Running 2007 NHL regular season thread

Cansportschick · Oct 18, 2007

hockeybeat said:

Cansportschick said:

hockeybeat said:

Cansportschick said:

I don't know if anyone has posted this yet, but it appears Quinn's name is appearing as a successor to Hartley in Atlanta:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2007/10/17/quinn_atlanta_rumour/

Also in this article are other possible replacements.
Click to expand...

Is there an unemployed coach that can improve Atlanta's lousy defensemen? Or make Kovalchuk care about something other than scoring goals?
Click to expand...

hockey, I wondered the same thing. Regardless of who the coach becomes, the Thrashers have too many problems.
Click to expand...

And all of the Thrashers problems go back to Wdadell. Before last season, he vowed that they would make the playoffs. To guarantee that his team would qualify for the playoffs, he went all in and mortgaged the franchise's future for noted winner Keith Tkachuk. Oops.

What did Atlanta get out of it? Two home playoff games.

Now, Hartley isn't an innocent in this mess. His shuttling of goaltenders in the Rangers series was nonsensical and he doesn't know when to dial down the intensity. He won a Cup in Colorado because they were veteran-laden team that had won before.

I think if the Thrashers were going to fire Hartley, they should have also canned Waddell.

Jeff Schultz's AJC column

Waddell should be gone instead

By Jeff Schultz | Wednesday, October 17, 2007, 08:08 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Jeff Schultz

Four years ago, Don Waddell sat behind his desk, pointed at the wall separating his office and Bob Hartley’s, and said, â€œMy future’s in that room.â€

I’m not sure what changed. But on Wednesday, a coach who has won a Stanley Cup and led a struggling franchise to its only playoff berth and a division title lost his job, while the general manager who has been here for over nine years, seven-plus seasons and no playoff wins is preparing to hire his third coach.

Don Waddell stays.

Bob Hartley goes.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Don Waddell, the general manager who has drafted 28 defensemen but has only two to show for it on the Thrashers’ roster, stays.

Bob Hartley, who has been trying to shuffle semi-comatose bodies in hopes that defective ingredients can somehow be made into a better soup, goes.

Hartley will get another job. But how does Waddell get another chance?

The Thrashers fired the wrong guy.

At the very least, Waddell should’ve stood up Wednesday and declared, â€œYou know what? I really botched this off-season. Maybe Todd White isn’t a No. 1 center. So I resign.â€

Instead, he said this: â€œI think we’re a better team when we started the season this year than we were last year.â€

Everybody waited for the punch line.

The Thrashers figured to lose several pieces off of last year’s playoff team, which was swept in four games by the New York Rangers (tonight’s opponent — kismet!) What few imagined was that the Thrashers would come back so thin, with arguably the league’s worst depth chart at center, a thin and erratic group of defensemen, and no playmaker for Ilya Kovalchuk.

Some people have made way too much of a perceived feud between Hartley and Kovalchuk. The fact is, Kovalchuk told Waddell in the off-season that he’s fine with the coach. He just wanted a center. I dunno. Maybe Waddell misunderstood Kovalchuk, and thought Todd White was Russian for Peter Forsberg.

This is what Kovalchuk said Wednesday about Hartley: â€œHe’s a straight-up guy. Whenever there was something wrong, he always said it to my face, and that’s what I like about him. â€¦ I just [told him], â€˜Thank you.’ He really teach me a lot of good things, and I think he makes me a better player.â€

Everybody else in the Thrashers’ locker room should be so stand up. There are two things this team needs: better players and more mirrors, because they just got a good coach and an even better man fired.

Waddell took heat for mortgaging the future with pre-deadline deals last year. He shouldn’t. Those deals got the Thrashers into the playoffs. But blame Waddell for the holes that existed before the trades, and the holes that remained unfilled after the season.

Player development has been dreadful. There is little to show for nine drafts and 82 players. Of the 28 defensemen drafted, the only two here are Garnet Exelby (eighth round, 1999; blind squirrel, meet acorn) and Tobias Enstrom (eighth round, 2003; just got here).

