The Canucks aren't the only team overhauling management. Today, the Leafs fired head coach Paul Maurice
"You know the way the season ended up and the changes that are going to take place on the team," Maurice told The Canadian Press from his Toronto home. "So I was very aware that it was a possibility.Me neither. After missing the playoffs for consecutive years under Maurice's reign, you knew his ass was on the line. What I really don't get is how and when his strategy changed from coaching the Cup Finalist Hurricanes in 2002 to the past couple of years coaching in Toronto. That Carolina team was so stingy defensively, yet this current batch of Leafs didn't play that way at all. Was Maurice not preaching it? Or were the players just not listening?
I can't say that I was surprised."
Either way, changes had to be made, and now Cliff Fletcher has yet another decision to make. I say: bring back Pat Burns!!! He'd whip these schmucks into shape.
While the Leafs ranked about in the middle of the Eastern Conference in goals for, their goals against was amongst the worst in the NHL, ranking them near teams like Atlanta, Tampa Bay, and Los Angeles. Like I have said all along, it doesn't matter what goalie you put in between the pipes in Toronto, his numbers are going to go down. It was Raycroft the previous year and Toskala last year. As long as they have buttheads like McCabe on the blue line, they are ****. The next coach has to either get McCabe's ass on board or bench him. And that's just one example of one Leaf player of many that need to step it up. Ironically, one of their best 2-way players in Chad Kilger was shipped to Florida. I still don't get that.
Fletcher obviously didn't like what he saw in Maurice.
"There will be discussions, but you can be sure of one thing," Fletcher told the Canadian Press. "The person coming in is going to be a strong hockey person and he's going to have very definite opinions of his own."
Yeah, yeah yeah, just get a guy who can get these bums on the same page. All of this talk of the Leafs not having the "right players" for Maurice to work with. Besides the defensive lapses, a good coach can make a bunch of neandrathals work as a team.
This whole **** heap just makes me think of the Flyers. They majorly overhaul their team and soon thereafter they are in the semi-finals. Amazing.
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Comments (1)
"a good coach can make a bunch of neandrathals work as a team. "
Other than for your spelling of "neanderthals", I agree completely. What makes a coach a GOOD coach is his ability to draw the best out of each of his players in order to create the best possible team. Maurice didn't do that with the Leafs. Sure, he charmed the **** off the press and most of the fans, but he wasn't a good coach. Methinks his priorities were more hearth and home than work, seeing as his first reaction to being fired was to careen over to his kids' school to whisk them away before the other kids could start razzing them about their Dad being canned. If he cared as much for the Leafs and their fans as he did for his kids, then maybe we could have gotten somewhere with him. I'm starting to think that what the Leafs really needs is a whole roster of coaches, players and upper management that are married only to the team.
The Bike Lady | 05/07/08, 04:50 PM
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