Thursday, October 11, 2007

report card: keenan

in my humble opinion, keenan is failing.

i'm not sure why he insists on starting conroy on the first line, but i really want to throw things at the beginning of every game. tanguay/conroy/iginla DOES NOT FUCKING WORK. quit trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, dude...

according to peter maher/rob kerr, the reason behind putting langkow on the second line was to provide the team with more scoring depth... HUNH ?? let me get this straight....: so, we'll take the only guy on the ENTIRE TEAM who's truly performing off of a line where he's (at the risk of being redundant) PERFORMING, so that he can maybe.... uh.... get used to a couple of new guys and hopefully start performing there ??? while the other guys he was performing WITH try to perform with a guy who's done pretty much SQUAT for the past 3 years [don't get me wrong, i think conroy is a great personality/leader in the lockerroom, and a fantastic 3rd liner, but i'm sick and fucking tired of everybody thinking him and iginla are a great pair. people, that ship has SAILED....].

i have had major concerns about line juggling on this team for a very, very long time. some of my thoughts, historically, on haphazardly switching up combinations can be read here, here, here, and here. maybe i'm not the smartest hockey strategist in the universe, but in my opinion, if you are coaching a struggling team with serious identity problems, that is learning new systems and adjusting to new teammates and staff, wouldn't you consider keeping your ONE WORKING LINE TOGETHER ??!?!?!?????? the flames had FIVE days off between vancouver and detroit, so why not let iggy, langks and tanguay use that time to solidify what they're creating (read: goals, good feelings, positive feedback) as opposed to splitting them up ?!

dayum.

i could really go on for hours, buuuut i might as well save it for the next thousand posts i'll write on the subject. and i really didn't even mention the second line....

welcome back, davey moss.

and corey sarich....? helluva blunder, buddy. what the hell ?

10 comments:

Kent W. said...

What happened to positivity?

RobWoolley said...

Interesting position WI, I can't say I disagree. I'm hoping keenan gets it together, the first win of the season shouldn't take this long. I mean, look at the sens, they're gonna win their division for sure. How much of it is Keenan and how much of it is the team though?
That roster is as good as it gets, there are no excuses.

walkinvisible said...

MG:
positivity is for pre-game, not post-game. post-game is for calling it like it is... and throwing around expletives in this case, it seems...

rob:
i would be happy to blame the team if they were given a chance to settle into ANYTHING. there has been a lot of talk about new systems, so if they're learning those, then i think it best to let the guys settle into their lines a little. playfair was brutal with switching line combos mid-game, and keenan seems to be thinking he can switch between games and have them work when it really matters.... meanwhile, when they DONT work, he goes back to what does (usually sometime around the second period). which, presumeably, means the 'working' lines never get to practise together, which is why we're not winning games.

maybe just me.

Anonymous said...

Man, am I ever glad I keep missing these games.

Jason said...

Was there really any doubt as to what would happen with Keenan as bossman? Like, even with a super chipper glass half full mentality I think it looked kinda grim from the start...

Kent W. said...

Keenan ain't the culprit. Not yet anyways. He's managed the bench during the games well enough for my standards. When your superstars play like shit, you have little chance of success, whatever the line combos. He's given the right players the right kind of ice-time to my eyes thus far, they just haven't delivered. Doesn't help that Kipper looks like crap.

It's going to take time to clean up the mess Playfair left. I'll give Keenan the benefit of the doubt for now.

walkinvisible said...

i just have a very hard time accepting conroy starting on the first line every single game. it really stinks of 06/07 and pisses me off...

i agree, though (and unfortunately), that the 'superstars' are clearly underperforming. other than dion, of course, who has every reason to make himself look good (ie: upcoming offersheet)....

Steal Thunder said...

Yes WI, don't forget what Playfair inculcated... ;D

walkinvisible said...

ST: very very good point.... ;)

MacS said...

You all know my opinion on the Flames in general right now, but I kinda think Keenan has got it right playing Conroy with Iginla. Iginla is going to produce if you put him with Tony Amonte (ok..maybe not that far). So he's gone 3 games without a goal...I'm not worried.

Right now we need to find a way to keep the pucks from going in so often rather than trying to find line combos that score more often.

God I sound like Playfair...