MSL and Staff

[H_T_L]

Curious who replaces Richardson?

[ramcharger440]

Yeah me too! if we get the right guy it will enhance our young guys development the wrong guy will wreck them! so this is a big one to get right! it may be a case of having a bench coach and another guy back home to work on things that need sharpening up. with so many young Dmen coming up it will be important to have the support there for them.

[CaptWelly]

20 hours ago, ramcharger440 said:

Yeah me too! if we get the right guy it will enhance our young guys development the wrong guy will wreck them! so this is a big one to get right! it may be a case of having a bench coach and another guy back home to work on things that need sharpening up. with so many young Dmen coming up it will be important to have the support there for them.

I never buy the "coach will ruin them". The NHL is tough and a mans league this is "Professional " sports. The e are professional athletes making big money. If they get benched yelled at ect. , suck it up , don't whine and prove them wrong. If a rookie can't take criticism then they need to toughen up. It's the NHL I don't care what anyone did in any other league or where they're drafted. All need to earn ice time and learn. 

[ramcharger440]

5 hours ago, CaptWelly said:

I never buy the "coach will ruin them". The NHL is tough and a mans league this is "Professional " sports. The e are professional athletes making big money. If they get benched yelled at ect. , suck it up , don't whine and prove them wrong. If a rookie can't take criticism then they need to toughen up. It's the NHL I don't care what anyone did in any other league or where they're drafted. All need to earn ice time and learn. 

Yeah.... so DD or MSL? one had CC on his way to the minors the other had him playing lights out! just one example how about Therrien he would pick favorites and play them just because they were vets even when the results showed it was not working. It may just be my opinion but with all the kids we have coming into our D corps we better get it right!

[Regis22]

1 hour ago, ramcharger440 said:

 It may just be my opinion but with all the kids we have coming into our D corps we better get it right!

It’s not the quantity of kids , it’s the quality . Every year we say how great all the prospects we have are and then 1, 2, 3 years later rinse and repeat . And only time will tell if any of these kids are NHL material . 

[ramcharger440]

9 hours ago, Regis22 said:

It’s not the quantity of kids , it’s the quality . Every year we say how great all the prospects we have are and then 1, 2, 3 years later rinse and repeat . And only time will tell if any of these kids are NHL material . 

Oh I agree! but I also feel we have a very good group of young talent coming up on D. I feel like Guhle is a can't miss and Harris looked really good last year for the games he played as well. We also have Barron who may pan out and Mailloux could be good as well to me the trick is not to hang them out to fail as we have in the past or send  them down bring them up all the time! bring them when you feel they are ready and get them up to speed and be ready to live with the mistakes for a year or two if the team does that we will have a good solid puck moving D corps that can hit too.

[Regis22]

57 minutes ago, ramcharger440 said:

…and Mailloux could be good as well 

He’s never playing for the Habs IMO . He’s played 16 or so games over the last two years so unless he has a stellar breakout season in the OHL the Habs will let him walk and take the compulsory pick in his place ( 63 I think it is in ) . 

[ramcharger440]

12 minutes ago, Regis22 said:

He’s never playing for the Habs IMO . He’s played 16 or so games over the last two years so unless he has a stellar breakout season in the OHL the Habs will let him walk and take the compulsory pick in his place ( 63 I think it is in ) . 

You may be right time will tell.

[jennifer_rocket]

23 minutes ago, Regis22 said:

He’s never playing for the Habs IMO . He’s played 16 or so games over the last two years so unless he has a stellar breakout season in the OHL the Habs will let him walk and take the compulsory pick in his place ( 63 I think it is in ) . 

I think he'll earn himself an ELC with the Habs, but not until the end of his next Junior season. There's no need to rush him. I think the Habs will be fair with their evaluation of his talent. He just needs to stay healthy and have a good season!

[BigTed3]

Saw this online today about why MSL is a better coach than what we had under Bergevin... Michel Therrien, what a terrible coach and what a disgrace as to how he treated people. So glad to have MSL and HuGo here, people who seem competent and treat others with respect. Big change from the Therrien/Bergevin era.

 

[maas_art]

28 minutes ago, BigTed3 said:

So glad to have MSL and HuGo here, people who seem competent and treat others with respect. Big change from the Therrien/Bergevin era.

Agree.  They may not be able to build a winner, who knows, but at least they have a plan and seem to understand the idea of treating people with respect.  Guys like Torts, Therrien etc can be fine in small doses but they always - always - wear out their welcome 'cause yelling and screaming at people only gets you so far. 

[jennifer_rocket]

Stephane Robidas named assistant coach.

[Regis22]

Lol .. that’s the guy Lou L stuck on “ Robidas Island “ to get his contract off the Leafs book 

[claremont]

13 minutes ago, Regis22 said:

Lol .. that’s the guy Lou L stuck on “ Robidas Island “ to get his contract off the Leafs book 

Very true - Could be not a bad choice. He was a 7th round draft choice who by grit and work ethic carved out a long but not flashy career despite his size 5-11 190lbs. Sometimes the best coaches turn out to be those that overcame some obstacles vs. sheer talent, and survived by execution and acquiring techniques and hockey sense / smarts along the way. I do hope he can mold an effective group, and pass on his knowledge of what it takes to be successful.  

