Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward
I'm going to edit down to the important parts of two of Dan's posts today, and cut to the chase. In short, I think it's a clear issue of coaching tactics WAY more than poring over raw data, and working to get the right guys with the right skill sets into the right positions to shore up a key special team issue where it's obvious improvement can be made. Let's start here ...
See? Problem identified, both tactically (too much space, too passive up top) AND personnel-wise (3rd & 4th line forwards, with more energy and focus). Not at all unlike NHL-level coaches over the course of my lifetime, where guys like Harry Sinden (B's) and Scotty Bowman (Habs, etc. etc.) and most of their contemporaries - and probably well before them, but I can't comment on Toe Blake or Jack Adams or their ilk 'cuz I wasn't around back then - who would regularly identify 3rd and 4th line forwards (and sometimes even trade for them) to specifically handle PK duties. Nothing new and/or revolutionary there, requiring an army of analytics gurus. Heck - MS7 can refer back to his own college coach, who 20 years ago was sending out a kid like Johnny Rogers (and others like him) to kill penalties regularly, against the best and brightest of the opposition's PP units.
As you stated … I don't care what the goals allowed look like, I just care that there are less allowed in the future than there have been so far this season. Back-door plays aren't as easy as they look - although they do look fantastic when then do come off. It's a PK, and the inherent part is it's supposed to be a disadvantage, so you're gonna have to live with giving up some goals anyway. So what if one of them might end up on "Sports Center" or something? It still only counts as one allowed … and as is often the case in those shows anyway, how often is it that you hear "Bla Bla scored this amazing goal tonight but Bla Bla's team lost 4-2"? BC has ALWAYS utilized a pressuring PK over most (if not all) of the years Coach York has been there. So press, be aggressive, set a tone, fortune favors the brave, etc.
It's honestly not that complicated. Try stuff out, in real live game situations, and when it works, great. If it doesn't work - and it hasn't been working, we all agree - then try something else. What do you have to lose, when there's so much more to be gained. You're the coach - that's your job, and it's why you're here, and Coach Umile is sunning himself down in Cabo or Ibiza, or Rye.
I'm 99.99% positive MS7 is already aware, and working on this anyway. Last night will just give him a terrific fresh example to discuss with the guys this week at practice. Because, as they say, "the definition of insanity is repeating the same mistakes over and over again and expecting a different result". And MS7 doesn't impress me as being insane. Or not yet anyway.
JMHO.
I'm going to edit down to the important parts of two of Dan's posts today, and cut to the chase. In short, I think it's a clear issue of coaching tactics WAY more than poring over raw data, and working to get the right guys with the right skill sets into the right positions to shore up a key special team issue where it's obvious improvement can be made. Let's start here ...
See? Problem identified, both tactically (too much space, too passive up top) AND personnel-wise (3rd & 4th line forwards, with more energy and focus). Not at all unlike NHL-level coaches over the course of my lifetime, where guys like Harry Sinden (B's) and Scotty Bowman (Habs, etc. etc.) and most of their contemporaries - and probably well before them, but I can't comment on Toe Blake or Jack Adams or their ilk 'cuz I wasn't around back then - who would regularly identify 3rd and 4th line forwards (and sometimes even trade for them) to specifically handle PK duties. Nothing new and/or revolutionary there, requiring an army of analytics gurus. Heck - MS7 can refer back to his own college coach, who 20 years ago was sending out a kid like Johnny Rogers (and others like him) to kill penalties regularly, against the best and brightest of the opposition's PP units.
As you stated … I don't care what the goals allowed look like, I just care that there are less allowed in the future than there have been so far this season. Back-door plays aren't as easy as they look - although they do look fantastic when then do come off. It's a PK, and the inherent part is it's supposed to be a disadvantage, so you're gonna have to live with giving up some goals anyway. So what if one of them might end up on "Sports Center" or something? It still only counts as one allowed … and as is often the case in those shows anyway, how often is it that you hear "Bla Bla scored this amazing goal tonight but Bla Bla's team lost 4-2"? BC has ALWAYS utilized a pressuring PK over most (if not all) of the years Coach York has been there. So press, be aggressive, set a tone, fortune favors the brave, etc.
It's honestly not that complicated. Try stuff out, in real live game situations, and when it works, great. If it doesn't work - and it hasn't been working, we all agree - then try something else. What do you have to lose, when there's so much more to be gained. You're the coach - that's your job, and it's why you're here, and Coach Umile is sunning himself down in Cabo or Ibiza, or Rye.
I'm 99.99% positive MS7 is already aware, and working on this anyway. Last night will just give him a terrific fresh example to discuss with the guys this week at practice. Because, as they say, "the definition of insanity is repeating the same mistakes over and over again and expecting a different result". And MS7 doesn't impress me as being insane. Or not yet anyway.
JMHO.
