The coach......

[REV-G]

I've been thinking about this for a few days and this morning I read an article by Trege Wilson who said what I've been thinking for the past two weeks or so.

 

Many of us have said how unhappy we are with the body of work that Marc Bergevin has done over the past 18 months....he who famously said "...this years defence is better than last years"!! But we have to admit it's not his fault Max isn't scoring or Carey Price is struggling.

 

But the person who seems to have gotten a free ride so far is Claude Julien. I genuinely like him, I think he's a very good person and he cares. But I wonder if the young man's NHL has passed him and his style and approach, like our former coach, no longer works. 

 

I heard one of the color commentators covering this past weeks Toronto, LA game say that one of the reasons LA has only 1 loss so this year is because while they have mostly the same players, changing from former head coach Sutter to Stephens, has made all the difference and that is the main reason for LA's resurgence this year.

 

I've followed hockey for a long time and I don't claim to be an expert but these are some of the things I've observed and heard lately.

- players are being put in the wrong position on the power play, where they're not comfortable. eg. Max and Alex.

- since we're not scoring anyway, put Alex as our top line centre for more than just 1 period, give him a month, he's still young!! Can things get any worse?? 

- our top face-off man has been sitting in the press box lately.

- before he was hurt Hemsky was getting some top 6 minutes.

- could it be that our system is old and not suited to the young guys. Is Claude Julien too much of the same style as MT??

 

Because we're not scoring goals, because players who normally score, in the past have scored, yet corporately none of them are, it isn't just one player but all of them. So somehow this has to reflect back on the coach when the whole team is failing in the same area.

 

I don't get paid to make the decisions or find the solutions if this is the problem, and I don't expect them to make a coaching change because I'm sure MB isn't even thinking along these lines, but the question is, could this be a key reason for our poor on ice lack of scoring?? 

 

What do you think? 

[Guest Stogey24]

Go back to when Julien first got hired on. The first thing I said was this is an old school coach, who may have had the nhl pass him by.

 

Gerard Gallant should have been the coaching candidate. I said it the second he was dropped by Florida.

 

That's all beside the fact we have a g.m who is a Neanderthal. He's the guy who needs to be cut loose if this team wants to start heading in New direction. 

 

People seem to forget the acquisitions  Beregvin made at the deadline. A team in dire need of goal scoring and he adds 3 guys who aren't even in the nhl anymore. 

 

It's the g.m at this point, not the coach. Molson needs to make a move here. 

 

 

[Chris]

Totally agree about Gallan t. 

 

IMO the problem with CJ is his successful teams are big, physical and hard to play against. 

 

MB gave him a soft, perimeter team who don't have a clue where the front of the net is on either end of the ice. 

[alfredoh2009]

29 minutes ago, REV-G said:

But the person who seems to have gotten a free ride so far is Claude Julien. I genuinely like him, I think he's a very good person and he cares...

I didn't comment on the board at the time, but I didn't like the signing of CJ. I cannot forgive him for setting up the Bruins to beat up on the CH in February 2011. I cannot forget how he downplayed Chara's attack on Pacioretty, I cannot forget how he coached a team of bullies to win over Vancouver. Just not my type of coach.

 

He was successful, but moulding the CH to a team he can coach will take a long time. He will eventually succeed if he is given the time to change the team's culture and if he can implement his system. We are seeing glimpses now when it works.

 

If is frustrating the it is not coming soon enough because when they traded Subban away it was to win now. It becomes clearer and clearer that it will not happen if the coach cannot align wins soon and if the dislocation of the team is not re-joint into a new formation that can win now. Yes, I agree he is getting a free pass

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

32 minutes ago, Stogey24 said:

Go back to when Julien first got hired on. The first thing I said was this is an old school coach, who may have had the nhl pass him by.

 

Gerard Gallant should have been the coaching candidate. I said it the second he was dropped by Florida.

 

That's all beside the fact we have a g.m who is a Neanderthal. He's the guy who needs to be cut loose if this team wants to start heading in New direction. 

 

People seem to forget the acquisitions  Beregvin made at the deadline. A team in dire need of goal scoring and he adds 3 guys who aren't even in the nhl anymore. 

 

It's the g.m at this point, not the coach. Molson needs to make a move here. 

