Comments on: Boudreau: “I tried every trick… nothing was working.”

By: hague507

hague507 — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:13:22 +0000

There was a play with about 7 minutes left in the game and the Blues dumped the puck. The official raised his arm for icing and Carlson had about 5 steps on the charging Blues player. Carlson put no effort into getting back to touch up the puck and was beat by the Blues player. That was hard to stomach as a Caps season ticket holder.

By: charphel

charphel — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:21:31 +0000

This if off-topic, but here’s realtively entertaining fist-related kerfuffle between the Sabres’ Matt Martin and the Islanders’ Zack Kassian:

http://www.hockeybias.com/hockey-news-past/2011/November/Matt-Martin-vs-Zack-Kassian-Nov-29-2011-video.html

By: bcjim

bcjim — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:04:53 +0000

Last night was not lackluster effort imo. They need to learn what Hunter wants and he probably dumbed down the scheme (I hope) to something that would yield a close game. And it did. They skated hard against a trap-like team. Why such a minimal forecheck? I don’t know but I am pretty sure it was on Hunters orders.

By: govtminion

govtminion — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:22:33 +0000

A valid point, but Hunter doesn’t strike me as the kind, friendly type of a coach…

By: oxyvikadin

oxyvikadin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:22:31 +0000

Back when the Caps signed Vokoun I posted right here that Boudreau’s continued reign as head coach just became tied to the success of Vokoun. It is obviously a little more complicated than that, but my thought was that there really was no where left to hide on the roster and if the team underperformed and the only change left was the coach.

Certainly, there are other problems besides a lackluster performance by Voukoun thus far (23rd out of 30 in GAA and Save %) but he didn’t do his coach any favors.

By: abrienza428

abrienza428 — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:11:19 +0000

Actually, I don’t think a bag skate will help. This team is past that. It’s just my opinion, but I would think positive reinforcement would work better here. They’re tired of being yelled at. Boudreau did it all the time, and it stopped working. The team has a wealth of offensive talent. Utilize it and stress it. This team isn’t having fun. Getting yelled at will not change that.

By: govtminion

govtminion — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:58:17 +0000

Motivation sometimes just needs a gentle push to get it moving. I’m betting the bag skate Hunter is going to put the team through (following last night’s lackluster-as-usual performance) is a good start.

By: nhlbruins90

nhlbruins90 — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:43:15 +0000

They say you can’t fire the whole team, so you fire the coach. But what happens if you fire the coach, and the team still doesn’t respond? Then you start to fire the team. There’s plenty of motivation (and responsibility) for the players to get their act together now.