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View Full Version : My thoughts on coach/GM job for this team



Sput
11-04-2006, 01:04 AM
I posted this on the CougarDen the other day. I feel its the outline that a good coach and GM could use as ground rules if/when someone takes the reins on this team. It certainly can't get to much worse can it?


1) Show respect. For me, your teammates, and the game. Show up and give a good effort every game and every shift, and you will have my respect. I may not actually like you as a person, but if you play the game with the effort and determination that a WHL player should, you will have my respect.

2) C's and A's are up for grabs. Maybe Jaques Lemares has a great thing going on with the Wild. Captains will earn their letter monthly. Poor showings will not get you a letter, or the respect, of a captain or assistant.

3) All four lines will see the ice for goodportions of the game. It may not be perfectly even, but everyone will see good ice times.

4) As a player you will be congratulated for good shifts, rewarded in some way for excellent plays/goals/fights/ect. Poor decisions will be questioned and I will help you work through them. Respond posititivly is all I ask. Same mistake continuously will earn you bench time.

5) It will not matter to me if you are the sniper, the set up guy, an import or a local hero, play poorly, break team rules or disrespect me, the other coaches or your teammates/linemates, you will ride the bench. You will not be in the stands where you can not learn and see the others working hard. You will be on the bench and see little to NO ice.

6)You live and die as a line/defensive pairing. Once linemates are established, individuale will not move to 'top line' status. You will move as a line, up or down. I fully believe in team work and team chemistry and you will live and die as a squad.

7) You practice like you play. Understanding that some players are not 'good' in practice, you will still give forth full effort. If you screw around and don't work hard in practice, you will not play.

8) Bad attitudes and big egos will be checked at the door of the arena. We are all in this together. I do not need someone believing they are better than the next guy. You were a 16yo rookie once yourself, mentor the kid into being a better player and help him to mature into the game at your level, whether that is in scoring, passing, goaltending or fighting. Veterans will help in everyway to teach and work side by side with the young guys coming in.

9) This is somewhat part of number 1)...show me respect and effort every practice and game, I will do everything in my 'power' to make sure you get a fair deal in everything that involves hockey. If the media slams you, I will publicly go on record to your defense. Show me sub-standard effort consistantly I will call you out myself when the timing is right.

10) With this current situation, trades will not be forthcoming until the end of Nov. minimun. You will have this chance to prove to me that you want to play for this team. If you work yourself into a trade, or decide to ask for a trade, you will go home, and I will not hurry myself to trade you. You will sit. I will trade you when the time is good for me, for the best deal I can get. If you don't want to play here, we have more guys on the 50 protected list that would love your spot.

Now for your comments

KBF
11-04-2006, 02:26 AM
Very good assesment Sput.

Tonite the Cougars lacked spunk and didn't see anyone display any sort of leadership. It was gonna take alot for the Cougars to stay in the game as it is and the Blazers for the most part just toyed with them all night as they looked very bored.

I know "On Paper" seems to turn alot of people in PG on but as they've proven it doesn't mean anything.

Not sure what kind of quality PG could fetch but right now I'm betting its not very good.

Swando
11-04-2006, 03:22 AM
Hey Sput : I know how much you bleed the Cougar blood... all I can say is I am totally surprized at how the new season has unfolded... I wonder how the Giants late 4-1 come back victory affected their psych?? A thot I have had for some time.

In response to your many ideas I "hate" to compare to the Giants but here is what I see...I agree with a lot of your ideas and some others not so much.

1:
4 lines regardless of talent will win you future games regardless of talent on 1 & 2 lines. Giants have proven that rotating 4 lines works well in league play.

2: If a player is insubordinate on a 2nd or 3rd time... He should not sit on the bench -- he should be a healthy scratch and everyone be told that.
JD Watt the Giants leading scorer showed up for a team meeting late for the 2nd time and was scratched for a big game and was going to be again the next night had an injury not made it necessary for him to play. He has responded very positively.

3. I think PG egos have got in the way of talent and team effort. I can not comment on personel as I do not know these players BUT I know in the Giants situation .. In Don Hay's 1st year 04/05 coaching many ( especially the more gifted player or 2) did not buy into the team concept 1st. Instead tried to make an impact for themselves to "market" themselves. A lesser talented team the following year was far more sucessful !

4: Stay with set lines and D pairings-- NO WAY. If the team can learn a system the pieces can be interchangable. If an injury occurs the next best suited player just moves up. I'd admire Don Hay's theory of playing his rookies. "If I can't put them in crucial situations they will never learn, what will they learn in a 8-1 game!"

For what it's worth this is just my thots. Get it going Cougs!

KBF
11-04-2006, 01:52 PM
I agree, Clark has been doing the same here in Kamloops. Guys like Shattock, Rodgers, Schmermund etc are all getting regular ice time and put out in all situations.

Its really sad because the Blazers coulda made it a hell of alot worse on the Cougars last night, but chose to down their play.

smileyjones
11-04-2006, 04:05 PM
I agree with most of what you say, with a couple of exceptions.

1) If a player isn't performing he needs to be a healthy scratch. There's not enough room in the lineup to have guys sitting you can't use. Plus, there is the temptation to play a guy you hadn't planned on depending on how the game unfolds.

2) Keep lines and D-pairings together - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But I think the parts need to be interchangeable. The most effective coaches seem to tinker constantly.