Michael Gearon, one of the owners, talked about the franchise’s incremental progress. But it doesn’t compare to Minnesota and Nashville. Tampa Bay won a Stanley Cup. Carolina, a transplant, was torn apart and built into a Cup team.

Beyond Kovalchuk, what do the Thrashers have to build around? Goalie Kari Lehtonen is talented but seemingly more fragile by the hour. Marian Hossa will be a free agent. (Good luck convincing him to stay.) Everybody else is either 1) young and unproven; 2) old and sliding; 3) just not that good.

But does Waddell regret any of his off-season decisions?

â€œWe’re only six games into the year,â€ he said. â€œIt’s way too early to start judging whether a player will be a valuable member of your team or not.â€

Oh. So why is six games not too early to decide the fate of a coach?

â€œIt’s how we lost games,â€ Waddell said.

Is Hartley blameless? No. This is the worst start in franchise history. This team obviously has underachieved. Some players didn’t like Hartley. Some probably were worn down by his message. But doesn’t that say something about the players and personalities that Waddell has assembled?

Bobby Holik said he â€œsensed a problem toward the end of last year. I told that to Don in our after-season meetings. The last third of the season and in the playoffs, we were not getting better.â€

When Holik was asked if the problem was Hartley or the players, he said, â€œI guess the next few weeks will answer that.â€

Gearon would not address Waddell’s job security beyond saying, â€œFrom our perspective, it’s important we see progress.â€

It’s nice that there’s a standard. It would be nicer if everybody were held to it.

http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/sportscolumns/entries/2007/10/17/waddell_should.html
Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Totally agree. I think the Trashers should have cleaned house completely. Get rid not only of Hartley but Waddell too. Bring in new perspective and blood to the organization at both levels, not just coach position.

hockeybeat · Oct 18, 2007

Cansportschick said:

hockeybeat said:

Cansportschick said:

hockeybeat said:

Cansportschick said:

I don't know if anyone has posted this yet, but it appears Quinn's name is appearing as a successor to Hartley in Atlanta:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2007/10/17/quinn_atlanta_rumour/

Also in this article are other possible replacements.
Click to expand...

Is there an unemployed coach that can improve Atlanta's lousy defensemen? Or make Kovalchuk care about something other than scoring goals?
Click to expand...

hockey, I wondered the same thing. Regardless of who the coach becomes, the Thrashers have too many problems.
Click to expand...

And all of the Thrashers problems go back to Wdadell. Before last season, he vowed that they would make the playoffs. To guarantee that his team would qualify for the playoffs, he went all in and mortgaged the franchise's future for noted winner Keith Tkachuk. Oops.

What did Atlanta get out of it? Two home playoff games.

Now, Hartley isn't an innocent in this mess. His shuttling of goaltenders in the Rangers series was nonsensical and he doesn't know when to dial down the intensity. He won a Cup in Colorado because they were veteran-laden team that had won before.

I think if the Thrashers were going to fire Hartley, they should have also canned Waddell.

Jeff Schultz's AJC column

Waddell should be gone instead

By Jeff Schultz | Wednesday, October 17, 2007, 08:08 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Jeff Schultz

Four years ago, Don Waddell sat behind his desk, pointed at the wall separating his office and Bob Hartley’s, and said, â€œMy future’s in that room.â€

I’m not sure what changed. But on Wednesday, a coach who has won a Stanley Cup and led a struggling franchise to its only playoff berth and a division title lost his job, while the general manager who has been here for over nine years, seven-plus seasons and no playoff wins is preparing to hire his third coach.

Don Waddell stays.

Bob Hartley goes.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Don Waddell, the general manager who has drafted 28 defensemen but has only two to show for it on the Thrashers’ roster, stays.

Bob Hartley, who has been trying to shuffle semi-comatose bodies in hopes that defective ingredients can somehow be made into a better soup, goes.

Hartley will get another job. But how does Waddell get another chance?

