[News] Habs fire Head Coach Ducharme. Martin St. Louis named interim coach

[Stanley]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Hockey coaching - the only job in the world you can be hired to the highest top level position with absolutely no experience.

Lol - at least they're hall of fame players that made an impact in the game and earn some respect. I mean, would you rather have St-Louis or Gulutzan coaching your team? I know who I would pick, regardless of "coaching" experience.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Stanley

Lol - at least they're hall of fame players that made an impact in the game and earn some respect. I mean, would you rather have St-Louis or Gulutzan coaching your team? I know who I would pick, regardless of "coaching" experience.

That's why Gretzky was such an awesome coach, amirite?

[Stanley]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

That's why Gretzky was such an awesome coach, amirite?

yikes Gretzky was terrible. So was the team. Nice cherry pick example tho.

Montreal's pick was surprising tho no doubt about it, just playing devil's advocate

[OutOfTheCube]

Originally Posted by Stanley

yikes Gretzky was terrible. So was the team. Nice cherry pick example tho.

Montreal's pick was surprising tho no doubt about it, just playing devil's advocate

'Would you rather hire someone who has no experience, or someone with experience whose a proven failure' isn't really devil's advocate here. Those aren't the only options.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Stanley

yikes Gretzky was terrible. So was the team. Nice cherry pick example tho.

No cherry pick. Just pointing out that Hall of Fame players are not necessarily qualified to be coaches. There are other examples, but usually they don't get handed NHL jobs for their first failure. Rocket Richard, for instance, was head coach of the Quebec Nordiques in the WHA, but only lasted two games before he realized he couldn't hack it. Most elite players knew it in advance and never went into coaching.

What it comes down to: There is nothing in St. Louis's record to show that he's qualified to be an NHL head coach. Maybe it works out; stranger things have happened. But his playing career proves nothing about his coaching abilities.

[Erick Estrada]

A lot of the best coaches were former players that didn't have elite talent and had to work harder and play a team game.

[sa226]

That PC with St Louis talking about player reads, and how all players should have reads and how his reads were awesome. My reads, your reads, reads, reads, reads.

It was weird and sounded like a Junior B wannabe talking about the best way to coach.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

No cherry pick. Just pointing out that Hall of Fame players are not necessarily qualified to be coaches. There are other examples, but usually they don't get handed NHL jobs for their first failure. Rocket Richard, for instance, was head coach of the Quebec Nordiques in the WHA, but only lasted two games before he realized he couldn't hack it. Most elite players knew it in advance and never went into coaching.

What it comes down to: There is nothing in St. Louis's record to show that he's qualified to be an NHL head coach. Maybe it works out; stranger things have happened. But his playing career proves nothing about his coaching abilities.

Al Delvecchio: great player terrible coach. Also Risebrough. Also Ftorek. I don’t think Tocchet, Roy or Mactavish were very good.

[Jay Random]

Risebrough was an adequate coach when that was his only job. The minute he was saddled with the GM job on top of that, he was hopelessly incapable of handling both.

Your other examples, however, I agree with completely.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Just to play Devil's advocate, the MLB manager job has a LOT of ex-players in the job. Mostly catchers since they are constantly working strategy in a game as part of their position.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

Just to play Devil's advocate, the MLB manager job has a LOT of ex-players in the job. Mostly catchers since they are constantly working strategy in a game as part of their position.

TBF, Boudreau, Sutter, Lemaire, etc were good players and great coaches.

[TheScorpion]

Caufield has played really well since MSL took over.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

TBF, Boudreau, Sutter, Lemaire, etc were good players and great coaches.

Sure, but in this analogy, they are the catcher's of the league. Defensively focused and always working on team strategy. Boudreau was almost a career minor leaguer, so he needed to understand the game in order to have his sort of longevity.

There's a place for ex-players in coaching, but they usually have certain qualities as a player.

That being said, Andrew Brunette is doing a helluva job taking over for Quenneville in Florida. I wasn't sure he was going to be any good, but he's proved me wrong. Obviously, it helps to have that level of talent when you're a rookie head coach.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

Just to play Devil's advocate, the MLB manager job has a LOT of ex-players in the job. Mostly catchers since they are constantly working strategy in a game as part of their position.

True, but they don't usually jump straight from being players to major-league managers, do they?

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

Sure, but in this analogy, they are the catcher's of the league. Defensively focused and always working on team strategy. Boudreau was almost a career minor leaguer, so he needed to understand the game in order to have his sort of longevity.

There's a place for ex-players in coaching, but they usually have certain qualities as a player.

That being said, Andrew Brunette is doing a helluva job taking over for Quenneville in Florida. I wasn't sure he was going to be any good, but he's proved me wrong. Obviously, it helps to have that level of talent when you're a rookie head coach.

Lemaire was a top line player, with Lafleur and Shutt, and Sutter was a 40 goal scorer. But they understand the game. They may be the best combos of career and coaching record.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

True, but they don't usually jump straight from being players to major-league managers, do they?

Kevin Cash did in Tampa.

[timbit]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Al Delvecchio: great player terrible coach. Also Risebrough. Also Ftorek. I don’t think Tocchet, Roy or Mactavish were very good.

Toe Blake would be an exception.

[GioforPM]

I actually think there’s no correlation to be found. Other than, these days, elite players are so well paid I doubt they want the grind of being a coach when they are done.

[Coach]

Genius can’t teach.

I think pretty much all players could be good coaches. But Gretzky obviously views the game in a way no one else does or can. It makes sense he wouldn’t be able to coach people who can’t see what he’s seeing. Or that he can’t communicate what he’s seeing.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Coach

Genius can’t teach.

I think pretty much all players could be good coaches. But Gretzky obviously views the game in a way no one else does or can. It makes sense he wouldn’t be able to coach people who can’t see what he’s seeing. Or that he can’t communicate what he’s seeing.

Maybe. What I do think is he never put the work in to be a good coach.