The coach will always be the scapegoat in the NHL, and it's an easy and often effective fix, but's fucking hilarious that people jump to blaming him for not selling things correctly and not the professional hockey players who can't make a simple pass or decide to take unending needless penalties. The team has played fucking awful, they're going to cost the coach his job, and they should be blamed for this. Monty is far from blameless, but let's be real here. The players have stunk.
10/24/24 vs. Dallas
- Thread starter tims4wins
- Start date
It certainly felt like they weren't tuning in as much in the back half of the season last year. We're running on string of quite a few games of mediocre play at this point.
I’ve been consistent with my belief that they overplayed their skill level the first half and this is them coming back to earth. Easy to change the coach and maybe you get a bump but I think the issue is a mediocre top 6 that is very easy to gameplan against (focus on Pasta and let others beat you) when you get in a playoff series. Could be wrong.
At least they’re not peaking too early? But seriously, it’s a marathon. I’m ambivalent about a coaching change, maybe I lean 51/49 in favor of making one. And I get not wanting to just punt a season. I think we need to give them another 2-3 weeks.
Monty isn’t blameless, (his inability to adjust his game plan is maddening) - but he’s trying to make chicken salad out of chicken shit.
At this point - you need to roll with the kids. Lohrei, Lysell, Merkulov, hell even Harrison. You’re not going anywhere with Jones, Tufte, Koepke, or Geekie being anything more than 4th line fill ins.
If Monty isn’t comfortable with that - sure, can him. If Monty is the reason the Bruins aren’t trying to get the kids going then he needs to be gone. But if this is Neely/Sweeney trying to make the team “tougher” and “harder to play against” in the short term to the detriment of the long game, Monty isn’t the biggest issue.
At this point - you need to roll with the kids. Lohrei, Lysell, Merkulov, hell even Harrison. You’re not going anywhere with Jones, Tufte, Koepke, or Geekie being anything more than 4th line fill ins.
If Monty isn’t comfortable with that - sure, can him. If Monty is the reason the Bruins aren’t trying to get the kids going then he needs to be gone. But if this is Neely/Sweeney trying to make the team “tougher” and “harder to play against” in the short term to the detriment of the long game, Monty isn’t the biggest issue.
As someone who does push for the Bruins to get tougher, I don't think it's a lesson on the philosophy in the slightest.
One, it's 8 games in so I'm not willing to call it or the organization a failure. Two, bigger, more physical teams have been having more success in recent years (Panthers, Golden Knights, Blues) so there's something to it. They have skill but are not a pure "finesse" team. Three, most people who are advocating for "toughness" aren't advocating toughness for toughness sake that you are reducing the argument to. It's skilled players who have an edge to them vs. a finesse third-liner. They exist.
One, it's 8 games in so I'm not willing to call it or the organization a failure. Two, bigger, more physical teams have been having more success in recent years (Panthers, Golden Knights, Blues) so there's something to it. They have skill but are not a pure "finesse" team. Three, most people who are advocating for "toughness" aren't advocating toughness for toughness sake that you are reducing the argument to. It's skilled players who have an edge to them vs. a finesse third-liner. They exist.
Top liners, incredibly so. Middle six guys, a little difficult but not insurmountable. Bottom six guys, much less so. And there will be times where they won't get deployed or they'll look bad. The counter will be to look at some fancy stats to say they don't do anything but, while I find certain stats useful, I don't think they capture EVERYTHING that happens on the ice and physicality, especially come playoff time when you wear and wear and wear an opponent down, is one of them.
