Laviolette Staying (now confirmed)
By acaniac, April 15, 2008 in Hurricanes Talk
Sidney_Fisher
He has a great system for those players who will play it. If you don't play it with intensity, you get November 07-Jan 08.
My only little Lavi peeve is that I'd like to see a lot more fire and inspiration behind the bench during games apart from his disagreement with bad calls. Other than that, he's got a great system that if followed can be literally unstoppable. That's always good by me.
Already been posted by TSA quite some time ago.
WStout
LocationElon, N.C.
Sidney raises a point I have been curious about for a while....
Do hockey players and coaches curb their emotions during a game? I know we see celebrations after scoring and, of course, fighting, but outside of that...I rarely see anything. Now I have Center Ice and definitely not on the ice when I attend, but being from NC and growing up watching college sports - the emotion level seems different to me. I too have not studied all the rules, so maybe "unsportsmanlike conduct" includes "getting the crowd into it" fist-pumps, etc. Maybe it's just me, but I would play to the home crowd more...
The last game at the Caps, I thought Lavi was going to implode, and my thought was, show more emotion like that earlier in the season, coach...
CanesGrrrl
LocationSanford, NC
He's coached from the bench with more intensity in the past than we saw this year. Between choking down Tums and smacking on his gum, we thought he was going to implode on a daily basis. He was a lot more subdued this year. However, I don't know any reason why he would have reigned that emotion in. I would have liked to see him get fired up a bit more, as well. It might have done wonders on that bench if that kind of intensity became contagious.
djharley
LocationHOPEFULLY ON MY HARLEY!!
I'm not sure exactly where i stand on this,,not sure whether i want to blame Lavs or one of the other many coaches. At times our offense was awsome then it would dissappear, defense was not very good all year,PP was off more than on,PK was average at best,goaltending--fast start,,terrible middle,great til the last 4 games! So whom does it fall on,,head coach or some of his assitants,or all of the above? I like Lavs but i'm just not sure if he has control of the team & coaching staff or not!. Something or somebody('s) has to change. We can't go another year without making the playoffs!
caniac247
Not jumping on you but a great system.... 252(gf) - 249(ga) The goals allowed # is a little on the high side wouldn't you think? That is the 6th most goals given up in the league.
That lays with JR and McCarthy. JR signed the defense, McCarthy runs the defense. Lavi can only do so much with a defense corp made up of all 4-7 type defenseman. Those goals against are due to us not having a top 2 or even 3 defenseman. Gleason was our best D this year and he isn't a top 3 yet.
wscaniac
LocationWinston-Salem
I have no problems with Lav nor the job that he did with an injury riddled team. Am I disappointed with this seaon's results? Yes, but Lav isn't out there skating every night. It's up to the players to make it happen on the ice. IMO, I don't think another coach could have gotten better results given the amount of injuries.
It's sad, but coaching has evolved into a "what have you done for me lately" profession. John Wooden labored at UCLA for 15 seasons before becoming "The Wizard of Westwood" and racking up 7 consecutive titles. No modern-day era coach would be given that kind of opportunity. Consequently, good coaches get ousted all the time. I think Lav could be one of those coaches that could build consistent contenders well into the future.
Of course, as soon as there's a hint of a coach firing, there's a ton of teams rumored to pick them up. Atlanta papers have already run an article about how he's going to coach there.
i've been looking at the thrasher boards recently and they would love to have lavi. most of them dont think its going to happen, but none think it would be a bad move to grab him up, some even are talking about bringing stiller and commie down to atl....not likely, but how horrible would that be for us.....
just-joe
If Commodore makes the type of impact for Atlanta that he did in Ottawa's game against the Hurricanes late in the season, he'd be a welcome sight.
I know what your saying but to look at the other side, you can also only play his type of system if the personnel allows you too. Sometimes you have to adapt to the personnel. I know there are a lot of Commodore fans, he is a great D man but he is not an offensive D man which is what that system forced him to play.
Commodore was forced to play that way because of lack of options. I say give Lavi the right players to play the right positions and see what may happen.
You mean like Bruce Boudreau? There's a ball of fire.
I think you are right in that fire and inspiration were missing, but it can't come from the Head Coach. Sometimes assistant coaches can do it, but that's a rarity IMNSHO. The Fire and inspirational style doesn't have the same impact on professionals as it does om high school and college players.
Herb Brooks, the USA coach, if I remember correctly, in his pregame speech, was under control. He created an aura of destiny, not a hyper inspired team that would or could lose it with a series of bad calls. I DO think the coach needs to provide an atmosphere where the players can get inspired, but he can't provide inspiration at this level. What he can do is let his captain know inspiration is missing, the presence of which would make a difference. This is one place that not appointing a temporary captain may have been a mistake.
Frankly, I'd like to see less of Lavi getting upset -- about anything. Hard to tell your players to stay under control on the ice while you lose it behind the bench. And it's very difficult to do your job of looking to see what's wanted and needed to impact the game, when you are on a rant.
