NEXT COACH should be? mega thread ...

[Curt]

29 minutes ago, RVJ said:

Draft players that are strong on the puck, loves to check and goes to the front of the net.

But who is the coach?

[DHawerchuk10]

58 minutes ago, klos1963 said:

Very impressive regular season records, very unimpressive playoff records.

I think Tippet is going to Seattle, i believe he is working with the owners now. Hawerchuk has a very good reputation as a head coach. Would be an interesting choice.

Trade Housley for Hawerchuk again....that has a certain symmetry.  

[Andrew Amerk]

2 hours ago, MillerVaive said:

Also with Rikard Grönborg  hiring him would make some sense since we've been stockpiling Swedes here. Plus I've read that he is really good at developing relationships & getting the most out of his players. Not only evaluating the talent of his teams himself but asking the players to evaluate themselves individually & as a group.

And just look at that photo of him above. He shows more of a commanding presence in that 1 image than what I've seen all year from PH.

Whoever it is, JBots better not screw this one up & do whatever it takes to bring his top candidate in here.

 

“To me, the only challenge that would be left is the National Hockey League, to be perfectly honest,” said Grönborg. “I’ve kind of done all that stuff and coached some of the best players in the world. Now I’m interested to have my ideas, to [implement] them over a period of time and do them overseas, and kind of challenging the coaching community over in the NHL.”

“When it comes to North American coaching, generally speaking, a coach comes to coach vs. just being a trainer, as we call it in Sweden [coach is translated as tränare in Swedish]. Go out and train the team,” said Grönborg. “Here it’s actually a coach and kind of plan how we utilize the players and give them job descriptions and whatnot. There’s different tweaks in the game situations instead of just kind of rotating four lines, which was very common back in Sweden.”

“You’d rotate four lines until there was 10 minutes left and then go down to three lines and then you go down to two lines the last two minutes. …In Sweden, it was very common to have four very even lines.”

He is a huge proponent of developing players and has seen success at a national level. A large part of the strength of the U-18, I-20 and National team for Sweden comes from Grönborg. He has helped develop a large number of NHL talents. 

They have won back to back golds at the world championship under Grönborg. Their U20 team has won two silver medals under him in three years and the U18 also won two silver medals in three years under Grönborg. 

Grönborg could bring something new and potentially gamebreaking to the Sabres and the NHL.

[Curt]

4 minutes ago, Andrew Amerk said:

“To me, the only challenge that would be left is the National Hockey League, to be perfectly honest,” said Grönborg. “I’ve kind of done all that stuff and coached some of the best players in the world. Now I’m interested to have my ideas, to [implement] them over a period of time and do them overseas, and kind of challenging the coaching community over in the NHL.”

“When it comes to North American coaching, generally speaking, a coach comes to coach vs. just being a trainer, as we call it in Sweden [coach is translated as tränare in Swedish]. Go out and train the team,” said Grönborg. “Here it’s actually a coach and kind of plan how we utilize the players and give them job descriptions and whatnot. There’s different tweaks in the game situations instead of just kind of rotating four lines, which was very common back in Sweden.”

“You’d rotate four lines until there was 10 minutes left and then go down to three lines and then you go down to two lines the last two minutes. …In Sweden, it was very common to have four very even lines.”

He is a huge proponent of developing players and has seen success at a national level. A large part of the strength of the U-18, I-20 and National team for Sweden comes from Grönborg. He has helped develop a large number of NHL talents. 

They have won back to back golds at the world championship under Grönborg. Their U20 team has won two silver medals under him in three years and the U18 also won two silver medals in three years under Grönborg. 

Grönborg could bring something new and potentially gamebreaking to the Sabres and the NHL.

I’m not saying that you are wrong, but what is it that could be new and game breaking?

[French Collection]

I know Tippett is connected to Seattle, but it is in an advisory capacity. He may be wanting back in ASAP.

I like that he has a lot of experience and has had time to step back and hit the reset button. He has seen what is working around the league and can put his own fingerprint on a team.

He fits the profile of a grinding player becoming a good coach.

He is not too old and has street cred of playing over 700 games and being HC for well over 1000 games.

JBot would like the NCAA background combined with Team Canada stints.

[Ducky]

2 hours ago, dudacek said:

The only veterans we had in critical positions were Hutton, Skinner and maybe Bogosian.

Risto etc might not be kids anymore, but 24 and known nothing but losing does not equal veteran savvy to me.

 

Bryan Trottier?

Bogo has known something besides losing? He hasn't even played in the NHL playoffs yet?

Neither has Skinner and Hutton has 3 playoff games under his belt.

Risto has played 5 seasons, I think he can be considered a vet.

[dudacek]

14 minutes ago, Ducky said:

Bogo has known something besides losing? He hasn't even played in the NHL playoffs yet?

Neither has Skinner and Hutton has 3 playoff games under his belt.

Risto has played 5 seasons, I think he can be considered a vet.

I think your first two sentences support my point.

Would you want to lean on Risto to be the go-to guy for supplying guidance to your rookies?

The Sabres lack veteran leadership.

