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Post by IGive1 on Oct 21, 2015 9:46:43 GMT -5
The coach has to live here. Does Gilbert live here? I'm torn on this one...I tend to agree with you that the coach should live here but the other thing I'm looking at is why uproot a family when you're away from home a good part of every week? Even with that other side of the argument, I still think I fall on the "has to live here" because it sends a message to Ownership and fans that they're in it for the long haul and not just a stepping stone or temporary stop before the next gig. I believe he does live here, his family may not. A GM living here is at a huge disadvantage to the leagues other GMS. If you are GM of London or Kitchner or Miss you are 2 hours from any potential scouting location. If the GM lives here, he is 1 1/2 hours just to the bridge. Not practical in my opinion.
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Post by donjohnson on Oct 21, 2015 10:05:13 GMT -5
Goalies are not even close to the issue with this team. 2 of our 3 goaltenders are legitimate NHL prospects at the goalie position, ask any NHL scout that is walking around the Dow. If one of our 3 goalies was struggling then maybe that's the issue. But when all 3 have issues that blame should be focused on the defense. Look at the word you used..."prospects." Prospect, by definition is only a likelihood of something happening. Personally, I don't care how good the NHL people think the "prospects" are...look at MLB, the prospects get traded around by GM's all the time and most of them never make it to the majors. You don't win with prospects, you win with players who have a demonstrated history of performing either within your (or someone else's) organization. Why do employers put "previous experience required" on a new job posting? Because they don't want to waste time and money on a recent grad who may not pan out in the industry. Could that grad turn out to be your best salesperson or employee ever, sure, but most don't have the time/money to spend on taking a chance. That's exactly why we don't need to spend time on goalie prospects...we need to win and we need to win soon so you ditch the prospects and get someone in here that can do the job.
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Post by eric8199 on Oct 21, 2015 13:11:01 GMT -5
I agree with Don on this one. However, on your three points of things you can fix, you can add a fourth — score goals.
We have been shut out only one time in the nine games so far, on opening night against Flint. In two games we've scored only one, against Windsor and against London. In six of our last nine games we've scored two or more goals. Two of those games have been two-goal games. Two have been four-goal games, one was a five-goal game and one was an eight-goal game.
I'd say in the OHL, you could count on a four-goal game being a win on many nights. Two goals probably isn't going to get it done. So out of nine games, we've only had four that were winnable on the scoring sheet, and two of those were actual wins. Those were the five and eight goal games.
Now let's look at goals against. 3,3,7,5,2,7,4,5,6 = 4.7 goals per night.
So out of nine games, going by the four-goal conclusion, we SHOULD have lost six out of nine. That's only one off of what we ACTUALLY lost.
This seems to help confirm either a defensive problem, or a goaltending problem. And I really don't feel like it's a defensive issue. I'm not the greatest at rating defense, but it seems like our guys are making a lot of stops, a lot of interceptions, a lot of pick, etc. They don't seem to be out of position, and except for the two games against Flint, they don't seem to be letting a lot of breakaways through.
When you look at scoring, Sadowy is leading the team, as I think we would all expect, with seven. Of course, three of those came the other night. Conner has five, and Mitchell Stevens, who is now out for several weeks, has five (that hurts). Artemov has three and Clark has two. A handful of others, Kreis, Felhaber, Gilmour, Paliani and Barwell, have one goal.
Does that seem right? You've got three guys carrying the team on scoring, one of whom is now out for several weeks. But you have SOME production from the other guys, in that the majority of the players are on the scoreboard.
My conclusion is yes, there is a goaltending problem, and while we've had one for quite some time, this year you can't blame it on the defense. We also need to score more goals, which would help. But even getting a goal or two more a game isn't going to get it done when we're letting in four goals a night. We're letting in 4.7 goals a night, but we're only scoring 3 a night. So both are issues. But I still think the goaltending one is the larger one, and if you fix that, you fix the scoring, because you boost the morale.
We've given up too many games late.
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Post by ohlhcky on Oct 21, 2015 13:19:25 GMT -5
The way Cormier played when he came in the last half of the season last year I thought he would be the solution however he is struggling. Not sure why Felhaber is playing on the 4th line. There seems to be a disconnect at this time hope it gets resolved soon.