Leadership and accountability need to be addressed more than anything else.

Sput
11-06-2006, 01:38 PM
I may have jumped the gun on a couple of the things I put in my post, thanks for pointing them out.

I can agree with all the parts being interchangeable, but as these guys have clearly shown it leads to individualistic play and not teamwork. Could be a chemistry thing, or one of those hockey intangibles, but someone has to show some kind of teamwork.

As for making non-productive players healthy scratches....that hasn't worked here in the past, or the present. I don't know how it works on out teams, but here it seems that if a guy is a healthy scratch for disiplinary or lack of production/crappy attitude, historically here they treat it as a night off to sit up in the stands and hang out with the puck bunnies and watch their teammates work. I haven't seen a lot of evidence that they actually learn something from it, as very seldom I have seen a good performance by a healthy scratch veteran in the next game. With butt firmly planted on the bench, wanting to get into the play, maybe they will actually produce something IF they get on the ice. As a coach you'd have to have the dicipline to not only do this, but to follow through with it and NOT play the guy. Tough to do, but, for here anyway, seems to be necessary.

The three major deficencies right now are leadership, accountability and teamwork. Its almost as if this team doesn't do anything as a full unit, and goes off in three or four little cliques. Leaders on here are nonexistant, as is accountability. They actually go hand in hand. I guess I'm not sure what to expect out af a team, that looks to have more skill than necessary, when there appears to be a huge trickle down affect from the head office/GM/owner on down. The incompitance of this team is what amazes me, from the owner and Gm on down the line. About the only one I can't say anything real negative about at this moment is the trainer, Travis, because he's the one putting players back together and keeping jerseys clean. He's just doing his job.

Swando
11-07-2006, 12:16 AM
I may have jumped the gun on a couple of the things I put in my post, thanks for pointing them out.

I can agree with all the parts being interchangeable, but as these guys have clearly shown it leads to individualistic play and not teamwork. Could be a chemistry thing, or one of those hockey intangibles, but someone has to show some kind of teamwork.

As for making non-productive players healthy scratches....that hasn't worked here in the past, or the present. I don't know how it works on out teams, but here it seems that if a guy is a healthy scratch for disiplinary or lack of production/crappy attitude, historically here they treat it as a night off to sit up in the stands and hang out with the puck bunnies and watch their teammates work. I haven't seen a lot of evidence that they actually learn something from it, as very seldom I have seen a good performance by a healthy scratch veteran in the next game. With butt firmly planted on the bench, wanting to get into the play, maybe they will actually produce something IF they get on the ice. As a coach you'd have to have the dicipline to not only do this, but to follow through with it and NOT play the guy. Tough to do, but, for here anyway, seems to be necessary.

The three major deficencies right now are leadership, accountability and teamwork. Its almost as if this team doesn't do anything as a full unit, and goes off in three or four little cliques. Leaders on here are nonexistant, as is accountability. They actually go hand in hand. I guess I'm not sure what to expect out af a team, that looks to have more skill than necessary, when there appears to be a huge trickle down affect from the head office/GM/owner on down. The incompitance of this team is what amazes me, from the owner and Gm on down the line. About the only one I can't say anything real negative about at this moment is the trainer, Travis, because he's the one putting players back together and keeping jerseys clean. He's just doing his job.

I some times wonder if it is the city itself that the players do not want to come to..and play. I wonder of a Setoguchi does not like the long bus rides and is a bad apple? Or maybe your are right the ownership is cheap, the city and it's ice has been imbarrassing etc A real house cleaning is in order I think.

Cougar Guy
11-07-2006, 12:53 AM
I some times wonder if it is the city itself that the players do not want to come to..and play. I wonder of a Setoguchi does not like the long bus rides and is a bad apple? Or maybe your are right the ownership is cheap, the city and it's ice has been imbarrassing etc A real house cleaning is in order I think.

While I think it is a tougher sell than some other markets, there are loads of vets who have nothing but good things to say about the City. As for the ice, yeah it sucks this year but it wasn't always that bad. Ownership is BY FAR the biggest issue IMHO.

Sput
11-07-2006, 04:49 AM
Maybe things have gone so cheap with the City because our Mayor is busy "slaving away in Paris" (http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/4003/1/mayor+to+slave+in+paris?id=143&st=30) and they needed the extra money for his expense account.

Seriously tho, I do believe the problem is with the owner. Brodski has all his family and friends in high positions in the franchise, daughter is business manager, son-in-law is GM, Old Buddy Russ Smart as head scout. Now a guy in Rick's position won't fire his own family. Apparently he got right testy in the press conference when someone asked when he was going to start holding Thompson accountable for what is happening to the team. Here is the quote from www.princegeorgecitizen.com (Friday Nov.3/06)


No candidates for the coaching jobs were mentioned by the team, but Brodsky said he has had discussions with more than one interested applicant. Brodsky said he would go through the proper channels if he decides to approach any WHL teams about hiring any coaches currently working as assistants. Brodsky reacted sharply when asked how much time he would give Thompson, his son-in-law, to turn the team around before he would consider removing him from his position as general manager.

Right now IMHO the man's arrogance is opnly eclipsed by his ego. 6000 hockey fans are wishing that he would have taken the 5.5 million he was offered at the begining of the season.