Todd has just got to go.... I am so tired of him talking about how there are "passengers" and it has to come from the players. Nemo, as bad as it is, is the not the big problem. Its the 'team' in front...
The pavelski-nieto-wingels line was awesome in the first part of the year. So was kennedy-marleau-cooch. Obviously Burns-hertl-jumbo was too....
Ok, so burns gets hurt. Tough break. Here is the correct action: Keep the other two lines INTACT and move either sheppard or havlat when he came back to the jumbo line. The you have the great chemistry on the other two lines remaining. Instead, what does Todd do? He shuffles it all, moving kennedy up and breaking up a great line with awesome quickness that was very successful. Then he shifts wingels off the 3rd line up to the 2nd and shep/hamilton/whoever up to the 3rd.
1 injury = 4 new line combos = Dumb as fuck. No wonder they cant score. No wonder they are disorganized on breakouts. No wonder they look slow. Todd took something that was working great, and decided to mess with it because of one injury. He has never put kennedy-patty-cooch back as well as nieto-wingels-pavs on a regular shift. To me, that is a huge reason why the scoring has completely dried up.
I want to see the sharks go back to exactly what they were before with the exact same lines as before except Havlat in place of burns. Get that nice chemistry back...
Todd has just got to go.... I am so tired of him talking about how there are "passengers" and it has to come from the players. Nemo, as bad as it is, is the not the big problem. Its the 'team' in front...
The pavelski-nieto-wingels line was awesome in the first part of the year. So was kennedy-marleau-cooch. Obviously Burns-hertl-jumbo was too....
Ok, so burns gets hurt. Tough break. Here is the correct action: Keep the other two lines INTACT and move either sheppard or havlat when he came back to the jumbo line. The you have the great chemistry on the other two lines remaining. Instead, what does Todd do? He shuffles it all, moving kennedy up and breaking up a great line with awesome quickness that was very successful. Then he shifts wingels off the 3rd line up to the 2nd and shep/hamilton/whoever up to the 3rd.
1 injury = 4 new line combos = Dumb as fuck. No wonder they cant score. No wonder they are disorganized on breakouts. No wonder they look slow. Todd took something that was working great, and decided to mess with it because of one injury. He has never put kennedy-patty-cooch back as well as nieto-wingels-pavs on a regular shift. To me, that is a huge reason why the scoring has completely dried up.
I want to see the sharks go back to exactly what they were before with the exact same lines as before except Havlat in place of burns. Get that nice chemistry back...
Drew has no problem shitting on Marleau but will never criticize his golden boy Joe.
You're blowing things way way out of proportion Rules. He didn't really change any of the lines until this game. McLellan did keep the other two lines INTACT when Burns went down. He used Hamilton there for three games and then Sheppard for another two. Havlat slotted in for Nieto when he was injured but when he came back what happened? McLellan went right back with Nieto, Pavelski, Wingels as the 3rd line.
Kennedy has been okay most of the year, not good, not great, but okay and has really failed to have any chemistry with Marleau and Couture. When Nieto came back McLellan did the right thing and went with a line that had great chemistry last year in Couture, Marleau, and Havlat. Kennedy was moved up to Burns spot to hopefully find some chemistry there but that failed miserably forcing McLellan to try something else. Thornton's line has to be effective for this team to win consistently and so far everyone they've slotted as RW on that line since Burns went down has not produced except Wingels.
Prior to this game against the Canucks all those moves were the correct ones to make. McLellan did everything he could to limit the impact to other lines. This game it really wouldn't have mattered if he tried to keep the lines intact. When your 4th line and back up goalie are the only ones who show up to play you're going to loose.
yeah yeah, I know it's blown out of proportion, just annoying when you watch the buffalo and van games BTB and basically see pretty close to 125 minutes of lazy bad hockey.
However, you are wrong about the lines remaining intact. I clearly remember kennedy getting the 1st line call up when burns went down. Then when he didnt do well, it became revolving door with shep, hamilton, wingels and others. When havlat came back he was immediately on the line with patty and cooch and has yet to play with jumbo, so clearly the lines have been all jumbled starting with the burns injury and the chemistry vanished.
Todd also needs to consider taking some control over the team. He likes to call players passengers and say that it's on them to play. He likes to trust his leadership too. However, his leadership is not names Crosby, Toews, lidstrom, or niedermeyer so it's not like they have a real bonafide leader in that room. To be a truly great leader, you need to be the hardest worker, sacrificing the body, and really leading by example. Noone claims that Jumbo and patty are the hardest working guys, who block shots and sacrifice the body. Cooch? yes, but those two? no. As such, trusting a vet leadership corps that is notorious for up and down efforts and inconsistency is not to make a team consistently work hard. I think Tmac needs to consider being the leader himself and taking the reins of the team my like a tortorella-type coach might. Torts might have gotten canned, but he had the balls to bench a player like richards when he wasnt working. Tmac has no such balls and has, to my knowledge, never been the type of guy to send a strong message.
I think one or two more of those efforts and messages will be needed.
Oh Todd
McLellan rejected the suggestion that Antti Niemi may be feeling the effects of starting 15 of 16 games, that all that work has tired him out.
“Nope. Nope. Nope. Not at all,” the coach said. “The interesting part about Nemo is the most rest he’s had has been in the last 10 days and he hasn’t been as sharp. As soon as Alex played, Nemo had a couple days off, comes back into LA, not as sharp. We haven’t been playing every second day, so I think the exact opposite of what you’re suggesting. Exact opposite. He’s not tired, I can tell you that.”