The coaches.

McDowells

 

McLottery

 

I said the same thing many times over and then they water down their own strengths.

In 14' they had outstanding depth and continuity at the blueline, something that had been rare in the EC in for a while. Over the last year they've moved out Nikitin (yes, he's a problem child but added value and depth and continuity), Wisniewski, Erixon (fine for a 7 or 8), and Nick Schultz (he was a rental). It doesn't seem like too much on the surface but moving out 1/2 of their blueline and putting a guy like Murray in a spot to be leaned on was a disastrous decision. There's a good case to move out 1 or 2 or even 3 but half the blueline is ridiculous. In most years they choose to let some reasonably priced UFAs or RFAs get shipped out to overspend on extensions and UFAs that flame out which limits one of their other recurring strengths, cap flexibility.

It's been the same for multiple gms in CLB. They have a problem above the front office, and it's not just the budget or the hockey ops hiring. There has to be some sort of messed up interventions or philosophy. By the time they do figure out how to put down a solid roster they'll have too much dead space on injury ridden big/power forward types. In the meantime they'll be forced to overpay on UFAs.

They have 6 important RFAs at the end of 16'. I really thought they were going to get on a good track after the 14' postseason but they let me down and I'm expecting the same moving forward.

 

Back to CLB, they should seriously consider hiring Bylsma. They need effort to cover up the holes in the roster as it stands right now, and they have enough physical bodies (or there are cheap ones laying around) to survive a tour of dynamite Dan.

 

Berube out in PHI.

 

As I ws looking at this picture my little girl got excited and pointed and said "Donalds"! I said "no honey, that's Dowells". She didn't get it.
On a side note, its probably not a good sign that my 2.5 yr old gets excited at the sight of those arches. Damn that McDonalds marketing machine.

 

She knew it's home of the Big Mick. No seeds on McDowell's buns.

 

i wish babcock would come to philly. too much to ask?

 

should i understand wtf mcdowell's means?

 

how didnt mcdonalds sue mcdowells for trademark infringement is beyond me. haha

 

It was in the movie "Coming to America" with Eddie Murphy.

 

aha, ty. never saw it.

 

You can be damned sure the did. MCD zealously protects their trademark. They sued a Mom & Pop burger joint for having the temerity to call themselves McDonalds. Oh, that was the family name, and - wait for it - they'd been in business before the founding of MCD.

The McDowells was a blatant attempt to capitalize on the big company's branding & marketing. What surprises me is that someone thought it was a good business plan. At least they went into with a stellar exit plan. "This'll be great! We'll invest thousands in a fast food joint, and then wait a few days for us to be shut down".

 

damn trademark laws!

 

McLellan and the Sharks have parted ways.

 

Can't wait to see who lands McLellan.

Boston has good personnel for him and he's been adept at hiding weaknesses with the dmen.
Detroit is an outstanding fit if Babs bolts
Edm would just be sad
Ottawa, Pit, Dallas, NYI, TB, ane WPG should think about hiring him
STL or MIN wouldn't be ideal imo.
I don't see the rosters in PHI, AZ, NJ or FLA being ideal for him either.

Plenty of other gms will have to think about canning a coach with him on the market.

 

First, BUF is in the market for a coach. I could see him attracted to a young team, especially one with Eichel, since he's been through the wars with vets vs. gm. Money is no object since it's all Pegulabucks and one can always go drill an oil well. I have him third on my list for the Sabres. What do you think?

That gets a +.

 

I would have put them with AZ. They're in a developmental process. I think McLellan is more of a "win now" coach and I don't think he's well suited for a roster that still doesn't know what they have in what roles.

I don't think he would be bad either, just not well suited. Buffalo has gone this far with the rebuild, the last thing they should be worrying about is the point total in the standings imo. He'll coach to win instead of setting up a roster to contend.

This goes to another topic I hit on early, coaches rather winning 1-0 than 4-3. It's a complicated topic with a ton of moving parts and I'm constantly adjusting my thoughts on it.

I think so many skill players need room to experiment to build up the confidence to make offensive plays. Those experiments come with alot of painful lessons most coaches can't live with. Sure a 'special' player comes along here and there and they're allowed a 2nd line/scoring line role or a dman like Klingberg can come in and just float around and do whatever, but those are the exceptions and not the rule. The players, as a rule, have to be able to play in all zones if they want to stick. Defense/system play is the most valuable to most coaches and this often creates problems for offensive development.

I see guys like Couturier, Saad, Colin Wilson, Kuznetzov, Pietrangelo, (trying to use a broad sample size of skill sets and styles) etc. and I see a ton of offense left on the table because high risk offensive plays have been coached out of them for the most part and I think there's a really good chance it will hold them back, at least offensively, for a long time if not permanently.

I don't think Keith turns into what we've seen from Keith had he not been allowed to fly around and experiment for 2 years for example. Sure the skill was always probably there, but how many more years would it have taken for him to have turned into what he is?

Anyway, I don't think McLellan will let the leash off of enough Sabres. They have too much talent to just start slotting them into spots to gain a few more wins. He's loose, flexible, etc. but I don't think he's great at developing multiple players without most of the roster locked into slots. That goes back to his Aero days too.