Monday, April 14, 2008

Dennis Wideman plays 10 minutes more than J-M Liles

Memo to Claude Julien
Defensive suggestions:
  • Show your players a map of the defensive zone, with "Little Billy"-type directions if need be. The reason the PK is so good is that the guys seem most comfortable when they can sit back and blindly whip the puck out of the zone, but 5-on-5 they have to be cleaner and more aggressive. They can't be if they don't know who or where to attack.
  • Only Andrew Ference and Zdeno Chara make sound decisions in all three zones, and only sometimes. Keep it as simple as possible for your defensemen and take measures to insulate their inevitable mistakes.
  • Dennis Wideman is talented. He is also dumb. Do not put him out on the penalty kill. Do not put him out with Aaron Ward or Mark Stuart.
  • Stuart and Shane Hnidy are terrifying, and not in a good way. Split them up and please, please play Andrew Alberts. A lot, if possible.
  • Never forget Tim Thomas. Buy his children extravagant gifts.
Offensive suggestions:
  • Please develop a forechecking system that doesn't consist of one forward running the defensemen and hoping they make an egregious error while his linemates watch interestedly from a distance. This may occasionally force a mistake, but a forecheck that relies on the opposing defense sucking might backfire against some teams. Try running Chris Pronger and waiting for Scott Niedermayer to panic.
  • I know you don't like Phil Kessel, but every time Jeremy Reich is on the ice I die a little inside. Phil is pissed off enough now to "grind it out" like you want, and as a plus he actually has talent.
  • For the love of all that is holy, keep Milan Lucic and Marc Savard together. It's a favor to Savard, trust me. And skate Marco Sturm with that line instead of Glen Murray- he's played well since game one. If you like Muzz too much to bench him, put him on a young, energetic line (ie with Kessel), but something must be done with that man.
  • After a Montreal goal, immediately put out either the Savvy-Lucic line or the Metropolit-Schaefer line. Skate Sobotka with Metropolit-Schaefer.
  • When you yell at the refs, look angry, not like a constipated duck. (Too offensive of a suggestion?)

The Avs coaching situation is above my head. I can't even pinpoint what's wrong- just that no one seems to really know what they're doing. Any success players have seems to come from natural talent alone, and even that has been stifled in a few cases. I can criticize Julien because I can tell what he's trying to do; I can't criticize Quenneville because it doesn't appear that he's trying to do anything. I give him credit with the defensemen, as he has both paired them up well and played them in appropriate situations, but like many people I believe he has mismanaged the forwards. Consistency has been the main problem, with some forwards being immediately chastised for somewhat weak games and some immune to punishment after a season of suckiness. My memo to Joel Quenneville is simply this:
Smyth-Stastny-Forsberg
Wolski-Sakic-Hejduk
Brunette-Hlinka-Jones
McLeod-Guite-Laperriere
Stick with it for the whole game and see if the offensive zone gets detangled a little.

Go Avs, Go B's, and for god's sake someone beat the Red Wings
-Katie O'D

3 comments:

jimbuff said...

Some great points there Katie. Especially about the defense.

I disagree with your Kessel assessment and would keep him out until next season - he is still to individualistic for a team game. Let him stay steamed all summer and maybe he might get the point - also the team's 2 games with out him were better played, don't mess with a good thing.

I agree with the rest of your points - well done.

ps - you seem to really like Ference, is it because he is our littlest defenseman :)

Katie O'D said...

Kessel does still need some work, and maybe you're right about messing with a good thing, but we could use his speed (badly in the offensive zone). Also, for a player that young, sitting him for the rest of the year might do more harm than good.

I definitely play favorites with Ference, eh? Just have a soft spot for players that work hard...and the short thing may have something to do with it. He looked terrible in OT last night, though.

jimbuff said...

I'm a big Ference fan also. I liked him since his days in Calgary - no one appreciates hard working players (players full of heart and desire) more than I do. Like I always say, "will over skill".

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