The Wild Should Have An Easy Time Replacing Todd Richards
by Derek Zona on Apr 14, 2011 7:40 AM MDT
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PrintTodd Richards was removed from his spot as head coach of the Minnesota Wild because he couldn't replicate the successes of Jacques Lemaire even though the Wild were spending far more money against the cap. In January, I wrote about Richards' version of the Wild, a team that protected Mikko Koivu took it easy on Nick Schultz. In short, Richards was undoing the strategies employed by Lemaire, strategies that kept the Wild competitive, even with a lower-tier roster. I concluded:
Lemaire had a group of players who were intent on playing, as Lorne Molleken would say, from their end out, using his best players against the other team's best players and putting them in the toughest circumstances possible. In spite of all of that, they succeeded and the easy assignments and starting positions allowed the lesser lights on the Wild to win their individual battles as well. It might be time for Todd Richards to face the fact that Mikko Koivu's best role is outplaying the other team's best players and Nick Schultz needs even tougher zonestarts.
Wild fans complained of a lack of identity under Richards, but that wasn't the problem. The Wild had an identity - they were the team being out-coached by the rest of the Western Conference. If the Wild want to return to a Lemaire-like level of competitiveness, General Manager Chuck Fletcher should find a coach willing to return to the on-ice strategies employed by Lemaire: run Mikko Koivu and a pair of defensive-minded wings out against the opponent's best; give the skilled players an opportunity to beat lesser opponents; and make sure that Nick Schultz and Greg Zanon take every defensive zone faceoff they can possibly take against the best opponents. If they find someone capable of doing this, the Wild should make the playoffs next season. If not, the Wild will wander the wilds of the NHL, leaving fans to wonder what went wrong.
If I were Chuck Fletcher and making a bet on a coach to get the Wild back into the playoffs, my slip would read Craig MacTavish.
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Minor note: It’s Chuck Fletcher, not Cliff.
Also, I wonder if Lemaire’s usage patterns have anything to do with the way the team is paid. How that’s a cap team is kind of mind-boggling.
Minor note: It’s Chuck Fletcher, not Cliff.
I do that every time. Eventually, Chuck will make his own reputation and I’ll remember his name. Either that, or he’ll keep doing what he’s doing and go away and I won’t have to remember his name.
Also, I wonder if Lemaire’s usage patterns have anything to do with the way the team is paid. How that’s a cap team is kind of mind-boggling.
I see what you’re saying, but if a coach is thinking like that, the GM and coach both have to do.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
The Wild had an identity – they were the team being out-coached by the rest of the Western Conference bq.
….except for the Edmonton Oilers…
The Wild had an identity – they were the team being out-coached by the rest of the Western Conference bq.
….except for the Edmonton Oilers
Not defending Renney’s curious decisions and ‘innovative’ line matching, but I doubt even Jacques Lemaire could have done much with the Swiss cheese lineup Lowe and Toonce iced this season and last.
The Wild team this season was vastly superior to that of the Oilers.
MacT might look good in New Jersey as well, not that it’s likely to happen. I’d just love to see what he could do with Parise, Kovalchuk, Zajac et al.
A bigger part of me wants to see Toonce kicked up or down the ladder and MacT step in as GM though. I mean he can’t be any worse right?
A bigger part of me wants to see Toonce kicked up or down the ladder and MacT step in as GM though. I mean he can’t be any worse right?
http://www.coppernblue.com/2009/12/8/1191478/craig-mactavish-future-gm
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
A bigger part of me wants to see Toonce kicked up or down the ladder and MacT step in as GM though. I mean he can’t be any worse right?
Careful what you wish for. He’d only turn all the office staff into checkers, make Toby Frigging Peterson chief scout, and stifle the development of any talented pizza delivery kid who happened to enter the building.
Yep, it was clear that MacTavish was the culprit responsible for the Oiler’s woeful records in his post 2006 tenure. Stifling creativity and turning the roster into a a bunch of low scoring pluggers.
The consecutive last place finishes with anemic scoring and horrid goal differentials under Pat Quinn and Tom Renney not withstanding of course.
That pizza boy comment made me love you a little bit Yeti#.
I laughed out loud three times reading this:
1. When Derek talked “identity”
2. When Derek explained why he wouldn’t have to remember Chuck Fletcher’s name
3. When proxy described lovers as coming in threes.
So thanks for that.
A posse ad esse.
The Copper & Blue|OilersNation|Hockey or Die!
Twitter: @JonathanWillis
Mail: jonathan.willis@live.ca
by Jonathan Willis on Apr 14, 2011 1:54 PM MDT reply actions 1 recs
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