NHL 2017 -Official Discussion Thread

[Smitty-48]

See, the thing is, Roy came in at just the wrong moment for guys like MacKinnon, Duchene, and Barrie, if it was the Pittsburgh Penguins, not that they would put up with Roy, but it wouldn't matter, Roy couldn't mess them up, as players, whereas with a young team, Roy was exactly the wrong thing.

It's exactly the same as Ron Wilson and the Leafs, Ron Wison set guys like Kadri and Rielly way back, and now Babs is having to come in and undo all that damage and re-train them, starting over basically, particularly on the defensive side of the game, and that's the sort of thing Tippett would do with the Avs as well.

With Tippett, I see Mackinnon going from the Avs MacKinnon we saw last year, to the MacKinnon we saw in the World Cup and World Championships, into the Auston Matthews zone that is, because he's that kind of player, who just isn't getting the direction he needs, he's only 21, and he's never had a top flight NHL coach.

Imagine if MacKinnon had come up under Joe Quenneville? He'd be way ahead of where he is now, why did the Avs fire Quenneville again?

[Smitty-48]

They get rid of Q, for Patrick Roy, Tony Granato, Joe Sacco, and Jared Bednar? A revolving door instability of coaches who don't know what they're doing? Whose running this team, Harold Ballard?

Dave Tippett, yo, even Bednar would admit it was the right thing to do.

[StCapps]

See, the thing is, Roy came in at just the wrong moment for guys like MacKinnon, Duchene, and Barrie, if it was the Pittsburgh Penguins, not that they would put up with Roy, but it wouldn't matter, Roy couldn't mess them up, as players, whereas with a young team, Roy was exactly the wrong thing.

It's exactly the same as Ron Wilson and the Leafs, Ron Wison set guys like Kadri and Rielly way back, and now Babs is having to come in and undo all that damage and re-train them, starting over basically, particularly on the defensive side of the game, and that's the sort of thing Tippett would do with the Avs as well.

With Tippett, I see Mackinnon going from the Avs MacKinnon we saw last year, to the MacKinnon we saw in the World Cup and World Championships, into the Auston Matthews zone that is, because he's that kind of player, who just isn't getting the direction he needs, he's only 21, and he's never had a top flight NHL coach.

Imagine if MacKinnon had come up under Joe Quenneville? He'd be way ahead of where he is now, why did the Avs fire Quenneville again?

We fired Quenneville because the Avs expected him to turn the franchise around over night after losing all their best players to retirement and not being good anymore, and then they didn't. Despite that he was still a 43-44 win coach for three seasons. We fired him to bring in Joe Sacco, genius move boys.


I'm sure the Blackhawks appreciate the Avalanches stupidity.

[Smitty-48]

Now's the time to strike and take advantage of Arizona's stupidity.

[StCapps]

Now's the time to strike and take advantage of Arizona's stupidity.

They did miss the playoffs five years in a row, that's enough to get most coaches fired, usually.

[Smitty-48]

Now's the time to strike and take advantage of Arizona's stupidity.

They did miss the playoffs seven of the last eight seasons, that's enough to get most coaches fired, usually.

They don't have the assets that the Avs have, they don't have MacKinnon, and tell you what, Tippett could mend the bridges with Duchene, what you say Babs could do for Duchene in Toronto, Tippett is just like Babs, could do the same.

Tippett wasn't fired for not making the playoffs, the owner has just started playing GM down there, Tippett just refused to go along, and rightly so, because the owner is not making things better, he's making them a lot worse.

[Smitty-48]

Tippett and Babs are cut from the same cloth, highly structured technical coaches who have a very detailed game plan and tell the players exactly what they want them to do, right down to the smallest detail, and this is liberating for the players, this is what they need, "just tell me exactly what you want, and I'll do it, there's no sense yelling at me or making fun of me, I'm ready to do whatever, but you have to know exactly what you want me to do."

With Tippett, now your maxing the MacKinnon, Tippett could get out of him, what Babs gets from Matthews, all that is needed in Colorado, is structure and direction, from somebody who actually knows how to coach at the elite level.

[Smitty-48]

The problem in Arizona ain't that complex, they simply have not hit at the draft on a big horse to carry the load, no McDavid, no Matthews, no MacKinnon, with MacKinnon alone, Colorado is way ahead of Arizona, you give Tippett a MacKinnon, now you're in business.

The Leafs wandered the no big horse wilderness ever since Mats left town, didn't matter what coaches and wingers you tried to make into something, no big horse, not going anywhere, once they combined Babcock with the big horse tho; boom, playoffs, right away.

Ekman-Larsson is only two years away from UFA, Arizona should actually see if Edmonton would trade them Draisaitl for two years of Ekman-Larsson with some extras in a package, maybe Dylan Strome.

[Hastur]

Can someone explain why Timothy Liljegren was selected by Niagara Ice Dogs in the CHL Import Draft. It makes no sense to me.

Drafting him just in case he ever decided to come play Major Junior, like the Leafs second round pick Rasanen, who was imported drafted by Kingston Frontenac. Whether or not Liljegren ever pans out to be an NHL star, he would definitely light up the OHL, so what the heck, maybe they didn't have any other import players which were of any interest to them, so they just burned the pick on a long shot. He can of course go straight to the A like Nylander did, but just on the off chance he might want to try a year of OHL first apparently.

Mind you, playing in the O would be smart of him, better NHL style coaching, if he was dominating that would just help his game get back on track, and CHL play would up his NHL stock considerably, as even tho boys, better league than Europe in terms of NHL style competition.

Rogle in Switzerland is a good development program, but nowhere near as fierce in terms of competition, game not as fast, players not a skilled.

If you look at Nylander v. Marner, similar elite level skill, Nylander better shot, Marner better vision, but Marner has the much more complete NHL game, even tho Nylander was a centre and Marner was winger, in the NHL, Marner could play centre right now, Nylander not so much.

OK. Got it.
Guess he will stay in Rögle next season then. It's a Swedish club btw not Swiss.
I thought they might have done it just to spite Mark Hunter who reportedly wanted him to play for the London Knights.

[Smitty-48]

OK. Got it.
Guess he will stay in Rögle next season then. It's a Swedish club btw not Swiss.

Switzerland, Sweden, same thing, bear in mind, my country is as big as your whole continent, it's like the difference between New Brunswick and PEI, which, again, same thing.

I thought they might have done it just to spite Mark Hunter who reportedly wanted him to play for the London Knights.

Nah, trades are pretty easy to execute in the OHL, if London really wanted him, they could get him, there's no salaries to worry about or anything like that, however, I think the Leafs just want stability, the reason they pulled Nylander out of Sweden was because Modo was a mess, if they think Rogle is not getting it done, they'll prolly do the same thing. Really tho, Liljegren's skating is so elite, he could play in the AHL right now, so if they feel the need, they'll bring him to the Marlboros and hand him over to Sheldon Keefe.

I don't know why, maybe it's just Nylander, but I don't think Liljegren is that far away, they won't rush him, he's got to put some more muscle mass on, and that will take a year or two, but I think it will be Sweden this year, Marlies next year, Leafs the year after that, because it really just comes down to man strength, other than that, he's too good for the AHL already.

The rap on him in the media is that he's bad defensively, but that's not what the scouts say, they say he's actually quite responsible defensively, and he's not afraid to engage physically, the issue is more that he is so good with the puck, he tries to do too much, he's too fancy, so it's more about getting him to simplify his game, know when to go and not to go basically.