[JJFIVEOH]

Bob Boughner. 

He has the players playing with heart, all the time. Injuries killed them at the start of the year. Watch the 3rd period of the last Panther's game to see how his players play for him. 

Edited April 8, 2019 by JJFIVEOH

[...]

So, @Andrew Amerk, I am intrigued.

I would be interested to get a whiff of the "new" ideas, too.  That content you posted can be interpreted to mean Rikard Grönborg sees the NHL as his next challenge, which is good, but it seems like he doesn't fully understand NHL coaching, yet.

Could the Sabres' fan base withstand another coach who needs to time to figure out what he's (or she's) doing?

I would need more assurances the guy understands the NHL game and can coach for the NHL-sized rinks with NHL players.

[TrueBlueGED]

11 minutes ago, JJFIVEOH said:

Bob Boughner. 

He has the players playing with heart, all the time. Injuries killed them at the start of the year. Watch the 3rd period of the last Panther's game to see how his players play for him. 

Death, taxes, and JJ hyping something involving the Panthers. You were right on Gallant, I'll give you that, but you've also been wrong on a whole lot of Panthers hype ?

[JJFIVEOH]

4 minutes ago, TrueBlueGED said:

Death, taxes, and JJ hyping something involving the Panthers. You were right on Gallant, I'll give you that, but you've also been wrong on a whole lot of Panthers hype ?

Ever think about the fact that I might actually have some knowledge on Panther's coaches? I'd take Boogie over Housley any day of the week. Two washed up goaltenders killed the Panthers. I think he deserved one more year. But I think the Panthers are bringing in Q-Ville to make the team more attractive to Bob. 

[Brawndo]

19 minutes ago, JJFIVEOH said:

Ever think about the fact that I might actually have some knowledge on Panther's coaches? I'd take Boogie over Housley any day of the week. Two washed up goaltenders killed the Panthers. I think he deserved one more year. But I think the Panthers are bringing in Q-Ville to make the team more attractive to Bob. 

JJ how would you compare Boughner to Gallant? 

 

[Brawndo]

43 minutes ago, JJFIVEOH said:

Bob Boughner. 

He has the players playing with heart, all the time. Injuries killed them at the start of the year. Watch the 3rd period of the last Panther's game to see how his players play for him. 

Does he use lineup match ups? 

What is his pattern of using vets versus younger players?

I am genuinely curious because the Panthers did appear to excel under him 

[nfreeman]

6 hours ago, TrueBlueGED said:

Do you think the team underachieved because they weren't scared of the coach? 

Well, the question is pretty reductive and I assume not a real question so much as snark, but of course it’s impossible to know why exactly they underachieved.  Certainly crappy goaltending was a major factor.  

Having said that, the team strikes me as immature, of intermittent focus and in some cases entitled.  It’s certainly plausible that these factors contributed to consistent sloppiness in the D zone, and that these failings are susceptible of being remedied with diligent and attentive practice, motivated by the desire to avoid a scary dude.  

 

Separately:  there is NFW they are hiring a Swedish coach who doesn’t even coach in the SEL.  

[TrueBlueGED]

4 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

Well, the question is pretty reductive and I assume not a real question so much as snark, but of course it’s impossible to know why exactly they underachieved.  Certainly crappy goaltending was a major factor.  

Having said that, the team strikes me as immature, of intermittent focus and in some cases entitled.  It’s certainly plausible that these factors contributed to consistent sloppiness in the D zone, and that these failings are susceptible of being remedied with diligent and attentive practice, motivated by the desire to avoid a scary dude.  

 

Separately:  there is NFW they are hiring a Swedish coach who doesn’t even coach in the SEL.  

I could easily argue a "yeller" is just as likely to make the players tune out entirely if maturity is that big of a problem. I just don't really think the style of coach is all that important. From all accounts, Housley did plenty of yelling during practice and it didn't matter.

[JJFIVEOH]

55 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

JJ how would you compare Boughner to Gallant? 

 

I think they're similar, but Gallant seems more old school. He let his assistants teach the players and was the hard-nosed coach who stuck up for his team, made sure they were giving 100% and rarely let the officials take advantage of his team. Reason I liked Gallant was he showed his emotions just enough to not be overbearing like Tortorella. 

[JJFIVEOH]

53 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Does he use lineup match ups? 

What is his pattern of using vets versus younger players?

I am genuinely curious because the Panthers did appear to excel under him 

I think Boughner and the Panthers were similar to BFLO. (Not Housley). He held ground with his top line and they gelled. The Panthers have always have a couple of vets that were past their prime, but contributed with their leadership. They did well under Boughner (when you take into consideration the washed up goalies they had this year). And they had the 1st or 2nd (I forget) most amount of points in the league last year after the all-star game. 

I really do think he'd still have a job if Q-Ville wasn't available. How can you pass that up? Boogie will surface again. 

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, TrueBlueGED said:

I could easily argue a "yeller" is just as likely to make the players tune out entirely if maturity is that big of a problem. I just don't really think the style of coach is all that important. From all accounts, Housley did plenty of yelling during practice and it didn't matter.