 

 

 

I thought (and still think) CJ is an upgrade on Therrien. But the wider point about this organization suffering from an ossified "old school" mentality is absolutely well-taken. It's a retrograde organization run by old boys, with their old boy egos being prioritized over excellence (exactly like the Toronto Maple Leafs until the Babcock era; there, they have old boys, but adaptable old boys prepared to build a team properly). MB is the fundamental problem and can't be shown the door fast enough to suit me. My only qualm is whether Molson can be trusted to make an actual progressive hire. This organization needs a huge dose of new, innovative thinking tailored to the way the league is heading, not the way it used to be.

[illWill]

I am mostly a results oriented guy. For all the hate that Therrien got, at least he got wins. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I assume Julien's body of work with the Habs is sub par. He has the credentials and many around the league view him as one of the best coaches. But as someone has mentioned already, perhaps his style of coaching isn't well suited for this group of players or he isn't adapting to what he has to work with. The Habs have mostly smallish, skilled players and there is some definite speed in the lineup. Seems to me that they shouldn't be playing a defense first system, but rather an uptempo flying up and down the ice style. That would benefit many of the players who are currently struggling to score goals. 

[Prime Minister Koivu]

On 10/27/2017 at 11:27 AM, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

I thought (and still think) CJ is an upgrade on Therrien. But the wider point about this organization suffering from an ossified "old school" mentality is absolutely well-taken. It's a retrograde organization run by old boys, with their old boy egos being prioritized over excellence (exactly like the Toronto Maple Leafs until the Babcock era; there, they have old boys, but adaptable old boys prepared to build a team properly). MB is the fundamental problem and can't be shown the door fast enough to suit me. My only qualm is whether Molson can be trusted to make an actual progressive hire. This organization needs a huge dose of new, innovative thinking tailored to the way the league is heading, not the way it used to be.

 

Yeah I agree with this completely.

 

I think this whole organization is stuck on the idea that the way to win is to not make mistakes and then capitalize when the other team makes mistakes. That old school thinking is why Galchenyuk will never fit and why Seguin couldn't work under CJ either.

 

Think about Vegas, they are a team full of mistakes but their idea of winning hockey games is to score more goals than they score on you.

 

[DON]

2 hours ago, Prime Minister Koivu said:

 

Yeah I agree with this completely.

 

I think this whole organization is stuck on the idea that the way to win is to not make mistakes and then capitalize when the other team makes mistakes. That old school thinking is why Galchenyuk will never fit and why Seguin couldn't work under CJ either.

 

Think about Vegas, they are a team full of mistakes but their idea of winning hockey games is to score more goals than they score on you.

 

Vegas?

[BCHabnut]

Julien has the Habs out shooting and out chancing their opponent every game. I don't see how losses fall on him. Goaltending and goal scoring are an issue. Not the system or player deployment. From my observations. Also way too many odd man rushes against. I think. Don't have stats to back that up. 

[JoeLassister]

On ‎2017‎-‎10‎-‎29 at 5:50 PM, BCHabnut said:

Julien has the Habs out shooting and out chancing their opponent every game. I don't see how losses fall on him. Goaltending and goal scoring are an issue. Not the system or player deployment. From my observations. Also way too many odd man rushes against. I think. Don't have stats to back that up. 

My observation is that we have too many incompetent dmen who are not able to make a proper 1st pass or clear the puck out of the zone without creating a turnover.

Don't have stats to back that up. 

[habsFan1986]

I don't think its the coach that's the reason we can't score. The reason is we have too  many two way players and not enough Playmakers on this team. These players are too soft and get pushed off the puck too easily.  You get more Playmakers on this team and the ice starts to open up. Plus no one goes to the net. The rebounds are there they just can't get to them. Look at the sens game , look at the goals scored most of them off rebounds from guys going to the net. 

[BCHabnut]

7 hours ago, JoeLassister said:

My observation is that we have too many incompetent dmen who are not able to make a proper 1st pass or clear the puck out of the zone without creating a turnover.

Don't have stats to back that up. 

I agree with that. Which makes MB a bumbling idiot. CJ has the boys playing a system that gives them a chance to win though. Coach doesn't score or save the puck.