 RDOilerfan
Messages: 3780
Registered: January 2016
3 Cups
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| Leia wrote on Fri, 01 December 2023 05:17 |
Not seen the whole game, but I'm sure I heard Jack in the highlights say this is our first come from behind win of the season. This run may or may not have happened without a coaching change, but it can be said we've had a new coach bounce.
Negative 5 goal difference is something I was a bit shocked with as well, considering how bad our netminding and D has been this year, to be so close to parity and now only 3 games below .500. We may not have been the hottest team in the league at the start, but it's where we end up and how we play post season, and if we've seen out worse then things may not be as bad as they seemed a week or two ago.
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I am not convinced them playing better would have happened if there wasn't a coaching change.
The PK is way better. It wasn't very good when Tippett was here, it wasn't very good under Woody, it's been great since the coaching change. I believe they are using most of the same guys so whatever they were doing before almost 2 years wasn't working anywhere close to what they are doing now. I think Mark Stuart took over the PK from Manson and it's night and day better.
The play of Nurse has been outstanding. I've always felt he takes WAY too much crap. I thought he was decent from the start of the season but again, would have a big mistake which people focused on. My opinion has always been he tries to do too much because he cares so much. He gets flying around trying to do everything and he gets in trouble. Since the coaching change, he's calmed down, not forcing things, focused on his job and has been outstanding.
I think the whole D core has been better since the change. Probably part of it was guys are playing better but I think their approach is better.
As a team, they are playing WAY better defense. Forwards are coming back consistently and it's paying off. Last nights game was a great example. Down 1-0 in a game they were the superior team and were getting goalied by a great goalie. They weren't getting any calls from the ref. In the past, they would have pressed and tried to force the issue and that game, probably would have turned into 2 or 3-0. But they didn't. They continued to play their game, didn't force things, got some saves, finally got a break on the Nurse goal. FINALLY got a call, scored a timely PP goal and got a big win.
Maybe they could have done that with Woody but I have my doubts. The dramatic improvement of the PK and the defense stand out to me.
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