Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
I don't think anyone praising Hartley is praising him on an absolute level.
But relatively speaking, he was the best coach we've had since, at least probably Mike Keenan.
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Hartley reminded me of Keenan in a lot of ways (although I think Sutter trumps both).
Neither one is known to be systems guys. Their whole deal was play to the strengths of individuals, and if those individuals succeeded, the team as a whole should succeed. Hartley admitted that they didn't practice the powerplay (I think Keenan was the same). The powerplay was a time to let your horses run and overthinking things that come naturally to skilled players can be detrimental to execution. I think this might be the same issue with Ward (not the PP specifically, but focusing too hard on minutia). Not sure what the system is, but the players look like they are overthinking a lot of the time and not executing as a result.
The only recent coach that obviously seemed to live and die by a system was Brent Sutter, and that team looked apprehensive every minute of the game. I mean sure, you need to teach players and keep them sharp to know the queues for when and where to apply certain tactics, but I thinks it's a mistake to emphasize a system over all else. I was surprised at the time, because Darryl Sutter was more like the latter two.
There is an old psychological trick in sports where you purposely get an opponent off their game by making them think too much. For example, say to an opponent something like this; "Hey, that was a really hard shot. I noticed your shot improved lately. Did you change your grip? What foot are you leading with?".
You would be surprised how much something like that can get someone off their game. If you are focused on minutia (like B.Sutter or perhaps Ward), or coaching toward stats (like I think Gulutzan tried), you're going to have players over thinking everything and it will affect execution.