The fact that the 3rd line of Marchment-Lundell-Reinhart absolutely dominated Tampa on Tuesday was so great to watch. The depth in this lineup is insane.
And that's BEFORE beating #6 4-1. 4-0 and according to those rankings all the teams we beat are in the top half of the league.
I really can't get over how complete this team is. I mean a litttttle more defensive help wouldn't hurt ... But accari is out and huberdeau hasn't even scored a goal yet. And yet this team is on fire.
Didn't even think of Bobrovsky when the idea was all jumping on the Torts train. And of course that would happen when Bob actually did the impossible (so far) and became the goalie we paid for.
Exactly. Bob seemingly has his head on straight. He's been by the numbers the best goalie in the NHL to start the season. Why risk that at all with a coach like torts when there are plenty of good options available. Ex. Claude Julien.
Andrew Brunette. Was the PP coach under Q. Zero head coaching experience at any level, but there weren't really any better options on staff. I would assume they stick with Brunette for the time being and see if continuity keeps things moving in the right direction. If the team starts to fall off, they will look into guys like Claude Julien.
I don't know if you wait for that. you need to plan right fucking now who can lead a team to a Stanley Cup. This isn't a transition year where someone can grow. This is a winnable year. I'm not saying Brunette can't do it. But you can't wait imo. It's one thing if the head coach was in the org already ala Pat Riley/Stan Van Gundy thing. But you have a framework in place now. You need to decide who can take it home.
They made the right call in the short term elevating Brunette and i'd imagine it will be a collaborative effort anyways. Ulf Samuelsson was a HC in Sweden for a few years so at least there is some experience in that regard. They have a good group of veteran guys like Jumbo, Hornquist, Gudas, etc., so there's plenty of leadership in the dressing room. It's not even November yet, so unless the team falls off a cliff over the next few weeks, I'm not sure why you need to rush it.
Here's the thing though. Anyone you bring in from the outside is going to make changes. This isn't an underperforming team that needs a wake up call. They need as much to stay the same as possible.
Maybe. Depends how you manage it. You could find someone who could be brought in to manage and be a leader and still leave more on-ice decisions to the staff in place. Basically I want Ted Lasso.
I was under the impression he was just a short term solution and they are looking outside the organization for the HC for the rest of the season no?
They haven’t really said either way what the plan is. Either way. Every available head coach would love this job. Torts is practically begging for it right now
I'm honestly ok riding the Coach Bruno train for now. See if he can keep the team moving in the right direction. Re-evaluate after the season. If a decision has to be made now, Claude Julien is by far my preferred choice. He is an old school coach, but his teams always perform well analytically. He won a cup with Boston and was recently with Montreal where he had that shit roster playing over their heads. They fired him for Ducharme and their 5 on 5 play actually cratered. Price covered up so many flaws.
Anyone who tweets or says the panthers didn't have it or were outplayed tonight can kindly shhhh. Also in there is barkov missing an open net and vatrano missing a breakway when it was 0-0. Panthers controlled the game but hockey happens sometimes. But I won't accept any "were flat" narratives.
Also I love the feeling where it's 4-0 and I'm mentally like "yeah we can come back" and it doesn't feel insane
I'm not saying it was a good game for Knight but that was a whole bunch of bad luck and left out to dry goals. Deflections, bad clearances, etc..not like he is just letting straight shots in. Could be a bit of team fatigue. But oh man do I need to stay far far far away from this new Panthers social media "crowd"
It's not even after losses. It's after a goal. This is the same people who probably think Tua sucks. And God bless Roy Bellamy putting in the work but he's still learning what he's seeing.
Yea. Roy is trying, but he definitely lacks real knowledge of the game. But at least he tries and knows to listen to people who know more than him when they tell him he’s wrong about something.