It’s only been a couple games but I haven’t seen anything that tells me he’s overwhelmed.

Didn’t look at the stats to see where most of his starts were but I don’t have an issue with the approach so far of giving him mostly ozone starts to build confidence.
- HawkintheD

Agreed.

He’s right. If the players just want to come in and collect a check, this is the result. If this is their attitude, they should ask for a trade and GTFO.
- gifman

Yep. The vets, with the possible exception of Kane, need to recommit to the Indian (hat tip to Savvy).

Yep. The vets, with the possible exception of Kane, need to recommit to the Indian (hat tip to Savvy).
- mohel

Yeah, what we saw last night seems to go beyond who the head coach is behind the bench. If this “core” wants the rest of their careers to be nothing more than an extended victory lap for days gone by - that’s on them - not the new head coach trying to win now.

I don't think JC had the time to get his message approved by McDonough. Wonder how the front office spins this. I also am anxious to hear what the Captain has to say, he has been incredibly silent this year, except for female dogging about opening the season oversees.

Yeah, what we saw last night seems to go beyond who the head coach is behind the bench. If this “core” wants the rest of their careers to be nothing more than an extended victory lap for days gone by - that’s on them - not the new head coach trying to win now.
- Chief4Feathers

Two goals were the result of 2 and 7 doing something other than a good defensive play - turning the play over, and then being unable to recover to chase the Flyer down. Perhaps, two (four? six?) years ago they they could have. Perhaps they just can’t anymore.

The fourth was the culmination of a night of Hawk passes hitting more road sticks than home sticks - a pass from Gus right into the skates of an opponent only 5 feet from him.

The tying goal by VGK with less than two minutes left - Ward had to get that at that point in the game, no matter what.

A team that’s struggling to put together a team game in all three zones needs to tighten up the individual errors.

I don't think JC had the time to get his message approved by McDonough. Wonder how the front office spins this. I also am anxious to hear what the Captain has to say, he has been incredibly silent this year, except for female dogging about opening the season oversees.
- LAHawk

The spin is - only 8 games in, lots of new players that need to be put together....

A lot of truth to that, but they need to figure it out quickly - before it’s 20 games in with only 14 points and to much of a hole to dig out of.

Two goals were the result of 2 and 7 doing something other than a good defensive play - turning the play over, and then being unable to recover to chase the Flyer down. Perhaps, two (four? six?) years ago they they could have. Perhaps they just can’t anymore.

The fourth was the culmination of a night of Hawk passes hitting more road sticks than home sticks - a pass from Gus right into the skates of an opponent only 5 feet from him.

The tying goal by VGK with less than two minutes left - Ward had to get that at that point in the game, no matter what.

A team that’s struggling to put together a team game in all three zones needs to tighten up the individual errors.
- StLBravesFan

I think you meant Lehner.

We did have an experienced coach and they didn’t play for him either. It’s a locker room issue. One or more players are dragging the team down. Like I said, if they don’t like it here GTFO.
- gifman

Yep, whatever ails the core of this team began after they lost to StL in the playoffs. It is intellectually lazy to simply blame the coach (who certainly shares some of the blame).

Two goals were the result of 2 and 7 doing something other than a good defensive play - turning the play over, and then being unable to recover to chase the Flyer down. Perhaps, two (four? six?) years ago they they could have. Perhaps they just can’t anymore.

The fourth was the culmination of a night of Hawk passes hitting more road sticks than home sticks - a pass from Gus right into the skates of an opponent only 5 feet from him.

The tying goal by VGK with less than two minutes left - Ward had to get that at that point in the game, no matter what.

A team that’s struggling to put together a team game in all three zones needs to tighten up the individual errors.
- StLBravesFan

The amount of ice the goalie had to cover was difficult the reason why on 2 on 1s they have to take away the pass, although Toews weekly tried to get thre puck out, Saad fell asleep at the wheel on that pass.

Jonathan needs a press box nite. The guy helped us win 3 cups, but right now he's either playing hurt or doesn't care that much anymore. In either event, riding the pine would be appropriate. Can't have one set of rules for certain guys, and no rules for the others.
- gabriel

Toews certainly needs to step-up his game, but I wouldn't question is desire or how much he care. The guy is a consummate professional, he lives and breathes hockey 12 month of the year. Maybe he's hurt, maybe it's something else but I wouldn't think he doesn't care.

