Quote:
Originally Posted by Murph
OR...
After the 4th goal, you recognize that a mentally fragile team has just blown a third period lead for a SIXTH straight game and that now might be a good time to call a timeout to re-focus. An OBVIOUS coaching opportunity was missed.
And anyone who thinks that leaving Smith in after the 5th goal was a good idea, well...
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I'd have pulled him after 5, because it was the worst goal. I understand why he didn't though. Smith had made a bunch of potentially game saving saves early on. GG maybe thinks he is going to show faith in his star goalie. But I wouldn't have done it.
I do think the "look to the bench" is overanalyzed. I think it's just as likely he was looking because he was afraid he'd be pulled as opposed to wanting to be. Or maybe he was just looking over there to see if the guys were mad at him.
But a timeout after the 4th? They'd just had a 15 minute timeout. I think calling a timeout 10 seconds in would look like a panic move and make the team even more fragile.
What you need in that situation is for veteran guys like Gio and the Backlund line to step up and get everyone going strong again. And, as a matter of fact, I thought they had a decent pushback. And then the bad goal happened. As I said, I'd have pulled him then (it's funny - the 6th goal was the least on Smith IMO).