Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
No coach would ask his players to do any of the following ...
1) Take high percentage risks without support
2) Skate away from the puck backwards in the high slot and then one hand it when it finally comes to you
3) To literally check no one in your own zone
4) To back in on your goaltender
5) To not back check creating wide gaps
Stajan said it best ... it's not work ethic. They were all working hard, but they weren't on their toes, they weren't working smart. They didn't have themselves ready to play.
Sutter is a huge add to the mix, because he scares the hell out of players, so it's no longer allowed to not be ready, and they all take that seriously. So sure that's part of coaching, and Ward didn't scare the hell out of them.
But that doesn't change the fact that almost to a man they all too often didn't show up ready to play.
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I think we more or less agree on most points, certainly that they did often have work ethic and were not working smart.
As for your points 3 and 4, I don’t fully agree, as some coaches are fine giving the other team the outside, and prioritize protecting the area from which high danger chances occur. That sure seemed like it was either encouraged or accepted by Ward
Even if Ward didn’t outright teach bad habits and lack of attention to detail, he surely tolerated it.
When the team was trying to carry the puck up the left side boards and Tanev was dilly dallying by the goalie, was that not being ready to play, or a bad idea with a 5th skater who didn’t think he needed to find open ice and add an option?
When Rasmus beats 3 guys, stops at the blue line and passes back 100 feet to Johnny in his own zone for Johnny to go 1 on 4, that wasn’t guys ‘not being prepared’. It was guys who were doing something futile, without doing it the right way to make it work.
I just find the idea of ‘not being prepared’ (as players / individuals) to be somewhat trite and not very meaningful
Totally agree that the team wasn’t prepared but I do not feel like the message coming from the coach to was very clear. If it had been, you wouldn’t see such an immediate and noticeable difference under Sutter
The job of the coach is to help make every player clear on what the team is doing and what they have to do within that as individuals. Geoff Ward could have told them to be ready to go, but if he thinks that you make people ready by telling them to be ready, he doesn’t get it