ysubuck;1644873; said:
I know the coach is the one that goes in these situations, but Hitch should NOT be gone.
He knows what it takes to get it done, but he's dealing with a bunch of heartless players.
Nash should probably lose the C because all we keep hearing about is the lack of leadership in the room. Mason is a mental wreck right now and could probably use some time in the minors (Bob Hunter just wrote a column saying the same thing). Outside of Torres and Umberger I can't come up with anyone who is playing the way Hitch needs them to play in order to win games.
Like Herb Brooks said: You don't have enough talent to win on talent alone.
Detroit got to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals last year on talent alone. They didn't play defense for shit until the playoffs last year. They had the TALENT to win games 6-4. Columbus doesn't have that edge.
Quite a few of those great Montreal teams had more talent on their 4th line than many other teams had on the entire team. You won't see that anymore in the cap era however.
But to say the coach definitely should or should not stay can't be set in stone at this point. If this were Detroit or Montreal or the NYR or even a team like San Jose, then yes, maybe, but it's Columbus and I don't intend that as a slam, but there's no franchise history there other than a franchise history of losing. He should get a longer leash, but if it's not working it's not working.
That really cleared it up huh? :p
3074326;1644993; said:
So let's just keep losing then.
Changes happen for a variety of reasons, motivation is one of those reasons. I don't think we have a good mix of players for Hitch's system.
This is pretty much the same team as last year. There needs to be a mix up.
Michael Peca isn't there.
And I don't think there's much of a chance this roster is going to change much this year. I don't think this organization is looking for a quick fix in FA or in a trade unless it's a can't miss opportunity.
As Calgary has shown us, if your goalie is hot you can beat anyone in the new NHL. I think the emphasis should be on getting [strike] Jim Carrey's[/strike] Mason's head straight.
NUTS4theBUCKS28;1645004; said:
what bout dorsett? the kid just keeps on grinding, and it seems like him and rj are the most consistent forecheckers. i just dont see the same attitude with about 17 out of the 21 players that dorsett brings to the table nearly every game. even when hes nicked up, the guy shows tremendous heart. IMO him, rj, and raffi have been the top three players for us this season
I don't think listing who has been a top 3 player for a team after 50 games is really a good idea right now.
Dorsett has pretty much reached his potential. He's a younger Kirk Maltby except he doesn't kill penalties yet. He's a grinder, but his role is to be a grinder. You don't have grinders usually on your first or second lines. Those guys need to be effective playing THEIR game.