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Post by IGive1 on Oct 21, 2015 13:53:54 GMT -5
The way Cormier played when he came in the last half of the season last year I thought he would be the solution however he is struggling. Not sure why Felhaber is playing on the 4th line. There seems to be a disconnect at this time hope it gets resolved soon. Could be because he has the worst plus/minus on the team.
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Post by Disco Stu on Oct 21, 2015 20:53:45 GMT -5
I do a lot of looking at goaltending numbers, so I figured I would fire in my $0.02.
It would be easy for me to blame the defensemen. So many of them are new to the team, and it is understandable that they are taking time to gel together. But the coach has paired them well, I think. After the one game where Niemeläinen and Stewart were together where they both went a wandering, but not at the same time, my criticism was what if they went wandering at the same time. After that, they were split up, Stewart went with Petschenig, and Niemeläinen went with Ditomaso or Holmes. Let the wandering hitter be paired with a guy who falls back. Works for me.
I think if our defensemen were having problems it would be reflected in the number of shots we allow per game. But it isn't.
Here is a list of the teams in the league and the number of shots they allow each night.
Team Minutes SA SAA Sarnia 608 260 25.66 Niagara 600 277 27.70 Oshawa 659 308 28.04 Mississauga 647 303 28.10 North Bay 540 253 28.11 Ottawa 640 311 29.16 Erie 552 282 30.65 Kitchener 552 282 30.65 Flint 551 290 31.58 Owen Sound 672 355 31.70 Kingston 617 327 31.80 Windsor 609 329 32.41 Saginaw 547 296 32.47 Sault Ste. Marie 606 328 32.48 Hamilton 543 302 33.37 London 543 304 33.59 Barrie 544 309 34.08 Sudbury 927 531 34.37 Peterborough 610 367 36.10 Guelph 601 382 38.14
This board isn't the best for posting tables, but what I take away from this is that Saginaw, while 13th in the league in this category (fewest shots per game allowed), aren't exactly allowing their goalies to be shelled.
In fact, last year, Cormier saw basically the same number of shots in Saginaw (32.5 per game) that he does this year. Ovsjannikov is actually seeing 1 shot per game less than he did last year. Cormier's GAA last year in Saginaw was 3.48, Ovsjannikov's was 4.52. This year those numbers are 3.78 and 7.00, respectively.
So Cormier is playing slightly worse, to the tune of 1 more goal allowed every four games. And yet, we see him as playing far worse than last year because there were no expectations last year. On the other hand, the goal is to improve from year to year.
Without knowing more, I cannot speculate. It could be anything from the strength and conditioning coach trying something new to the goalie coach trying something new to whatever the heck.
I do wonder why Ditomaso isn't playing more. I know they want to work Holmes in, but Ditomaso has three times as many assists per game as Holmes does.
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Post by stevek on Oct 22, 2015 8:13:55 GMT -5
I'm not so sure there's going to be a fire sale on the bench, but there just might be one coming behind it. I think the promotion of Kisil to assistant GM was a sign from Drinkill that Gilbert was on a short leash. This team >should< be good this year and really good next year, so I doubt anyone in the front office will want to sell talent now (or anytime this season). My money is the next 'big move' is a new head coach. New GM, lots of new people/new positions over the summer, and a team that isn't playing up to par for a head coach that the (new) GM didn't hire. I'm not personally itching for a new coach, but there's plenty to indicate one is in the cards... I believe that Kisil was given the assistant GM position because Drinkill was not going to move here and he would be here only 8 - 10 days a month. He needs someone locally to handle things for him as needed. I had not heard that the new GM was only going to be spending a fraction of his working time in Saginaw. If that's the case, then having a (local) assistant GM makes perfect sense. What (still) does not make much sense to me, is why that assistant would be picked from somewhere else in the organizational chart. An assistant coach reports to the coach, who in turn reports to the GM. An assistant GM would typically not report to the coach, but directly to the GM. Drinkill essentially did an end-run around Gilbert and has Kisil reporting directly to him...at least whenever Kisil puts his GM hat on.
