Paul McCann: Game Night - The "What's Wrong" Edition

From my experience, I would say the problem is likely coaching

As great as Poile Is as a G.M. he made a huge mistake by hiring Hynes, When you fire one of the top 5 coaches In the league and replace him with a guy with a ZERO resume this Is the result.

There's really nothing confounding about this team. This team is playing right into what I was expecting, at least.

And why should anyone have expected differently? The GM was clear and concise on what the plan was for this team entering the offseason with a disappointing end to last season. Wash out some of the old, stagnant, non-productive pieces and give the kids a shot. He didn't follow through. Each game feels like watching Poile's last stand, and it's a miserable failure.

Hynes talked all offseason and preseason about culture & mentality. What a crock of poop. The culture is about as damning as I've ever seen. At least when we sucked in the early years under Trotz, the team cared. There are absolutely no signs of leadership or accountability on this roster. How about getting your doors blown off after a players only, closed door meeting? Embarassing.

So where does this team go from here? We're currently watching a team of misfits, some being guys that will be playing in different cities in a month or two, some that are under contracts that the Preds will suffer from for several more years. No exciting young talent, outside of maybe Forsberg, Tolvanen, and Fabbro, to watch on a nightly basis. A front office that couldn't recognize offensive talent if it slapped them in the face. A head coach that's failed at one stop already and quickly trending the wrong direction here.

Outside of all of this, I'm not sure what's gone wrong.

Is it really all that confounding? The contending version of Nashville was a team comprised of an elite D corps, elite goaltending (at least in the regular season, maybe more like near-Elite overall) a serviceable group of forwards with no truly great threats and great coaching. Now the D-corps is good to very good, goaltending is mediocre at best, the forward group is mediocre at best and they have a failed coach who was intensely disliked by both fans and players at his previous stop. Plus Duchene has been a room cancer on every team he's been at.

A bunch of off-season band-aids by the most overrated GM in pro sports history weren't going to materially change any of that. This is what it looks like when a window has mostly closed but the organization wants to pretend it hasn't.

As great as Poile Is as a G.M. he made a huge mistake by hiring Hynes, When you fire one of the top 5 coaches In the league and replace him with a guy with a ZERO resume this Is the result.
- Shady1962

how does this help make the case that he's a great GM?

name one thing he's done to qualify for the label. drafting doesn't really count (and it hasn't been good in a long time so that wouldn't matter anyway)

Knee jerk react,and,hire a losing coach!

Get a losing team.

Watching this team this year has been like watching a dog puke at Center Ice. I'm not gona go on another long rant on what's wrong with this team and Poile, I've already done that twice.

I'll never actively root against my team, but losing and losing badly might not be the worst thing for the Preds right now. At the very least it'll get Hynes fired, but this franchise needs a major cultural and structural shift from the top down and I'm afraid it's going to take something drastic to get Poile out of the GM position. I'm reluctant to ever dunk on the ownership group, but at times they do seem more concerned with the entertainment side of things rather than the hockey side. It's going to take something like a real dumpster fire for a season or a massive dip in ticket sales for DP's human shield of bullet proof glass to finally crack. Skimming along as a frustratingly average team just isn't going to get the job done.

how does this help make the case that he's a great GM?

name one thing he's done to qualify for the label. drafting doesn't really count (and it hasn't been good in a long time so that wouldn't matter anyway)
- farooge

Sam Girard in the 2nd round was a nice get. He's in the Top 10 in scoring for that draft and he's known more for his defense.

Sam Girard in the 2nd round was a nice get. He's in the Top 10 in scoring for that draft and he's known more for his defense.
- FoppaForever

Agreed, but I'd say trading him for Turris negates the positive.

Also, that's a draft pick.

Sam Girard in the 2nd round was a nice get. He's in the Top 10 in scoring for that draft and he's known more for his defense.
- FoppaForever

Who he turned around and traded for Kyle Turris, just a piece of that King's ransom. How much he actually gave up to get Turris is gross even without the hindsight. No one's ever questioned his ability to draft defensive talent. The number of forwards he's drafted high in the past twenty+ years that have actually made an impact on the team you can count on one hand though. He's been an abysmal failure in that department. It's no wonder he trades away half his draft picks for other teams spare parts. It's like he knows he sucks at it.