The Thrashers fired the wrong guy.

At the very least, Waddell should’ve stood up Wednesday and declared, â€œYou know what? I really botched this off-season. Maybe Todd White isn’t a No. 1 center. So I resign.â€

Instead, he said this: â€œI think we’re a better team when we started the season this year than we were last year.â€

Everybody waited for the punch line.

The Thrashers figured to lose several pieces off of last year’s playoff team, which was swept in four games by the New York Rangers (tonight’s opponent — kismet!) What few imagined was that the Thrashers would come back so thin, with arguably the league’s worst depth chart at center, a thin and erratic group of defensemen, and no playmaker for Ilya Kovalchuk.

Some people have made way too much of a perceived feud between Hartley and Kovalchuk. The fact is, Kovalchuk told Waddell in the off-season that he’s fine with the coach. He just wanted a center. I dunno. Maybe Waddell misunderstood Kovalchuk, and thought Todd White was Russian for Peter Forsberg.

This is what Kovalchuk said Wednesday about Hartley: â€œHe’s a straight-up guy. Whenever there was something wrong, he always said it to my face, and that’s what I like about him. â€¦ I just [told him], â€˜Thank you.’ He really teach me a lot of good things, and I think he makes me a better player.â€

Everybody else in the Thrashers’ locker room should be so stand up. There are two things this team needs: better players and more mirrors, because they just got a good coach and an even better man fired.

Waddell took heat for mortgaging the future with pre-deadline deals last year. He shouldn’t. Those deals got the Thrashers into the playoffs. But blame Waddell for the holes that existed before the trades, and the holes that remained unfilled after the season.

Player development has been dreadful. There is little to show for nine drafts and 82 players. Of the 28 defensemen drafted, the only two here are Garnet Exelby (eighth round, 1999; blind squirrel, meet acorn) and Tobias Enstrom (eighth round, 2003; just got here).

Michael Gearon, one of the owners, talked about the franchise’s incremental progress. But it doesn’t compare to Minnesota and Nashville. Tampa Bay won a Stanley Cup. Carolina, a transplant, was torn apart and built into a Cup team.

Beyond Kovalchuk, what do the Thrashers have to build around? Goalie Kari Lehtonen is talented but seemingly more fragile by the hour. Marian Hossa will be a free agent. (Good luck convincing him to stay.) Everybody else is either 1) young and unproven; 2) old and sliding; 3) just not that good.

But does Waddell regret any of his off-season decisions?

â€œWe’re only six games into the year,â€ he said. â€œIt’s way too early to start judging whether a player will be a valuable member of your team or not.â€

Oh. So why is six games not too early to decide the fate of a coach?

â€œIt’s how we lost games,â€ Waddell said.

Is Hartley blameless? No. This is the worst start in franchise history. This team obviously has underachieved. Some players didn’t like Hartley. Some probably were worn down by his message. But doesn’t that say something about the players and personalities that Waddell has assembled?

Bobby Holik said he â€œsensed a problem toward the end of last year. I told that to Don in our after-season meetings. The last third of the season and in the playoffs, we were not getting better.â€

When Holik was asked if the problem was Hartley or the players, he said, â€œI guess the next few weeks will answer that.â€

Gearon would not address Waddell’s job security beyond saying, â€œFrom our perspective, it’s important we see progress.â€

It’s nice that there’s a standard. It would be nicer if everybody were held to it.

http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/sportscolumns/entries/2007/10/17/waddell_should.html
Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Totally agree. I think the Trashers should have cleaned house completely. Get rid not only of Hartley but Waddell too. Bring in new perspective and blood to the organization at both levels, not just coach position.
Click to expand...

I've been anti-Waddell for a long time, ever since he fucked up the U.S. Olympic men's hockey team. It befuddles me how he has such a position of authority with USA Hockey.

If USA Hockey were smart--they're not--they would can his ass and beg Brian Burke to be GM.