That being said, JC is clearly upset with some players and the ice time this weekend should reflect that. Saad and Dach should get more ice time for sure.

*NEW* blog up: http://bit.ly/2NbS1hZ

Perlini asks for trade + Hawks stink up the UC

I think you meant Lehner.
- LAHawk

Acid flashback.

I know this will be a long post, but here are exceprts from October 17th, Todd McLellan (a coach with experience and pedigree)

Postgame Quotes

Todd McLellan, on whether 47 shots on the scoreboard represented “a good thing” or “a bad thing”:
A bad thing because the three and the zero are right underneath ‘em. That’s what you play for, you don’t play for 47 shots. Before I come and talk to you guys all the time, I think about what the game was like and the things that we did well and didn’t do well. We’ll take the 47 shots. I think the offense will come and come back if we continue to play aggressively. We’ve got to get hungrier in and around the paint. The secondary chances we get have to get up. Everything’s on the ice and we don’t get anything up and over, but that’s not my concern. My concern is our approach to the game early tonight. The same line, two shifts in a row, made the same mistake. Like, you think you’d learn the first time. So, that’s a concern of ours. We’re not giving up much, but we’re giving up long opportunities form end-to-end, and it continually has hurt us since training camp. Eventually, guys are going to have to get it or we’ll be chasing games forever.

McLellan, on whether the long chances against are inherently the “risk-reward part of the system”:
No, that’s stupidity. They know exactly what they’re supposed to do. You can go sit there and I could point out the individuals you can go talk to. I, we, you, everybody understands that nobody’s perfect and there’s going to be mistakes. It’s sport, that’s what it’s all about, and we can live with that. But when you continually make the same one over and over again, you’re going to find your ass in the stands pretty quickly. Like I told them between periods, we’re going to continue to play aggressively, and we’re going to find guys that can play in the system, and if they can’t play, then they’re going to watch. Pretty simple.

McLellan, on the five-on-three:
Late in the second we created a couple opportunities. We’ve got a guy that’s scored 400 NHL goals with a slapper from the hashmarks. He had two of ‘em and put it over the net. We pay him handsomely to put those in, and he’s got to do that. It was great that we created those opportunities. Coming into the third, I thought we weren’t very sharp on it. At the back end of that power play we did have some chances, but we had the A-unit off and the B-unit on, and they created a little bit more. [Reporter: Does it compound it when that same player who missed the net takes three minor penalties in the game?] It does, because I thought one of them was for himself. You know what? You’ve got to stick up for yourselves sometimes, but we don’t want him in the box, we don’t want guys in the box against the second-ranked power play in the league, obviously. So that’s something we can talk about and we can fix that quickly. That’s not a huge issue. But my biggest concern is how we approached the game with certain individuals. You may have scored 10, 12, 14, 15 goals last year. You think you’re going to 25 and giving up 30? It’s not going to work that way

Then here is quotes from last night:

Todd McLellan, on measuring up against the Stanley Cup champions:
Well, there are a lot of stories within the game. Obviously, the special teams, you know I’m going to answer that question. We were drilled on the penalty kill, our power play wasn’t sharp. But more importantly for me, it was above and beyond structure tonight. I though they were just harder. They stripped pucks, they won battles and small area gains that we didn’t win, they were always ahead of us. They got us tired and hemmed in our zone. So, a lot of it for me was the physicality in small areas that we just weren’t very good in. I expect our guys to be a little bit better. We have some guys that play that type of game that really didn’t perform very well tonight.

Interesting it is basically the same message that JC said last night. Teams are similar, past decade success, ageing core, and trying to reload on the fly, saddled with unmovable long term contracts.

I guess my point is, it doesn't matter whether you have a new or an experienced coach, it is still up to the players to want it.

how many bonehead turnovers and poor positioning leading to odd man transition:

I counted 8:

3 goals
2 offside reversals
2 missed the net
1 save by lehner

how many bonehead turnovers and poor positioning leading to odd man transition:

I counted 8:

3 goals
2 offside reversals
2 missed the net
1 save by lehner
- bogiedoc

I had the Vegas crew stream for their game and they had "D Zone Turnovers" listed with their main stats. Probably showed it 10 times or more throughout the night. Hawks had 3, knights 0 at some point in the second. I can't remember the final numbers.

Hawks had at least 5 in the first period last night and we able to minimize a few but that is not a good trend.

Those D Zone turnovers and giveaways are gonna bury this team.