Don’t know if he will win the Hart (he is my choice), but even more importantly the players have recognized Kucherov as the best player in the league this past year.
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New coach in Pittsburgh. I for one don’t know much about him.
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And the Bruins now have their head coach. Check out the picture. It looks like you wouldn’t want to cross this guy.
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It looks like Marner might very well end up in Carolina. Surprisingly the Hurricanes have the 5th most cap space among all NHL teams, something I wouldn’t have expected considering their perennial contender status. they have been unable to sign recent free agent rentals Jake Guentzel and Mikko Rantanen, losing them to teams in no state tax states. They can easily afford to overpay Marner the $14 million or so annually he wants even though his play doesn’t justify that number.
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And he would fit perfectly on a “regular-season” team like Carolina.
Whoa you are not kidding.
The over/under on games before he’s tossed, a la Tortorella, has opened at 51 games.
And given that it appears that there is a modest probability that Sturm would assault the referee who tosses him, this is yet another reason I am going to continue my advocacy for the referees to have their own goon at every game.
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Oh wow. You guys couldn’t be more wrong about Marco. 
Sturm was an Assistant Coach with the Kings for several years and then became the Head Coach of their AHL team, the Ontario Reign. So I know him quite well.
He is a big softie. Know as a player’s type coach and very good with developing younger players. In fact I was rather surprised that the Bruins would hire such a low-key and docile Head Coach. I think the idea is that the Bruins are heading into a rebuild. So a patient, even-tempered, coach like Sturm will be able to relate better with the younger Bruins players that will be coming in.
I think that particular image of Sturm is quite decieving and has some weird filters and effects on it. Probably to make him look like he’s a tough, no nonense kind of guy that Bruin’s fans would expect.
This here is actually a much more accurate picture of Sturm:
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I don’t know Sturm at all, but he sure looks like a ruthless Nazi commandant in that picture.
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Yes, he was the Head Coach of the German Team in the 2018 Olympics that shocked the hockey world with a silver medal. Almost won the Gold too.
Good guy. I’m really happy for him.
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Ah ha, makes sense, I had never heard of him until that introductory photo, and appearances certainly can be deceiving, but what you are saying is that actually Sturm is a lot like this guy:
It sounds promising, but damn Bruins anyway.
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Not a big surprise to me…
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DeBoer has had many deep playoff runs with several teams now (San Jose, Vegas, Dallas) but just can’t seem finish the job.
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Add in that they may want their new coach’s input for free agency and the draft. I think that goes for every team that’s changing coaches though.
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Hmmm. Sounds like Paul Maurice, until last year. Arguably De Boer’s record is better than Maurice’s was before he won it all.
Well sometimes it just takes the right kind of players to buy into your system. I think in Winnipeg, there were some rumours that Maurice had to deal with locker room issues.
Definitely with Wheeler, but I was thinking more of his Finals and Conference Finals appearances.
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OR you need a coach who can find the right scheme to fit the players he has.
Harder work for some who think they have a great system. but using your players strengths is how say a Flames team everyone expected to be somewhere around the Ducks in the standings was in a playoff race right to the end of the season.
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That depends at what development stage a team is at.
If a team is in rebuild mode, then they can draft and acquire players that are a fit for the Coach’s system.
Otherwise a mid-season replacement Coach will need to identify his players strengths and weaknesses and put them in a position to succeed. However, the players need to buy in as well to new systems and schemes.
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But you also need to identify the base problems accurately. Like our last coaching change when the coach figured out defence wasn’t the biggest problem, panicking in close games and taking too many chances in those situations was.
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Not a huge surprise here, although I thought there would be a chance they would go for the sexier goal scoring forward choice.
A few days ago Carbery was named coach of the year. I called this one as well, with Arniel finishing second and St. Louis finishing third.
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