Cansportschick · Oct 18, 2007

hockey, do you really think Burke would leave the Ducks? If their season turns around, I can't see Burke leaving.

hockeybeat · Oct 18, 2007

Cansportschick said:

hockey, do you really think Burke would leave the Ducks? If their season turns around, I can't see Burke leaving.
Click to expand...

He wouldn't have to leave. Waddell was GM of the Thrashers and USA Hockey in the last Olympic year.

Burke would do what he normally does: Watch the games, scout the teams and decide who should be on USA Hockey.

Cansportschick · Oct 18, 2007

hockeybeat said:

Cansportschick said:

hockey, do you really think Burke would leave the Ducks? If their season turns around, I can't see Burke leaving.
Click to expand...

He wouldn't have to leave. Waddell was GM of the Thrashers and USA Hockey in the last Olympic year.

Burke would do what he normally does: Watch the games, scout the teams and decide who should be on USA Hockey.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I thought you meant leave the Ducks for the Thrashers. Then yes, Burke should do it, especially if it means that he will go up against Kevin Lowe if Lowe is around for Team Canada.

JR · Oct 18, 2007

Brian Burke at the head of USA hockey? Jesus, he could probably start WW3 all by himself.

Yappymouth.

hockeybeat · Oct 18, 2007

JR said:

Brian Burke at the head of USA hockey? Jesus, he could probably start WW3 all by himself.

Yappymouth.
Click to expand...

Without a doubt, Burkie's a talker. But he knows how to put together teams that win.

Cansportschick · Oct 18, 2007

hockeybeat said:

JR said:

Brian Burke at the head of USA hockey? Jesus, he could probably start WW3 all by himself.

Yappymouth.
Click to expand...

Without a doubt, Burkie's a talker. But he knows how to put together teams that win.
Click to expand...

I bet you he would do it if it means drubbing victory to Lowe as payback for the Penner situation.

JR · Oct 18, 2007

Cansportschick said:

hockeybeat said:

JR said:

Brian Burke at the head of USA hockey? Jesus, he could probably start WW3 all by himself.

Yappymouth.
Click to expand...

Without a doubt, Burkie's a talker. But he knows how to put together teams that win.
Click to expand...

I bet you he would do it if it means drubbing victory to Lowe as payback for the Penner situation.
Click to expand...

Screw Brian Burke & the Penner situation.

He sounded like a whiny little bitch when he was all over Lowe.

Cansportschick · Oct 18, 2007

JR said:

Cansportschick said:

hockeybeat said:

JR said:

Brian Burke at the head of USA hockey? Jesus, he could probably start WW3 all by himself.

Yappymouth.
Click to expand...

Without a doubt, Burkie's a talker. But he knows how to put together teams that win.
Click to expand...

I bet you he would do it if it means drubbing victory to Lowe as payback for the Penner situation.
Click to expand...

Screw Brian Burke & the Penner situation.

He sounded like a whiny little bitch when he was all over Lowe.
Click to expand...

I know considering that Lowe did nothing wrong, because it was allowed. But you know how Burke has always been...

hockeybeat · Oct 18, 2007

Cansportschick said:

JR said:

Cansportschick said:

hockeybeat said:

JR said:

Brian Burke at the head of USA hockey? Jesus, he could probably start WW3 all by himself.

Yappymouth.
Click to expand...

Without a doubt, Burkie's a talker. But he knows how to put together teams that win.
Click to expand...

I bet you he would do it if it means drubbing victory to Lowe as payback for the Penner situation.
Click to expand...

Screw Brian Burke & the Penner situation.

He sounded like a whiny little bitch when he was all over Lowe.
Click to expand...

I know considering that Lowe did nothing wrong, because it was allowed. But you know how Burke has always been...
Click to expand...

Lowe did nothing wrong, since signing RFA's is allowed in the new CBA. Burke's just pissed that Lowe took a player from him.

JR · Oct 18, 2007

Brian Burke is a miserable old prick. He deserves to spend his eternity in Hell debating Al Strachan.

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