Comments on: Potter up, Sauer down

By: Phil

Phil — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:39:57 +0000

Joe, you definitely don’t need to remind me of how bad this team was under Renney. I was consistently calling for his firing since the Devils swept us in round one of the 06 playoffs.

As for Lecavalier, he was much more than a “promising young player with an offensive upside”. He was a 1st overall pick that was putting up impressive numbers from the get-go. It wouldn’t have mattered who his coach was and, frankly, by looking at his career numbers, you have to wonder if he’s really played his best hockey yet.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:37:42 +0000

Did anyone watch Saeur? He got torched yesterday. He is simply not ready yet for this type of play, which is normal when u jump up. On one goal in particular he just got pushed behind the net like he was 100 pounds and the forward who did it scored the goal so YES he was responsible.

By: Joe in DE

Joe in DE — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:09:08 +0000

Mako, agreed that Morris was probably concerned about hitting Crosby and taking a penalty at a critical juncture. But there are good penalties and bad penalties. Offensive zone penalties are bad. Penalties when you’re about to get torched and let the league’s 3rd highest scorer in on a break-away aren’t good, but understandable, especially when you have the leauge’s best PK. Let them go to work and regroup after 2 minutes.

Phil, when Torts started as head coach of TB, Vinny L was a promising young player with an offensive upside. Torts turned him into a superstar. He didn’t do it by coddling him, he did it to him by force-feeding his work ethic and high standards down his throat. Did it piss off Vinny and likely other teammates, and lead to tension? Sure, the stories are out there. But in the end, their names are on the cup and there is a mutual respect among them.

Torts doesn’t have a problem with youth, he has a problem with youth playing badly. Cally has flourished, and seemingly so has Dubinsky so far. Need I remind you guys how bad this team was under Renney?

By: Phil

Phil — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:15:05 +0000

Perkins, I agree with a lot of what you said, but I would rather not have Tortorella here next season presiding over the development of the youngsters in our system. Not after the way he’s proven to have two different standards for veterans and younger players.

Young players need a coach who is patient and has calm and assertive demeanor. Tortorella is the antithesis of that.

By: e.m.

e.m. — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:56:24 +0000

when you are playing D in the pinch forecheck system, and your partner pinches, you must immediately and concurrently drop back to “center field”, ie, into mid-ice, so that if the opponent does get by the high forward, you are then back to at least have one man back to defend a rush.

Redden didn’t do it properly on the Crosby winning goal, and Sauer did not do it properly on the first goal.

that does not excuse the bad reads in the first place by Mara and Morris, it just states what the other dman is responsible to do.

it also does not excuse the bad reads by the high forward in each of those situations, which is just as bad.

bottom line though is that it is much easier to implement this type of system during a training camp from the beginning. doing it in mid-season is tough and results in mistakes that have not been covered up by HL recently as he has not been sharp on breakaways and 2-on-1’s.

you can get away with it against teams like Minn, but not offensively skilled teams like Pitt

they should be equally upset with the 3rd forward who is supposed to be high and in position to pick up for the pinching dman when he gets beat, but too often the forward has been lazy or not mentally sharp

bottom line, the D will have to play conservative if they don’t want it to keep happening, and that will bring it back to 2-1 games again, with a try not to lose mentality.

By: perkins just remembered to change his name back,

perkins just remembered to change his name back, — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:49:46 +0000

yea i cant believe sauer was benched the whole rest of the game. so what happened to mara? his eye got hurt?

By: perkins just remembered to change his name back,

perkins just remembered to change his name back, — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:45:43 +0000

phil- i’m givin torts till next season, but hes been the coach for a little over a month now, and were still, just about a .500 hockey team. i think the guys shouldnt be gassed in the 3rd by now, with exception to yesterday because of the penalties. theyve been playin his system for awhile now, and its what they wanted. the players wanted to play uptempo fast paced games. it seems now that they are, they arent skilled enough or arent conditioned well enough to play the style. either way, its still better than rennys system, and i will give torts till next year and reserve judgement after some changes are made to the team. im hoping redden and naslund especially can be traded or bought out. something!! maybe dump vally and get a goalie in here than can maybe challenge hank a little more for playing time. because i think hes a little too comfy knowin vally isnt a threat to him. the 1 thing that really pisses me off about torts is his press conference antics. its funny once in awhile, but we want answers. i hated rennys pressers too because he absolutely instilled zero confidence in his players or us fans. he was way too passive with the refs too. i just hope we can get rid of some deadwood next year so we can not only resign antro doobs, cally, and staal, but maybe get aa up here and sangs for the pp.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:37:16 +0000

bad performance by Sauer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What are you talking about he played 2 minutes.. One goal for sure was Mara’s fault from leaving his position….

Take what the experts take with a grain of salt, your eyes do not lie….........

By: Phil

Phil — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:33:43 +0000

Sauer’s banishment is yet another example of Tortorella’s erratic and often knee-jerk coaching style. And while it’s unlikely that he’ll be canned at the end of the year, we can only hope he doesn’t last as long as his predecessor.

By: meg

meg — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:30:56 +0000

“After a poor performance”... I would love it if even one of the writers that get paid to cover this team could actually provide some useful insight and analysis and explain exactly what it is that Sauer did in 1:59 of playing time yesterday that was bad enough to earn the label “poor performance” instead of spewing garbage assumptions based on Torts erratic behavior and decision-making.