Crossposted from HFBoards
Time to dust this blog off of dust, I suppose. Just in time for the season's end. I post at HFBoards under the alias, The Extrapolater.
Rant alert.
I can't even with this coach. Not even just a little. I just can't even.
Been trying to figure him out, but it's taken a long time.
He doesn't understand his players. That's it. He doesn't know what he has in his players. Doesn't know their strengths and weaknesses. Or rather, he has a shallow understanding of them, and instead of reinforcing players' strengths, tries to compensate for their weaknesses, instead. That works for your scrubs, but for your talented players, you want them doing what they do best.
And his understanding of player chemistry is weak, also. Sedins with Eriksson equals scoring chances. Sedins and Chaput equal nothing. But he insists on the latter. A great deal of coaching in any sport is simply putting the right players into the rights positions to make the rights plays. And Willy D doesn't do that. He makes curious and cringe-worthy lineups. They're just outright bad.
And he's unable to adjust his systems in-game. The Canucks start right out of the gate with four straight wins. They have a strong forecheck game, which is leading them to this short-lived success. And then they run into the LA Kings. And Daryl Sutter simply dismantles the Canucks' forecheck. Just takes it apart, sets up the blueprint for defeating the Canucks all season long, and puts it out for all the league to see. Sure, the Canucks recover in-game, somehow getting the game into a shootout (which they lose), but the broken forecheck stays. And the Canucks lose nine straight.
And as the losses pile up, Willie does everything he can to fix the forecheck, which is basically jack-squat. He doesn't actually do any thing, rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. He keeps at it, forcing something that's completely broken, trying to get it to work. He doesn't switch up how the Canucks enter their opponents zone. He doesn't identify who's able to carry the puck into the zone. He doesn't have a different forecheck strategy for each different line. The players themselves are left to their own devices, trying to figure out how to get the offense working, because Willy D., in his infinite wisdom, decides to have the team start using the trap, exclusively.
But he's so risk averse, that the Canucks trap is already broken. The Canucks blueline has never held under Willy D. Not even in his first season with the team. There seems to be instructions to the D to back off the blue line when the puck is carried across the red line. And because the Canucks forecheck is broken, the opposing team is able to carry the puck up the ice the majority of possessions. And the trap doesn't work if the blueline doesn't hold. Ultimately, this strategy is self-defeating. Consider it this way, the Canucks are in full-retreat all game long. Their broken forecheck forces the Canucks' forwards to retreat earlier than they'd like, and the defense retreats from their own blue-line to minimize risks. And the trap is an exhausting system to play if it isn't working. And you can see that now. The offense has no jump to it, and the players are standing around the whole game long. Rolling four lines saves the players' legs? Not so long as Willy D has any say in it. He'll find a new way to exhaust the Canucks' players.
And we haven't even gotten into the Canucks' special teams. Yes, I understand, the Sedins' cycle game is strong. Best in the league, for a number of years. But that's not all they're good at. They also have a strong behind the net game, too. A coach could ostensibly place Henrik behind the net, and have him control the offense from back there. Give the team a different look when teams begin breaking up their cycle game.
And Horvat, too, was trying new things all season long. He was working on his cycle game, and learning on how to control the puck on the halfboards, trying to become more than simply a north-south player. Trying to add a playmaking element to his game. But does he get any support from the coaching staff? Not from what I could see. Horvat was basically on an island all season long, trying to get a broken offense to work, and having only little success. Only once does Burrows join his line does Horvat begin to understand what he'd been working on. But that's shortlived, because Burrows is traded. A natural replacement for Burrows could've been Eriksson, again, because he's a player who can score and defend. A two-way player. A jack-of-all-trades, who could be invaluable to the team if utilized correctly.
But it's more important for Willy D, that Granlund gets all the support he can get, at the expense of both the Sedin and Horvat lines. Granlund needs all the expertise of Eriksson, because of... reasons. It's more important for Granlund to score thirtiesh points than for Eriksson to get his own offensive game going by playing next to the Sedins, or for Horvat to have someone on his line who can do a little of everything, and teach him more about the game.
And then there's the defense. Oh boy. For a number of years, the Canucks defense has been gangbusters, scoring at a good to incredible rate. And even when they weren't (such as under Torterella), they were still at least generating shots and creating scoring chances. And then Willy D came along, and busted, well, everything. For example, take a player like Alex Edler. A decent to sometimes incredible player. Generates more shots than some forwards. You take this player, and then instruct him as such: "Stay on the blue line, and whenever you receive the puck, you're only allowed to take a shot, or put it back into the corners. No skating with the puck. And in our system, you'll rarely receive the puck, anyway, because we want to minimize risks." And then you instruct the rest of the defense to follow his example. This works well enough for Edler, because he's pretty good. He makes it look good. But it has an unintended effect on the team. It allows the opposing team to camp off the blue line, putting pressure onto the Canucks' cycle game. The blue line's rarely used an outlet, and because the defense isn't allowed to skate with the puck to get into scoring positions or change the angles, all the opposing defense has to do is get into the shooting lanes.
What this all comes down, in the end, is the Canucks are simply a laughing stock under this coach. He doesn't have a feel for the nuances, and his systems are broken from the foundation. The next Canucks' coach is going to have his work cut out for him. This is a broken shell of a team. Everything systems-wise is going to have to be rebuilt from scratch, and it'll three to four months of adjustments before any results are actually seen, next season. And the younger players still developing have one to two years of development to catch up on. If they can still do so. It's a daunting task.