Well, judging from his play in Ottawa and in Carolina, he's not a defensive D man either.
Judging from Carolina.... I was saying that the system forced him to play offensively which isn't his game. Haven't had a chance to watch him much in Ottawa.
Again, what is his game? He's not very good offensively, he's not very good defensively. So....what is he?
ivyleager
Between a rock and hard place
Luther_Blissett
I think hockey is more of a "team" sport than any other team sport, and in the culture of hockey, individual flashiness is just discouraged. Unless it's a big goal, players barely celebrate. Compare to the wild celebrations of soccer players or the way football players prance around just because they tackled somebody. Imagine if Tuomo Ruutu did a dance every time he threw a body check! Hockey is more about the team and the game than any individual player.
mluther9
exactly, JR needs to provide Lavi with the players to run his system and not force him to adapt his system based on players. If the latter is the case then a portion of the season can be wasted trying to figure out a system that best suits the players available. This team only knows how to play one way and that is constant offensive pressure which is said to be the best defense so I also disagree when JR says that Lavi needs to make in game adjustments depending on the situation.
I agree. To this point, imagine if we had one more really good puck moving defenseman to go with Corvo, in fact, what if we picked up two. One who was an all around stud (for Cole or Cole +) and one who, like Corvo might be a tiny bit suspect in his own end and show a favoritism to offense, but who none-the-less is a great puck mover. Just gear our defense to be like our offense. Push it up. We would still have a few solid stay at home guys too, but even more puck movers, getting the puck out of our own end cleanly to the forwards. Run and gun, baby! We've had nights where we did this and it was something to behold.
The other thing is Lavi needs to have motivated players and if certain players seem to drop off in "work ethic" he needs to drop ice time, use the press box, the AHL, and finally the GM to clear them out. He doesn't seem to do this, instead leaning very heavily on the vets unless he has no choice (like this year).
Also, before everyone blames the bad defense for everything. We also need Cam Ward to step up. Yes, no goalie will be #1 in the league when hung out to dry more often than usual, but no top goalie ends up #32 in save % and GAA no matter what team he plays on.
I've been wondering what if the players turned around while on the bench to try to rile the crowd sort of like how college football and basketball players do.
Pirate_Caniac
LocationGreenville, NC
Or what if the Canes could get some more forwards with a defensive game?
Lots of blame going around with the D, but let's look at a lot of those situations that created the odd-man rushes which are Ward's weakness.
- If it's a 3-on-2, and those "2" are both D, then what does that say? It says that the forwards are caught behind the play. They need to be rushing back faster to cover in the defensive zone. Yet how many times have we seen exactly that happen, and some of the forwards taking their good old time getting back? Or all three forwards behind the other team's goal when the puck is cleared? And that's the D's fault?
- If it's a 2-on-1 because a D cuts into the offensive zone and the other team clears the puck, the D usually gets the blame. Yet everyone realizes that when a D does that, a forward is supposed to drop back and rotate in to cover for the D-man, right? It's a weakness with the system the team plays when a forward doesn't drop back, and unfortunately we see it happen much more often than we should be. The blame for that lies with the forwards for not doing their job in such a situation, not the D for doing exactly what the system tells them to do.
So many people are ready to throw the D under the bus with this team. Which to be honest they aren't the best in the league, but they aren't as bad as so many make them out to be. Getting some better defensemen would help a little, but what is really needed is some forwards who are more willing to help and play their part of the system fully on both ends of the ice rather than just one.
The Canes are stacked at forwards with offensive skill but really lack in defensive skill in the front. That's why it isn't just the D that needs to be adjusted in the roster. The Canes really do need to make room for some bigger forwards that are defensive specialists (which thankfully JR has stated does need to be done). They may lose a little bit of that great scoring ability we've seen the past few years, but at the same time it will reduce that goals against category.
AND, if you are in the penality box at home for an acceptable penality (e.g. roughing, fighting where deserved), you stand and egg the crowd on....
CardiacCane
I think you almost hit the nail on the head....the system is essentially the problem if we do not had a D that is exceptional at moving the puck and our forwards do not do their part to help on D. With a wide open system that Lavi employs it really is a Team O and D game. It's hard to ask the D to pitch in Offensively if the Forwards don't help out.
I would just like to know when JR is going to make up his "Dad Gum" mind! This is getting a bit ridiculous. Is he waiting for Atl and Fl to hire their new coach before canning Lavi so they don't get him?
From the N&O blog today:
Rutherford: Everything's "status quo"
Canes general manager Jim Rutherford hasn't made a decision on the fate of coach Peter Laviolette yet.
"Everything's the same as it's been," said Rutherford, who was in Detroit last week to meet with Canes owner Peter Karmanos.
Rutherford said he'll soon start working on signing the Canes' restricted free agents