[maas_art]

Always tough to know how these guys (Assistants) will work out. I still have faith that HuGo, MSL, Vinny etc have a plan & now what they are looking for.

I am surprised we didnt add a more senior assistant but we shall see how it works out. 

[Regis22]

1 hour ago, maas_art said:

I am surprised we didnt add a more senior assistant but we shall see how it works out. 

Im surprised we didn’t hire a more senior head coach 😂 but I’m willing to give the guys a chance . Anything is better than re hiring the same old guys 

[ramcharger440]

18 minutes ago, Regis22 said:

Im surprised we didn’t hire a more senior head coach 😂 but I’m willing to give the guys a chance . Anything is better than re hiring the same old guys 

Amen to that! new blood new ideas!

[maas_art]

Off topic a little but if there was ever any question whether TSN was Toronto-centric:

Stephan Robidas... 11 years with the stars, 3 years with the habs,  52 games with the leafs... so they show him in a leaf's jersey. 

 

[jennifer_rocket]

1 hour ago, maas_art said:

Off topic a little but if there was ever any question whether TSN was Toronto-centric:

Stephan Robidas... 11 years with the stars, 3 years with the habs,  52 games with the leafs... so they show him in a leaf's jersey. 

 

I also thought that was strange. I didn't even remember him playing for the Leafs. 

[maas_art]

11 minutes ago, jennifer_rocket said:

I also thought that was strange. I didn't even remember him playing for the Leafs. 

Im sure they would say its because "it was the last place he played" but considering he spent most of his career with Dallas that makes the most sense - or - since he signed with us as an assistant then Montreal's colours would also make sense but, you know, leafs fans.... 

[Graeme-1]

The strong (at least in a relative sense) start is showing that last year's early success for MSL may not have just been a fluke. As much as I loved what I was seeing with MSL last year, I was concerned because it all felt a little "too good to be true" that someone could make the jump from coaching their kids pee-wee team to the NHL (cue all the jokes about a pee-wee coach being exactly what last year's team needed).

But now to come back a second season and the young players looking even better and playing strong as a group, I'm starting to believe this could be for real. The players are not only playing well, but clearly developing, having fun, working hard, and truly playing as a team (far cry from when Kassian rolled over our goalie last year and no one seemed to care).

If he's for real as a developmental coach, then the big question is if he can transition to a successful "finish line" coach (in a lot of successful rebuilds, the coach who develops the players isn't the one who gets their name on the cup). If he can make this jump, potentially the best coach we've had in decades.

[H_T_L]

I think we need to give some serious credit to the new assistants this year too, in particular Robidas whom i think has done a first-class job with the kids. It's hard to fathom having to handle a couple rookies on D on an NHL team, much less having to deal with 4 on a full-time basis. My hats off to the guy.

[maas_art]

9 minutes ago, H_T_L said:

I think we need to give some serious credit to the new assistants this year too, in particular Robidas whom i think has done a first-class job with the kids. It's hard to fathom having to handle a couple rookies on D on an NHL team, much less having to deal with 4 on a full-time basis. My hats off to the guy.

well and not only that. Its not like your two vets are Hedman and Josi.  We have started the year with 4 (essentially) rookies + Savard and Wideman.  We should be losing every game by 5 goals!

[BigTed3]

1 hour ago, H_T_L said:

I think we need to give some serious credit to the new assistants this year too, in particular Robidas whom i think has done a first-class job with the kids. It's hard to fathom having to handle a couple rookies on D on an NHL team, much less having to deal with 4 on a full-time basis. My hats off to the guy.

 

48 minutes ago, maas_art said:

well and not only that. Its not like your two vets are Hedman and Josi.  We have started the year with 4 (essentially) rookies + Savard and Wideman.  We should be losing every game by 5 goals!

Although, not to dampen this thought too much, but the defensive success is a lot more attributable to goaltending than it is to the defensive play. Other than Harris-Kovacevic, the Habs have been outchanced in large part with the other D pairings on, and the PK has conceded a lot of scoring chances too. The goalies have really out-performed expectations. There's a stat called Goals Saved Above Average, which is as it implies, a way of quantifying how many saves a goalie made relative to what one would expect him to make if he were an average goalie... it's adjusted for the quality of scoring chance against him and so on. Basically Allen and Montembeault have stopped something like 12 more goals than you would have expected them to. Allen is one of the leaders in terms of absolute goals saved and Monty has one of the top rates of goals saved per ice time.

So while I agree that the rookies have been well-managed and done a nice job, the results we're seeing (especially on the PK) are unfortunately not because the D is playing airtight and more because the goalies have saved our bacon. If I was going to give any type of a shout-out to the assistants it would likely be to the goaltending coach more than anything. Montembeault's progression so far has been nothing short of remarkable.

[ramcharger440]

Yep Robidas has done a fine job at the start of the year everyone here thought our goaltending and our D were going to sink us hard! Just goes to show you we never know what is going to happen!