Home
Publications
I know this is a big question right? The thing is we've picked apart specific players, we've defended and attacked the coaching staff and the GM and it all boils down to that one big question which has been there since the 07/08 season.
Is it a player or a group of players that is the issue? This team has been far too streaky for too long and somethin's gotta give or the Sens will wallow in mediocrity or worse for years to come. Is it really just a matter of not having Sutton and Volchenkov for toughness on the back end? I doubt it since our streaky play was there with those two as well.
Is it the coach? Is his message not getting through? Is it the wrong message? Some of Clouston's decisions have been real head scratchers. For example his decision to put Karlsson and Gonchar on their wrong sides and not to have a player like Neil for net presence on the Power play.
Is it the GM? Is Gonchar really that bad all of the sudden? Did Regin just get lucky at the end of last season, in the playoffs and world championships? Did Foligno just Bochenski his way through pre-season? Is Karlsson regressing? Alfie, Michalek, Fisher and perhaps Kovalev are all playing through various ailments so that could be a huge part as well. How can they work on drills in practice if 4 to 5 guys are regularly not there for them? Is THAT the GMs fault. Is it blind dumb luck? Is it coincidence that Randy Lee moves out of the Team Trainer position and we get hit by injury after injury?
My answer? I think it's unfortunately a combination of things.
Coach - It's either a poor plan or system or an inability or unwillingness of the players to execute that plan. Issues here are that the players playing hurt aren't able to improve on this and in game they're not at 100% so they can't execute at a high enough level. This equals guys like Winchester, Foligno, Shannon, Kelly getting the bulk of the goals lately. It is also possible that the players have tuned him out. I wonder about the coaching simply because of the streaks this team goes on and it's been happening far too long for it to be chalked up to injuries. Somewhere in that is at least part of the puzzle.
GM - The players he was able to bring in don't seem to be the right mix. We can give him a bit of a pass on the guys playing through injury since that's not really his fault but on the back end he brought in skill in Gonchar and let the experienced toughness and shot blocking go without a viable alternative. He at least has done a fabulous job bringing in enough high end prospect D men that even if only a couple turn out to be top 4 we're in excellent shape in about 5 years. He also brought in a potential star goalie in Lehner. There is still a serious deficit in terms of offensive forward prospects to get excited about though and that clearly needs to be addressed. We have too many Zack Smiths and Jim O'Briens and not enough....I'd put a name here but there really isn't anyone I'd consider to be a potentially top 3 forward.
The Players - The easy first answer is the guys playing hurt aren't helping and ideally they should rest. They're not helping us win so sit out. They can't do worse than lose right? The problem is even if one of them sits out do we have a better chance of turning this around? Does calling up Butler, Smith, Hale and company really give us a better chance? Karlsson, at least I hope, is going through a softmore slump as is Regin and Foligno is taking longer to develop than some people thought. It was nice to see Foligno score on the PP vs. the Habs and I hope that is a sign of more to come. Phillips and Gonchar look lost and that experiment has failed miserably. Kuba gets a bit of a pass since he missed all of training camp and a big chunk of the start of the season which cannot be underestimated. This could be an issue for Kuba for most of the season. Kuba's struggles could be contributing to Karlsson's drop off as well. I have had little to no issue with Ruutu, Kelly, Neil, Winchester, Shannon, Elliott and even Leclaire as they are doing their part. It would be nice to see Ruutu draw a few more penalties but other than that I've been pleased with those players. Spezza, despite cutting down on his turnovers, being top 11 in faceoffs and adding PK to his repertoire; If he wants to be the go to guy who can carry a team he needs to score more and do it at key times even under these kinds of circumstances. That setup play for Foligno was a thing of beauty though and that was indeed a key point in the game. Too bad the momentum didn't carry further than a fart in the wind.
OR I could be totally wrong and we go on an amazing run, find some consistency, a trade happens that puts us over the top and our young guys catch fire.
What do you all think?
Is it a player or a group of players that is the issue? This team has been far too streaky for too long and somethin's gotta give or the Sens will wallow in mediocrity or worse for years to come. Is it really just a matter of not having Sutton and Volchenkov for toughness on the back end? I doubt it since our streaky play was there with those two as well.
Is it the coach? Is his message not getting through? Is it the wrong message? Some of Clouston's decisions have been real head scratchers. For example his decision to put Karlsson and Gonchar on their wrong sides and not to have a player like Neil for net presence on the Power play.
Is it the GM? Is Gonchar really that bad all of the sudden? Did Regin just get lucky at the end of last season, in the playoffs and world championships? Did Foligno just Bochenski his way through pre-season? Is Karlsson regressing? Alfie, Michalek, Fisher and perhaps Kovalev are all playing through various ailments so that could be a huge part as well. How can they work on drills in practice if 4 to 5 guys are regularly not there for them? Is THAT the GMs fault. Is it blind dumb luck? Is it coincidence that Randy Lee moves out of the Team Trainer position and we get hit by injury after injury?
My answer? I think it's unfortunately a combination of things.
Coach - It's either a poor plan or system or an inability or unwillingness of the players to execute that plan. Issues here are that the players playing hurt aren't able to improve on this and in game they're not at 100% so they can't execute at a high enough level. This equals guys like Winchester, Foligno, Shannon, Kelly getting the bulk of the goals lately. It is also possible that the players have tuned him out. I wonder about the coaching simply because of the streaks this team goes on and it's been happening far too long for it to be chalked up to injuries. Somewhere in that is at least part of the puzzle.
GM - The players he was able to bring in don't seem to be the right mix. We can give him a bit of a pass on the guys playing through injury since that's not really his fault but on the back end he brought in skill in Gonchar and let the experienced toughness and shot blocking go without a viable alternative. He at least has done a fabulous job bringing in enough high end prospect D men that even if only a couple turn out to be top 4 we're in excellent shape in about 5 years. He also brought in a potential star goalie in Lehner. There is still a serious deficit in terms of offensive forward prospects to get excited about though and that clearly needs to be addressed. We have too many Zack Smiths and Jim O'Briens and not enough....I'd put a name here but there really isn't anyone I'd consider to be a potentially top 3 forward.
The Players - The easy first answer is the guys playing hurt aren't helping and ideally they should rest. They're not helping us win so sit out. They can't do worse than lose right? The problem is even if one of them sits out do we have a better chance of turning this around? Does calling up Butler, Smith, Hale and company really give us a better chance? Karlsson, at least I hope, is going through a softmore slump as is Regin and Foligno is taking longer to develop than some people thought. It was nice to see Foligno score on the PP vs. the Habs and I hope that is a sign of more to come. Phillips and Gonchar look lost and that experiment has failed miserably. Kuba gets a bit of a pass since he missed all of training camp and a big chunk of the start of the season which cannot be underestimated. This could be an issue for Kuba for most of the season. Kuba's struggles could be contributing to Karlsson's drop off as well. I have had little to no issue with Ruutu, Kelly, Neil, Winchester, Shannon, Elliott and even Leclaire as they are doing their part. It would be nice to see Ruutu draw a few more penalties but other than that I've been pleased with those players. Spezza, despite cutting down on his turnovers, being top 11 in faceoffs and adding PK to his repertoire; If he wants to be the go to guy who can carry a team he needs to score more and do it at key times even under these kinds of circumstances. That setup play for Foligno was a thing of beauty though and that was indeed a key point in the game. Too bad the momentum didn't carry further than a fart in the wind.
OR I could be totally wrong and we go on an amazing run, find some consistency, a trade happens that puts us over the top and our young guys catch fire.
What do you all think?
