Thursday, March 12, 2009

So Many Coaching Questions, and a Heartbreaking OT Loss


Penner defends Hemsky and then never sees the ice again? Unless he got hurt in that fight that was absolute bullshit. He seemed to be playing with fire prior to that fight as well.

O'Sullivan and Cogliano in OT together? 2 speedy guys that like to SHOOT. Meanwhile Nilsson (who is magical 4 on 4 with Cogs) doesn't get a single OT shift. PISANI is Gagner's wing man, seriously, WTF? It's not too hard to figure this shit out MacT...

Horcoff-Hemsky
Cogliano-Nilsson
Gagner-O'Sullivan

The horses are here people but someone has to empty the stalls of the horse shit (MacT) before the flies (losses) continue to find their way into the barn. Brutal, stupid, worthless, stubborned, and piss poor, that about sums up the coaching on this team at the moment. Blame whoever you want, but when the coach doesn't put the right guys on the ice together, it's the coach.

The fans were electric, Gagner was buzzing, and this is how this story ends. BTW-WTF was Kotalik doing passing up that shot to drop pass to Hemsky? Time to break that duo up.

O'Sullivan-Horcoff-Hemsky
Nilsson-Gagner-Kotalik
Penner-Cogliano-Pisani
Moreau-Brodziak-Stortini

That's what the lineup should look like.

13 comments:

Nathan said...

Almost broke my remote after watching gilbert whiff his stick on a catchable puck. He panics worse than anyone else in the defensive zone. If Mactavish ruins O'Sullivan im gonna have to resort to hate mail.

Bryanbryoil said...

We've lacked top 6 scoring so what does he do? Toss him on the 3rd line. This guy is dumber than a sack of hammers.

O'Sullivan is a guy that I really enjoy watching, hopefully there's a new coach next year of I'll be shredding him for screwing with O'Sullivan like I have shredded him for screwing with Schremp, Nilsson, and Penner.

Jonathan Willis said...

So you scratch Pouliot after two of his best games this season? (Two games where he outplayed most of the lineup, btw).

And you keep Kotalik in the top-6? What, pray tell, as he done to deserve that spot?

Bryanbryoil said...

I can't speak for the game prior to last nights game, but Pouliot has had much better games than what he had last night. Namely with Cole and Moreau (IIRC) and with Cogliano and Schremp.

Kotalik should get a shot on another line away from Hemsky, their friendship seems to be affecting the way that they play the game. A shooter like Kotalik shouldn't be making that drop pass that he did late in the 3rd yesterday. They're trying too hard to keep eachother happy and as a result it's hurting both of their production.

If Kotalik doesn't get his game together soon, he really isn't helping our team at all and we wasted a 2nd round pick on him.

Chester-not said...

I am gonna go out on a lim here and say that even if MacT did take your advice here and play those lines, you would find something else to complain about that he did wrong.

kassam said...

Penner got seventeen minutes in penalty at the 10 minute mark of the second period.

He wasn't on the bench until ten minutes into the third. You want the coach to throw him in there in the last ten minutes after sitting for an hour?

Penner's fight was beautiful and I believe he will be rewarded for it in Saturday's game. I'm sure he got recognition in the dressing room too but putting him in the game after being out of the game for so long does not make sense.

P.S. I do think MacT should be fired but he did what he had to last night with Penner after that fight.

Bryanbryoil said...

Kassam-Ask yourself this, if it were Moreau that did the same thing would he have seen ice in the 3rd?

Darren-Maybe, but if I felt that he did a good job of line mixing I wouldn't be wanting him canned in the first place. BTW-How's the Kotalik experiment going? If I were coach O'Sullivan would be slotted on that LW the second that he joined the team.

Chester-not said...

I didn't say I agreed with his moves, because I do sit on my couch and wonder why Pisani is out there over someowne lik Nilsson in OT after Nilsson has had a good game.
My point basically is, your blog seems to have 2 purposes. Have Shremp play in the NHL and fire MacT. While each blog posted contains valid arguements, when you argue the same thing over and over, who wants to keep listening? It becomes less and less effective with each post and starts sounding like my son whining that he doesn't want to go bed over and over again.
MacT has made alot of headscratching decisions, but have you ever conisdered that they just are not that good?

Bryanbryoil said...

Darren, until I see these players under a different coach, I reserve the opinion that MacT isn't getting everything out of his players. Who has overachieved this year? Oh yeah, hardly anyone really. Roli is really the only guy that I'd point at.

Chester-not said...

You are certianly entitled to that opinion, and there are very valid points to it as well. As for overachieving, I would say that these players overachieved the last 20 games of last year, raising expectations for this year, but all that really happened was these players reverted back to their regular standard of play. Do you really think that having Penner play at the end of the game after actually doing something would've changed the course of the game? Or having the players stated as you said out in OT would really had tipped the balance of the game? I think the differences are marginal at best if you look at the results of the whole season.

Bryanbryoil said...

If you go that route then a coaching change is never needed. IMO good coaching brings out the best in players.

Jonathan Willis said...

BBO: Except that Kotalik has collected all his points on the powerplay for two years running, and his even-strength offensive production was so bad that Lindy Ruff stopped using him in the top six years ago.

He's not a top-six player.

Bryanbryoil said...

Jonathan, Ruff also has more weapons to choose from in Buffalo. If he can't cut it in our top 6 then A) we shouldn't have traded for him and B) we sure as hell shouldn't sign him next year.