Posted by james on April 22, 2006 at 02:02:40 (PST):
In Reply to: Re: Pens posted by Stan on April 21, 2006 at 17:25:34 (PST):
Well it makes some sense when you have 6+ czech players on your roster, right?
Well, he did make one final good move in hiring therrien. The guy makes his players, veteran or not.. play hard for him. Some veterans dont like it, but hey.. i say put out or get out.
So the guy made a few bad free agent signings this yr.. Try having to throw together a ton of free agent signings like that.. no matter how good of hockey players you have, no one knows how well they will mesh together.
They were all quality players, but they just didnt work out well together.
Also, there was no telling who could do what with the new rules changes. No more trapping, all of a sudden you can make some two line passes. It was just a vastly different game this yr.
There were too many variables, and patrick lost out. The three previous yrs that he didnt make the playoffs were not his fault.. Having to trade jagr for kris beech and some no names? Cmon.. no GM would readily make that deal.
Having to get rid of straka, kovalev, etc.?
He was in a tight spot to start this yr, and I admit some changes were needed.. but im not so sure that was the best move that could have been made.