I don’t want a yeller and I don’t want an *****.

I do want someone who will say “that wasn’t good enough” when it wasn’t, instead of “I thought parts of our game were really good tonight”

I think elite players like Jack and Rasmus want to be challenged, they thrive on being challenged.

I want someone to say “you are Jack Eichel, and good isn’t good enough. You should be great. Together we will be.”

Edited April 8, 2019 by dudacek

[Two or less]

35 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I don’t want a yeller and I don’t want an *****.

I do want someone who will say “that wasn’t good enough” when it wasn’t, instead of “I thought parts of our game were really good tonight”

I think elite players like Jack and Rasmus want to be challenged, they thrive on being challenged.

I want someone to say “you are Jack Eichel, and good isn’t good enough. You should be great. Together we will be.”

Sounds to me, you are in for AV.

From a USA Today article-

Vigneault sent Chris Kreider to the minors to start the season. He scratched two other forwards, Mats Zuccarello and Benoit Pouliot, early in the season. He challenged goalie Henrik Lundqvist, during the worst regular season of his career, by repeatedly playing first-year backup Cam Talbot. He criticized rookie forward J.T. Miller's commitment. He said, during the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Pittsburgh Penguins, that Ryan McDonagh wasn't playing well enough.

So, it certainly hasn't been all rosy. But all of those players — other than Miller, whose chance will come next season — responded in a big way.

Link- https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/rangers/2014/06/04/rangers-coach-alain-vigneault-does-it-his-way/9953757/

[Zamboni]

Because JQ is gone to FL...

Here are the serious candidates so far ...

Alain Vigneault

Benoit Groulx

Bruce Boudreau

Todd Nelson

Rikard Grönborg

Sheldon Keefe

Dale Hawerchuk 

Bob Boughner

[Huckleberry]

4 hours ago, Zamboni said:

Because JQ is gone to FL...

Here are the serious candidates so far ...

Alain Vigneault

Benoit Groulx

Bruce Boudreau

Todd Nelson

Rikard Grönborg

Sheldon Keefe

Dale Hawerchuk 

Bob Boughner

Boudreau still needs to be fired though, I don't think we have a shot at keefe.

 

Boughner / Gronborg would be my choices.   But my best bet is JBOT waits until after the playoffs.    if Babcock really is on the hot seat he is a prime candidate.

[mrm33064]

7 hours ago, TrueBlueGED said:

I could easily argue a "yeller" is just as likely to make the players tune out entirely if maturity is that big of a problem. I just don't really think the style of coach is all that important. From all accounts, Housley did plenty of yelling during practice and it didn't matter.

Agreed ... the "blowhard factor" is the most valued characteristic of the typical WNY fan.   

The team needs a leader.   Someone who can turn the blowhard/buddy volume knob as needed, but whose fundamental respect and credibility is grounded in: "let me explain to you exactly what we did in [former Stanley Cup winner], and how I'm going to make that happen for you guys here if you do your part."   Someone who can inspire some true buy-in, enough buy-in that even if that coach were out for a game or two, his vision would be peer-enforced and self-policed.   I believe that every organization eventually takes on the personality of its (genuine, real-deal) leadership.  And right now, this team does seem to look a lot like Housley, Botterill, and Pegula.

Joel Q might work for us, but seems late we're late to that party.

[Huckleberry]

22 minutes ago, mrm33064 said:

Agreed ... the "blowhard factor" is the most valued characteristic of the typical WNY fan.   

The team needs a leader.   Someone who can turn the blowhard/buddy volume knob as needed, but whose fundamental respect and credibility is grounded in: "let me explain to you exactly what we did in [former Stanley Cup winner], and how I'm going to make that happen for you guys here if you do your part."   Someone who can inspire some true buy-in, enough buy-in that even if that coach were out for a game or two, his vision would be peer-enforced and self-policed.   I believe that every organization eventually takes on the personality of its (genuine, real-deal) leadership.  And right now, this team does seem to look a lot like Housley, Botterill, and Pegula.

Joel Q might work for us, but seems late we're late to that party.

I doubt we were ever invited.

[TrueBlueGED]

6 hours ago, dudacek said:

I don’t want a yeller and I don’t want an *****.

I do want someone who will say “that wasn’t good enough” when it wasn’t, instead of “I thought parts of our game were really good tonight”

I think elite players like Jack and Rasmus want to be challenged, they thrive on being challenged.

I want someone to say “you are Jack Eichel, and good isn’t good enough. You should be great. Together we will be.”

If Paul Hamilton's reporting is to be believed (always an open question), Housley did plenty of this behind the scenes. All accounts are he had the respect of the team. And it didn't work. 

Edit: what the team really needs, in my estimation, is a coach who has the acumen to coach to the talent on the team. It's why I point to Boudreau if he gets canned, a guy who has won with vastly different rosters. Housley's biggest flaw is he didn't realize what he did and was a part of in Nashville worked because it fit with the blue line they had, not through some outstanding practice sessions with lesser players. 

Edited April 8, 2019 by TrueBlueGED

[lost in dc]

Q to FLA