a move like this.
He coached his AHL team to the longest winning streak in the history of hockey, a team by all means not the most skilled but that played the best team hockey in the minors. Cooper has jumped through the hockey world pretty quickly, winning wherever he's gone.
His team is currently #1 in the AHL again, despite losing its leading scorer from last year in Conacher and Aulie being on the main team.
He's a former lawyer that got involved in coaching youth hockey and got so hooked he coached professionally... simply put he's perhaps one of the most intelligent coaches to rise up the ranks of late. He's not at all remotely stuck in his ways like ex-players are that turn into coaches and his players love him.
A young team like ours that needs structure and a coach which can instill some confidence in them would flourish under Cooper. I highly doubt he'd cost the Avs a big salary if we gave him a shot in the NHL and if you ask any TBL fan, they'd swap him for Boucher in a nanosecond given the chance.
Unfortunately the Avs are too set in their ways to make a move like this.
He also appears to be a master tactician, which Sacco most certainly is not.
I don't think you necessarily have to be a tactician to succeed as an NHL coach (I don't think a guy like Dan Bylsma is, for instance) but Sacco's inability to make any sort of in-game adjustments is one of many reasons why I want him gone. Thing is, I want his boss and his boss's boss gone as well...but that's asking for too much.
Saw this on facebook. But I do admit, Sacco has been much better the last couple of games or so.
I think it's cause he knows his job is in dangerous waters. He already broke out the injury excuse early in the year, and was criticizing the officials the other game, where as usually he just says it's out of our control, we have to fight through it.
I like the idea of Cooper if the Avs actually looked outside the organization. Along the same lines as Cooper, another coach to look at would be Dallas Eakins. Seems to be great with younger players (read a quote somewhere where Kadri attributed his success this season to Eakins' guidance) and gets good team defense too (last year through 3 rounds of the Calder Cup playoffs the Marlies PK was something ridiculous like 92%-94%).
Though from what has been said about Cooper on here, it sounds like Cooper is similar but has had some more success. Whether that's having a better team or being a better coach, I'm not sure. I know I'd take either of them over Sacco though.
We know it'll be Quinn or Army...unfortunately the defense has played so abominably and adopted this horrid shot-blocking strategy since his arrival, I can't help but think he's partially responsible. They didn't do this under Lefebvre. I've definitely soured big-time on Quinn this season, but moreso because it's just another in-hire like this team loves to do so much.
We know it'll be Quinn or Army...unfortunately the defense has played so abominably and adopted this horrid shot-blocking strategy since his arrival, I can't help but think he's partially responsible. They didn't do this under Lefebvre. I've definitely soured big-time on Quinn this season, but moreso because it's just another in-hire like this team loves to do so much.
Well, we don't know it'll be one of those guys, it's just very likely given their track record.
I actually saw a bit of a bright spot in regard to Quinn. McNab mentioned that Quinn had been working with the D to get their shots off quick like O'Byrne did on his goal against Calgary. Going so far as to get a stop watch out and timing their wind up, presumably with an idea in mind of how quick it should be.
This is the kind of smart coaching this team needs. I don't know what kind of HC Quinn would be with the Avs, but that kind of thing gives me a little optimism in his ability to analyze this team's weaknesses, and be creative in how he teaches them. That's what this young team needs. A smart teacher.
I don't know the inner workings of this team, maybe Sacco does do some smart things like that we can't see that to help them too, but my guess is probably not. He seems very meat and potatoes in his style, and coincidentally that's how they play.
Sacco is one of those coaches whose strategy to win games is to "have energy", "work hard," "get pucks to the net." Basically, he's full of empty slogans and platitudes. He seems to have no idea how to organize decent break-ins or puck moving. There are teams out there with worse Ds that play far better than we do in those regards.
Sacco is one of those coaches whose strategy to win games is to "have energy", "work hard," "get pucks to the net." Basically, he's full of empty slogans and platitudes. He seems to have no idea how to organize decent break-ins or puck moving. There are teams out there with worse Ds that play far better than we do in those regards.
Yea that's basically what I meant. We could be wrong because we don't know what's really going on, but it really does seem that way. That's why I was encouraged by hearing about Quinn going in a bit of a different direction with the stopwatch timing the windups.
He coached his AHL team to the longest winning streak in the history of hockey, a team by all means not the most skilled but that played the best team hockey in the minors. Cooper has jumped through the hockey world pretty quickly, winning wherever he's gone.
His team is currently #1 in the AHL again, despite losing its leading scorer from last year in Conacher and Aulie being on the main team.
He's a former lawyer that got involved in coaching youth hockey and got so hooked he coached professionally... simply put he's perhaps one of the most intelligent coaches to rise up the ranks of late. He's not at all remotely stuck in his ways like ex-players are that turn into coaches and his players love him.
A young team like ours that needs structure and a coach which can instill some confidence in them would flourish under Cooper. I highly doubt he'd cost the Avs a big salary if we gave him a shot in the NHL and if you ask any TBL fan, they'd swap him for Boucher in a nanosecond given the chance.
Unfortunately the Avs are too set in their ways to make a move like this.
Uhg... I probably shouldn't of asked because now I will just be pissed when we hire someone else. If Sacco ever gets fired, I really don't understand how hes still here based on what the team has done and it's inconsistency.
Cooper sounds like Hitch or Tippet, but less focused on a lockdown defensive style.
Sacco is one of those coaches whose strategy to win games is to "have energy", "work hard," "get pucks to the net." Basically, he's full of empty slogans and platitudes. He seems to have no idea how to organize decent break-ins or puck moving. There are teams out there with worse Ds that play far better than we do in those regards.
You forgot "bear down" which seems to be used quite a bit after losses.
Someone a while back posted that at a minimum of 150 or more games coached Sacco has the worst winning percentage all time. Does anyone remember that or have a link to substantiate that?
Uhg... I probably shouldn't of asked because now I will just be pissed when we hire someone else. If Sacco ever gets fired, I really don't understand how hes still here based on what the team has done and it's inconsistency.
Cooper sounds like Hitch or Tippet, but less focused on a lockdown defensive style.
Part of trying to be a functional optimist is always looking for ways to better your environment while maintaining a perspective that there are no boundaries to success.
In this case, I believe Cooper would solve our problems and don't want to believe the Avs are preventing such a situation from occurring.
Realistically I recognize that Quinn will be our next Head Coach and we'll go through another 3-5 years of mediocrity before Sherman is unnecessarily fired and replaced by a worse GM where we spend the next 8-10 years in further mediocrity until Kroenke begins losing money and relieves Lacroix of his position, whereupon hopefully we'll have a new President that is capable of building a sustainable franchise and we start rebuilding by trading Duchene and causing all of us to wonder what could have been.
Remember, I said functional optimist, doesn't mean I'm incapable of reading the writing on the wall.
