Blackhawks did the impossible: lose a playoff series to Phoenix.
How is that impossible? Dave Tippett is an amazing coach who's got a whole team that buys into his system.
Great goaltending, two amazing D-men in OEL and Yandle and just enough offense to take advantage of the neutral zone turnover's Tippett-coached teams always see.
Didn't help that they lost Hossa when they did, but the Hawks not winning falls squarely on Crawford's shoulders. The guy was a sieve.
Now the question is where would the Wild be had we hired either Tippett or Laviolette instead of Richards?
Devoid of the hilarity that is Richards.
Also with those two we may have been a fringe playoff team.
And then we wouldn't have felt the need to trade for Heatley.
And then we'd be without his hilarity.
If Tippett or Laviolette were the coach, they'd still be working with the "talent" that we have now. There's an old phrase about putting lipstick on a pig that applies, IMO.
We've never won a Stanley Cup, doesn't mean it shouldn't ever happen, or that it will be embarrassing for the other 29 teams when we do.
The Phoenix franchise's has only ever won two playoff series, the 1985 Smythe semi (against Calgary) and the 1987 Smythe semi (against Calgary). To put that in perspective, many of the posters on this board were not yet alive when this franchise last won a playoff series.
The Phoenix franchise's has only ever won two playoff series, the 1985 Smythe semi (against Calgary) and the 1987 Smythe semi (against Calgary). To put that in perspective, many of the posters on this board were not yet alive when this franchise last won a playoff series.
So they've sucked for a long time. Teams can change their fortunes...
Good, not great drafting. A fantastic coach with a winning pedigree. A matchup against one of the worst goalies on a playoff team I've seen in a long while.
The stars aligned, plain and simple.
Now it's two great coaches with two great goalies and two great top d-pairs and a lack of scoring, in a race to be in the conference finals.
Now the question is where would the Wild be had we hired either Tippett or Laviolette instead of Richards?
The exact same place considering the crap load of injuries we saw this year and the lack of talent we had when Fletcher took over. I don't want Tippett. I actually developed a little bit of sympathy the last couple of weeks for the fans who labeled the Wild boring....watching the Yotes is painful.
As for the Yotes/Preds series...I'm hoping a hole opens up in the earth and swallows them both. Yuck. Go Blues and Kings!
The exact same place considering the crap load of injuries we saw this year and the lack of talent we had when Fletcher took over. I don't want Tippett. I actually developed a little bit of sympathy the last couple of weeks for the fans who labeled the Wild boring....watching the Yotes is painful.
As for the Yotes/Preds series...I'm hoping a hole opens up in the earth and swallows them both. Yuck. Go Blues and Kings!
I'll take being boring but advancing to the 2nd rd of the playoffs over not making the playoffs at all anyday.
I'll take being boring but advancing to the 2nd rd of the playoffs over not making the playoffs at all anyday.
Hey, I was JL's biggest fan. But no way would having Tippett have made that big of a difference here. Not with the shambles we were in after the coach and GM were cleaned out. I can recall so many people preferring to lose 7-4 rather than 2-1 if it meant opening up the offense a bit. And I told them to be careful what they asked for. Heck, I was somewhat supportive of it for a very brief time. Funny how some of those same folks (not referring to you or others here) want to run right back to clogging up the neutral zone and lolly gagging in our own end again.
With our defense the last two years, not even JL or Tip would have been able to make them as air tight and suffocating as the Yotes are. And it is very suffocating.
Hey, I was JL's biggest fan. But no way would having Tippett have made that big of a difference here. Not with the shambles we were in after the coach and GM were cleaned out. I can recall so many people preferring to lose 7-4 rather than 2-1 if it meant opening up the offense a bit. And I told them to be careful what they asked for. Heck, I was somewhat supportive of it for a very brief time. Funny how some of those same folks (not referring to you or others here) want to run right back to clogging up the neutral zone and lolly gagging in our own end again.
With our defense the last two years, not even JL or Tip would have been able to make them as air tight and suffocating as the Yotes are. And it is very suffocating.
I doubt Tippett would've made a huge difference either but I still think he would've been better then Richards. Tippett has a defined system whereas Richards didn't have one at all.
BTW, is Richards going to stay as head coach in Columbus now or are they going to hire someone else?
I doubt Tippett would've made a huge difference either but I still think he would've been better then Richards. Tippett has a defined system whereas Richards didn't have one at all.
BTW, is Richards going to stay as head coach in Columbus now or are they going to hire someone else?
Won't disagree with ya there. Although, I'm still very supportive of Yeo and unfortunately it took going through Richards to get to him. But Fletcher was a rookie. He had to make mistakes in order to get better.
Whipped up a playoffs background. Its 1280x800 and looks a bit better as a .bmp or .png. I'd upload to my photobucket, but I do not have a pro account on that yet. Need to get that fixed once I have some spare cash.
I know Phoenix gets labeled with the NZT boring label...
But I have to say that the only time I have seen the Coyotes use the standard 1-2-2 NZT has only been when they have a 2 goal lead. Last night, when they only had a one goal lead, they were still sending two forecheckers in...
In contrast, Tortz was using a passive 1-2-2 NZT the entire game. The only time their single forechecker would pressure was if there were at least two Sens below the goal line...
Hell, CoachQ was using a 1-2-2 in the first period, but again, only when his team didn't have the puck, which wasn't very often...
I honestly think that the "boring" label gets applied more to teams when they run a zone defense, rather than a man to man...
Whipped up a playoffs background. Its 1280x800 and looks a bit better as a .bmp or .png. I'd upload to my photobucket, but I do not have a pro account on that yet. Need to get that fixed once I have some spare cash.
