Sunday, December 12, 2010

If George McPhee Isn't Looking Up Craig MacTavish's Number Right Now, He's Probably Breaching a Fiduciary Duty or Two



I was at this game and the highlights don't do justice as to how atrocious it was.

And re this incident from the previous night:



Don't ever do it again. It was a selfish penalty. Liles hit him a couple of times but this is hockey not Tiddlywinks. You've got to suck that up and can't do what he did. I think at that point in time we had 8-0 in shots on goal, we had everything going our way and then you've got to kill a penalty for five minutes.
- Boudreau

Kind of odd that a coach in the midst of a 5-game (soon to become 6) game losing streak, despite the most complete - in terms of both experience (age and youth) and functionality (scorers and grinders) - and stacked - in terms of elite offensive level talent (OV, Semin, Backs, Green) - NHL roster would call out and vilify the team's most consistently productive player, a player who leads them, by a far margin, in EV and PP scoring efficiency, and who plays an important and effective role on the PK as well, for basically defending himself, after a career in which it's become painfully clear that NHL refs have no interest in doing so. What a joke. And the team responded as they should: with no desire in saving the job of a hokey, "golly, gee" faux-charismatic bench boss who's better suited to leading the Wheeling Nailers to the Kelly Cup than matching wits against the Babcocks and Vigneaults of this world. I used to be of the opinion that common sense and decency mandated that he be given this year to go at least as far as 3 rounds before being axed, but I don't think GMGM has any choice but to start spinning the rolodex (scrolling through the BBM list) to see who else knows enough about the Caps (and not the silly MSM narrative - high octane offensive w/o the defense or goaltending or grit) to start ASAP. It's going to take some time to undo all the coddling OV's received and all the bad habits - both on the ice and off - he's picked up. And the new guy has to know enough to play 8-19-28 together for an extended period.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

just watched the hockey vid. what am i supposed to gather from this?

imbroglioh said...

that rage and indignation can be powerful motivators.

Anonymous said...

Painfully obvious that this team needs a coach, unfortunately I don't see a coach being able to change these players in such short time.

These guys should be practicing cycle on the boards, especially Ovechkin, his cycle play is the worst on the team, he has no clue how to use his large frame to protect the puck, seems like he is worried someone will try to hit him so he doesn't like to go to the corners and work the boards.
You can't win this way, until this team learns to cycle the puck and win board battles and control the puck on the boards and learn how to protect the puck, this teams top 2 lines will never get anyone past the 2nd round of playoffs.