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Perry Pearn fired


JMMR

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I did see that. CBC making a big deal about the Perry Pearn stuff. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I honestly feel that, deep down, most of those so called experts grew up Hab haters, or at the very least, Leaf fans. They're usually over 40 years old, which of course means the 70's dynasty was part of their formative years. Throw that buffoon Milbury into the mix, who's a Bruin through and through. As for McGuire? I'm so done with him. I tend to turn the volume down on the Team990 when he makes his daily contribution. He can't get over the Halak trade. He thinks we got ripped off by St. Louis, like Gauthier had the option to select any player off the roster for Halak. I missed his rant, but then again, I probably didn't miss much.

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McGuire was fired by Gauthier in Ottawa.

He also publically campaigned to be Bob Gainey's replacement and was left out without even an interview on that.

He's allowed his personal biases to cloud his professional analysis when it comes to this organization.

Being fixated on the Halak deal when every day it looks more and more like a win for Gauthier just shows how little actual results are playing into his analysis.

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I did see that. CBC making a big deal about the Perry Pearn stuff. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I honestly feel that, deep down, most of those so called experts grew up Hab haters, or at the very least, Leaf fans. They're usually over 40 years old, which of course means the 70's dynasty was part of their formative years. Throw that buffoon Milbury into the mix, who's a Bruin through and through. As for McGuire? I'm so done with him. I tend to turn the volume down on the Team990 when he makes his daily contribution. He can't get over the Halak trade. He thinks we got ripped off by St. Louis, like Gauthier had the option to select any player off the roster for Halak. I missed his rant, but then again, I probably didn't miss much.

Milbury was oddly quiet on it, only noting that the firing was oddly timed (after a practice but before a game) and wondered if Pearn did something that day (like pop off at Gauthier) to warrant a quick firing.

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I heard all the negativity over the firing as well. Two thoughts:

1. The team is 3-0 against Philly and Boston times two.

2. When it comes time to hiring his next coach, Gauthier could well be up the creek. While things look okay for now, how many will want to work here in the future? Assistants included and, probably, emphasized?

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I heard all the negativity over the firing as well. Two thoughts:

1. The team is 3-0 against Philly and Boston times two.

2. When it comes time to hiring his next coach, Gauthier could well be up the creek. While things look okay for now, how many will want to work here in the future? Assistants included and, probably, emphasized?

That is a problem that the media is making worst. However, many teams fly through coaches and there are always options for them. Montreal is a difficult market to be a coach in, so that already limits options. Gauthier will probably explain what happened in the Pearn case to perspective coachs that he didn't tell the media if it is obvious it is on their mind. I dunno. Right now though... we cannot complain about the results.

As Commandant said, we have scored 3 pp goals in the past three games. Pretty solid.

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We must also remember (even though I'm happy we WON) that both Philly and Boston haven't been lighting it up of late.........and maybe that also played a little bit into the 3 wins........

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We must also remember (even though I'm happy we WON) that both Philly and Boston haven't been lighting it up of late.........and maybe that also played a little bit into the 3 wins........

But Philly and Boston (though I hate to admit it) are teams that are supposed to be winning. We weren't playing the best, neither were they and we come out with 6 IMPORTANT points. It was as much an opportunity for them as us. Our team looks different. They are playing like different people then the first few games.

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The PP was doing fine, just not scoring. It was generating shots which eventually would lead to goals, it's not Pearn's fault the team couldn't bury their opportunities. The best predictor of future success on the PP is shot rate, not conversion rate, and the Canadiens were 2nd in the NHL in that regard.

The best explanation I've seen was from another CBC employee, Garry Galley.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/opinion/2011/10/galley-firing-perry-pearn-part-of-larger-strategy.html

Essentially, Pearn was fired because Martin was leaning on him too much for opinion, as his longtime trusted friend, and inadvertently not taking ideas from Cunneyworth and Ladouceur.

The other opinion that may have some stock is the need for more passion behind the bench that you guys have discussed here. If this was a results based decision, it was a foolish one.

I don't rule out the possibility it had to do with not using Cole on the PP, as Cole was Gauthier's prized offseason acquisition. It would be a bit petty, but it's not like that hasn't happened before.

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We may have been getting shots... but our shots were not from strong scoring positions on the ice from the games i saw and the power plays themselves were no running consistently or in a organized fashion.

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We may have been getting shots... but our shots were not from strong scoring positions on the ice from the games i saw and the power plays themselves were no running consistently or in a organized fashion.

Exactly. I hate how advanced stats has infiltrated hockey. Hockey isn't baseball and the moneyball approach doesn't work imo. This corsi, shot rates, shooting percentages reverting to the mean, etc... Don't work. The stats don't calculate that a point shot with no traffic is not the same as a one timer from the slot, or even a shot with traffic.

