I was never calling for his head, I'll go back later and look through some of the posts but I don't recall many on here demanding Trotz be canned if any.
I've never once seen a post from you in regards to Trotz and the team choking. Your responses to past playoff failures were always logical and level headed. Hot goalie, injuries, luck (it's part of the equation we saw it this playoffs) just to name a few, now that he is gone to see you refer to those seasons as he choked doesn't fly with me.
As far as Reirden goes, isn't that what assistants are supposed to do? Focus on certain aspects of the team while the HC oversees the entire team something like a Defensive coordinator and the HC.
http://www.baltimore...012-13/?p=28756
http://www.baltimore...012-13/?p=32096
I'm not trying to pick on you here (there's plenty of decisions you could go back and throw in my face as well for how they've turned out) but you said alot of the same things about Oates. Young, smart, respected, knows offense, should improve the PP and how did that turn out?
Could TR turn out great yes, but we don't know for sure. Running the whole team is different from just focusing on parts of it. Would TR have been willing to fly to Russia last Summer to have a chat with Ovie about what he needed to do to improve his game? I think the Caps are taking a risk by doing this.
I wasn't trying to say that he was. Just pointing out that you can't talk about the TEAM choking and be excluding the head coach from that, and that's a LOT of what was said around here for years. It drove me so crazy people talking about the choking, tearing down the team, trading ovi etc. that I stopped posting in here so much for a while. It's just driving me crazy that people (and it's not just on here, so don't feel like I'm singling you guys out, you are just the only ones I can really talk about the Caps with) are incredulous that the team didn't do more to keep him, just because they won the cup this year. NO ONE was calling for him to get an extension before now, and I'm willing to bet if they lost in the playoffs again that no one would have been complaining if they let him move on. So why so different just because they won? It's the inverse of complaining that they make the playoffs but lose every year, and we all know I've LONG been in the camp that getting to the playoffs is the goal, where you have a chance to win, from there things have to break right, so of course I'm bummed they lose, but I understand there are a bunch of teams that are going to win and our team isn't going to do it over and over.
Trotz had every chance to stay and make about $2m per sure there are a bunch of guys making that, and some INSANE salaries out there now, but i personally wouldn't go anywhere near that. We don't know what the team's budget actually is, but it is a finite resource, and when you have a comparative in house option for a fraction of the cost, I will always go that way, it might be the difference between resigning Carlson or Wilson.
As for TR vs Oates, yep. Absolutely said he was a former player, and respected, also said he'd be great on offense. Didn't mention anything about defense, and that's where he was awful. At the time with a young team they needed a coach they knew and respected, and offense was our strong suit. We have no way of knowing how things will turn out, absolutely right, but we had no way of knowing Oates would be THAT BAD defensively, which is what cost him, they were trying to make up for the ALL defense approach of Hunter that Ovi HATED so they were looking for that big play offense, and a guy like TR could have made a difference on that staff, someone to get the D to play respectable (or at all). I'm pretty sure it was during that Oates reign that I had my first back and forth over Holtby. With someone saying he was bad and should be benched or traded or something, and my argument was that the D was so bad in front of him he was going to play poorly, it's a huge part of why he stunk for a part of this season. Our defense was young and learning, and took a while to get into NHL shape this season too.
To your point about assistants...sometimes. Some coaches like to have overall control, and then their assistants are just that, they run whatever part of practice or whatever the coach points them too. SOME coaches like to compartmentalize and will have specialty assistants focus on some aspects while they coach others. Trotz knew he was an offensive guy, so he has Korn to work with the goalies and they brought in TR to work with defense. Word has been the past couple years that our players love TR and wanted him to take over if a move was made, as it was debated a couple times in this 4 years. To your point, that trip about Trotz flying to russia, rumors were if he DIDN'T make that trip, he would have been fired. Like I said, I'm not saying Trotz is terrible, aside from promoting TR, I completely disagree with letting him go, I'm just saying it's not the end of the world, and it's not like the team had any control over it. You don't know if he would have signed if they offered him 5 years and $30m (he probably would) but we don't know what his relationship with BM is, he could have been looking forward to moving on this whole time for all we know. He's a great coach, and I wish him well, but I think we will be just fine with TR too...at least from a chemistry standpoint.
