[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Major Major

This is not a fact. This is a statement backed up with a clumsy at best use of statistics.

First, the Kopitar red herring. Dude is the Swiss watch of offensive production. He's had 2 outliers, Sutter's last year when the milk went sour, and first year after he was gone, he got a bit of a post Sutter dead cat bounce. Making it out to be like he was an offensive Dynamo, then he had 6 down years under Sutter, then became the offensive player he was born to be when he left. Not remotely true. Arguing anything but Sutter was the perfect coach for Kopitar is pretty daft.

Second "Sutter hockey". The takes on Sutter hockey are so kind numbingly simplistic sometimes. There's levels to this ####. Johnny's line played the gold standard version of it. Their own zone play was an aggressive man pursuit. The players played if each other well and made smart exits and got the puck to either Johnny or weak side D with speed. Zone entries were smooth because their D were being backed in with speed and by an elite puck carrier. And in the o zone, that line took more risks because A. They worked and B. They were in a position to support the transition to D. Lindholm hovered in the high slot looking for a soft spot for a one timer but was always in position. They were quick, sneaky and creative and aggressive and READY to go back on defense. Sutter's system is not risk averse, it is screw up averse and it is no support averse.

I'm not apologizing for whatever happened this year. Sutter clearly had them on some kind of foundational level. First structure than freedom were his exact words. But the team never got there and he couldn't put the lineup in a spot to succeed. Then he inexplicably got distracted by his media grudges which sent poison through the whole team. Crazy to think his media interactions are what sunk him. But I honestly think his lineups, his comments on young players etc were all to flip the bird at Salim and Eric. Rookie level stubbornness from an HOF coach.

But I'm not so drunk with recency to forget how the team played under him last year. And not giving him credit for that and only remembering the guy's firing year at every stop is just so basic. We're legitimately talking about one of the greatest coaches of all time who had coaching success in 5 different decades. You think this was a one gear guy? You think his message to all those teams was, get it to the point guys!?

Credit where it's due, blame where it's due. If you can't do that, you are the one who has the agenda.

This is just Sutter apologist garbage, the whole bit.