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Post by donjohnson on Oct 22, 2015 12:25:53 GMT -5
I believe that Kisil was given the assistant GM position because Drinkill was not going to move here and he would be here only 8 - 10 days a month. He needs someone locally to handle things for him as needed. I had not heard that the new GM was only going to be spending a fraction of his working time in Saginaw. If that's the case, then having a (local) assistant GM makes perfect sense. What (still) does not make much sense to me, is why that assistant would be picked from somewhere else in the organizational chart. An assistant coach reports to the coach, who in turn reports to the GM. An assistant GM would typically not report to the coach, but directly to the GM. Drinkill essentially did an end-run around Gilbert and has Kisil reporting directly to him...at least whenever Kisil puts his GM hat on. Your last line sums it up and it's not a bad thing when you don't want to take on additional salary. There will be things that Kisil reports to the GM on and things directly to the coach. It actually keeps more people in the loop on things and you get less "agendas" that way. Of course it has the potential to break down as well and cause friction but I would say it's less common in this case.
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Post by donjohnson on Oct 22, 2015 12:28:20 GMT -5
Good stats DiscoStu! We'll see how it goes over the next few games and then Drinkill/Gilbert may have to make some decisions.
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Post by kidowsley on Oct 22, 2015 13:59:19 GMT -5
I missed some things...... 1) What happened to Stephens? 4-6 weeks? 2) The new GM is only here 8-10 days a month? And the Spirit knew this when they hired him? What happened to the days of people getting the ax because they wouldn't live here? (ie Mo Mantha). I have a big problem with this. Matt Millen stayed at home in PA when he was with the Lions. So there's that....
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Post by kingpin794 on Oct 23, 2015 14:21:19 GMT -5
1) Defensive scheme NEEDS to change. The guys we have, not counting Crawford and the Big Finn, are all stay at home guys that have ok skating skills and speed. The system in place now is very aggressive with the defenseman pinching in on plays to create pressure/turnovers in order to create offense. That inherently will not work but the guys you have doing this don't the ability to get back into the play soon enough, which leads to odd man rushes and breakaways and I am never going to blame a goalie for that. This seems to be the system in place since the new D coach came here (Wells IIRC). These guys are Gilbert's type of players, the D system doesn't fit all though. The pressure needs to come from the forwards only and the defenseman need to stay back and use their size to their advantage if they opposing team breaks through the forwards.
2) The offense needs to be more a line a half. 20 of our goals are scored by FOUR people. That is not good at all. I don't know how easy this will be with Stephens out now and guys like Clarke and Kreis in as regulars. I'm especially looking at guys like Barwell and Felhaber on this one. Both have been close to non existent out there on most nights. These two should be 50+ point guys this year. And Felhaber deserves the fourth line minutes honestly. He can't keep playing like these minor midget games anymore. He doesn't use his head at all and always looks for the highlight reel play. It gets a bit frustrating after a while. There's a reason Lodge didn't fit here when Gilbert came in and Felhaber is gonna be the same way unless he buys in and plays a smarter game.
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Post by offthepost on Oct 23, 2015 22:02:40 GMT -5
2) The offense needs to be more a line a half. 20 of our goals are scored by FOUR people. That is not good at all. I don't know how easy this will be with Stephens out now and guys like Clarke and Kreis in as regulars. I'm especially looking at guys like Barwell and Felhaber on this one. Both have been close to non existent out there on most nights. These two should be 50+ point guys this year. And Felhaber deserves the fourth line minutes honestly. He can't keep playing like these minor midget games anymore. He doesn't use his head at all and always looks for the highlight reel play. It gets a bit frustrating after a while. There's a reason Lodge didn't fit here when Gilbert came in and Felhaber is gonna be the same way unless he buys in and plays a smarter game. Interesting that you should point out Felhaber and Kreis, as both were scratched from the game Friday in Missy. Maybe Gilbert heard you?
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Post by ohlhcky on Oct 24, 2015 1:28:28 GMT -5
Probably discipline issue....
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Post by spiritfever on Oct 24, 2015 8:57:29 GMT -5
I thought Felhaber and Kreis were listed in the lineup though. Big night for Felhaber to miss, Mississauga is a hub for NHL scouts.
Big win Spirit!! Great effort by team, especially Cormier when the wheel began to fall off. Keep it going.
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Post by SaginawGensFan on Oct 24, 2015 13:38:09 GMT -5
Probably discipline issue.... I don't know about that. I mean it's possible, but it left the team with dressing just 10 forwards & 7 d-men. Not sure it would be worth it to "send a message" if it leaves you down to basically 3 lines.
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