Time to dust this blog off of dust, I suppose. Just in time for the season's end. I post at HFBoards under the alias, The Extrapolater.
Rant alert.
I can't even with this coach. Not even just a little. I just can't even.
Been trying to figure him out, but it's taken a long time.
He doesn't understand his players. That's it. He doesn't know what he has in his players. Doesn't know their strengths and weaknesses. Or rather, he has a shallow understanding of them, and instead of reinforcing players' strengths, tries to compensate for their weaknesses, instead. That works for your scrubs, but for your talented players, you want them doing what they do best.
And his understanding of player chemistry is weak, also. Sedins with Eriksson equals scoring chances. Sedins and Chaput equal nothing. But he insists on the latter. A great deal of coaching in any sport is simply putting the right players into the rights positions to make the rights plays. And Willy D doesn't do that. He makes curious and cringe-worthy lineups. They're just outright bad.
And he's unable to adjust his systems in-game. The Canucks start right out of the gate with four straight wins. They have a strong forecheck game, which is leading them to this short-lived success. And then they run into the LA Kings. And Daryl Sutter simply dismantles the Canucks' forecheck. Just takes it apart, sets up the blueprint for defeating the Canucks all season long, and puts it out for all the league to see. Sure, the Canucks recover in-game, somehow getting the game into a shootout (which they lose), but the broken forecheck stays. And the Canucks lose nine straight.
And as the losses pile up, Willie does everything he can to fix the forecheck, which is basically jack-squat. He doesn't actually do any thing, rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. He keeps at it, forcing something that's completely broken, trying to get it to work. He doesn't switch up how the Canucks enter their opponents zone. He doesn't identify who's able to carry the puck into the zone. He doesn't have a different forecheck strategy for each different line. The players themselves are left to their own devices, trying to figure out how to get the offense working, because Willy D., in his infinite wisdom, decides to have the team start using the trap, exclusively.
But he's so risk averse, that the Canucks trap is already broken. The Canucks blueline has never held under Willy D. Not even in his first season with the team. There seems to be instructions to the D to back off the blue line when the puck is carried across the red line. And because the Canucks forecheck is broken, the opposing team is able to carry the puck up the ice the majority of possessions. And the trap doesn't work if the blueline doesn't hold. Ultimately, this strategy is self-defeating. Consider it this way, the Canucks are in full-retreat all game long. Their broken forecheck forces the Canucks' forwards to retreat earlier than they'd like, and the defense retreats from their own blue-line to minimize risks. And the trap is an exhausting system to play if it isn't working. And you can see that now. The offense has no jump to it, and the players are standing around the whole game long. Rolling four lines saves the players' legs? Not so long as Willy D has any say in it. He'll find a new way to exhaust the Canucks' players.
And we haven't even gotten into the Canucks' special teams. Yes, I understand, the Sedins' cycle game is strong. Best in the league, for a number of years. But that's not all they're good at. They also have a strong behind the net game, too. A coach could ostensibly place Henrik behind the net, and have him control the offense from back there. Give the team a different look when teams begin breaking up their cycle game.
And Horvat, too, was trying new things all season long. He was working on his cycle game, and learning on how to control the puck on the halfboards, trying to become more than simply a north-south player. Trying to add a playmaking element to his game. But does he get any support from the coaching staff? Not from what I could see. Horvat was basically on an island all season long, trying to get a broken offense to work, and having only little success. Only once does Burrows join his line does Horvat begin to understand what he'd been working on. But that's shortlived, because Burrows is traded. A natural replacement for Burrows could've been Eriksson, again, because he's a player who can score and defend. A two-way player. A jack-of-all-trades, who could be invaluable to the team if utilized correctly.
But it's more important for Willy D, that Granlund gets all the support he can get, at the expense of both the Sedin and Horvat lines. Granlund needs all the expertise of Eriksson, because of... reasons. It's more important for Granlund to score thirtiesh points than for Eriksson to get his own offensive game going by playing next to the Sedins, or for Horvat to have someone on his line who can do a little of everything, and teach him more about the game.
And then there's the defense. Oh boy. For a number of years, the Canucks defense has been gangbusters, scoring at a good to incredible rate. And even when they weren't (such as under Torterella), they were still at least generating shots and creating scoring chances. And then Willy D came along, and busted, well, everything. For example, take a player like Alex Edler. A decent to sometimes incredible player. Generates more shots than some forwards. You take this player, and then instruct him as such: "Stay on the blue line, and whenever you receive the puck, you're only allowed to take a shot, or put it back into the corners. No skating with the puck. And in our system, you'll rarely receive the puck, anyway, because we want to minimize risks." And then you instruct the rest of the defense to follow his example. This works well enough for Edler, because he's pretty good. He makes it look good. But it has an unintended effect on the team. It allows the opposing team to camp off the blue line, putting pressure onto the Canucks' cycle game. The blue line's rarely used an outlet, and because the defense isn't allowed to skate with the puck to get into scoring positions or change the angles, all the opposing defense has to do is get into the shooting lanes.
What this all comes down, in the end, is the Canucks are simply a laughing stock under this coach. He doesn't have a feel for the nuances, and his systems are broken from the foundation. The next Canucks' coach is going to have his work cut out for him. This is a broken shell of a team. Everything systems-wise is going to have to be rebuilt from scratch, and it'll three to four months of adjustments before any results are actually seen, next season. And the younger players still developing have one to two years of development to catch up on. If they can still do so. It's a daunting task.
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