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Exactly. I hate how advanced stats has infiltrated hockey. Hockey isn't baseball and the moneyball approach doesn't work imo. This corsi, shot rates, shooting percentages reverting to the mean, etc... Don't work. The stats don't calculate that a point shot with no traffic is not the same as a one timer from the slot, or even a shot with traffic.

Every stat has flaws though. I don't see a problem with looking at more in-depth statistics. You'd think that over time, if they keep taking so many shots, the stats'll eventually even out. If you're consistently outchancing your opponents, there must be something to them.

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The media has really been going after the Canadiens management for firing Perry Pearn.

During the Hotstove, Elliotte Friedman said many coaches are furious with how Perry Pearn was fired, and then Eric Francis piped up saying not just coaches, but everyone around the league thinks it was classless.

Pierre McGuire went on a 2 minute rant on TSN radio in Montreal about how classless it was.

Many TSN pundits thought on the night of the firing that it was a scapegoat.

Michael Farber on The Reporters gave the Canadiens a "thumbs down", once again saying it was a scapegoat, and their 3 game win streak after the firing was coincidental and not a direct result of Pearn's firing.

yet they have won 3 games since he was fired, and played 3 of their 5 best games of the season without him. The team has looked different. Even if it only sent a message to the team to shape up, and they did, do we really care that Pearn was relieved of duty? or how he was relieved of

duty?

This is another case of media jumping the bandwagon on what other reporters are saying. If the reporter said, " Without Campoli Markov, or Hammer, Wiz, it is hard to put blame on a coach who is in charge of defense and power play." I would understand. They have not analyzed the move at all. His part in the coaching duties was slipping. Whether it was his fault or just a lack of players up to the task is up for debate.

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The PP was doing fine, just not scoring. It was generating shots which eventually would lead to goals, it's not Pearn's fault the team couldn't bury their opportunities. The best predictor of future success on the PP is shot rate, not conversion rate, and the Canadiens were 2nd in the NHL in that regard.

IMO, future success doesn't exist until success. You can't take success for granted, even by coming up with an obscur statistic like shot rate.

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Shot rate may not be cited often, but I wouldn't call it advanced... it's the same idea as GAA, taking a common stat (in GAA its goals, in this its shots) and dividing it by ice time.

Anyways, if you think about it, the key to good penalty killing is to take away the shooting and passing lanes. A shot on the PP is never a bad thing, and a blocked shot on the PK is a great thing. There are still easy saves on the PK, but most shots are inherently more difficult because they occur by exploiting an opening through puck movement, no matter how far out the shot comes from. I'd say the most important skill on a PP is still passing rather than shooting, but passing well should open up more shooting opportunities.

The Habs had a lot of good PP's that just didn't score, especially in games against Calgary, Colorado, Buffalo and Florida.

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Shot rate may not be cited often, but I wouldn't call it advanced...  it's the same idea as GAA, taking a common stat (in GAA its goals, in this its shots) and dividing it by ice time.

Anyways, if you think about it, the key to good penalty killing is to take away the shooting and passing lanes.  A shot on the PP is never a bad thing, and a blocked shot on the PK is a great thing.  There are still easy saves on the PK, but most shots are inherently more difficult because they occur by exploiting an opening through puck movement, no matter how far out the shot comes from.  I'd say the most important skill on a PP is still passing rather than shooting, but passing well should open up more shooting opportunities.

The Habs had a lot of good PP's that just didn't score, especially in games against Calgary, Colorado, Buffalo and Florida.

Early in the season, nothing on the PP worked. After a few games, and specifically in the games you mentionned, I agree, the PP was improving slightly. But the thing with it was that we'd have one PP unit that was working, and our second unit was a disaster. Since Pearn has been gone, I've seen two things; a credible 2nd PP unit that provides a threat in the 2nd half of the PP and even better, and quicker puck movement from the first unit.

I can agree that the PP was slowly improving under Pearn, but the process has really sped up recently.

We've also seen an improved Penalty Kill which was another unit Pearn handled.

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Nokelainen taking some minutes on the PK has helped, so has switching Cammalleri off the top unit and putting Moen back there. Also, Price has improved.

I think the PK had more personnel turnover in this time frame than the PP did, to be honest. I mean, we're still using Plekanec on the point on the PP, which was seen as an issue in the early struggles.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Since the firing the Habs have been on a tear. Only 1 PP goal against and now the 3rd best PK in the league and the PP has climbed back to 20th.

Some were shaking their heads but you cannot argue against the results.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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