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10.12.2009

Weekend Thoughts...

I've been trying to figure out for a while this morning what I wanted to opine on about this weekend. I watched Saturday night's game on the computer but I was also watching the Huskies pull off a stunning last second victory at the same time... so I had kind of an eye on both games at the same time.

Birds came out flat in the first period... which is to be somewhat expected on the road against a quality opponent like Spokane and unfortunately, but for a weird bounce goal DeSerres looked pretty good in net.

Seattle played better in the 2nd but after getting a goal from Jacobs to cut the lead to 2-1 they allowed the game to get to 3-1 and it was more or less over from there.

The problem this team is going to have all season is if they don't get a lead early they are going to have a hard time scoring to catch up to teams.

Which brings me to last night...

Tbirds played some of their best hockey of the season in the first period last night against the Americans. The passing was as crisp as it has been for most of the season, they went hard to the net, they made nice cuts into lanes and finished at the net. Unfortunately, the arrival of offensive explosion lasted only one period as Muth took a penalty with 15 seconds left and Shinnimin made them pay with a great shot around a defender off the post and in to get the score to 4-1. The Seattle Times actually called Muth's penalty senseless... and in my opinion that just isn't fair. I thought it was a really soft call by the official. If Muth "held" him it was slight and momentary... something that happens dozens of times per game along the boards and never gets called. If the American player had clearly been trying to skate away and Muth impeded his effort to do so... I didn't see that as the case.

Either way the penalty resulted in a goal and the Ams went to the locker room clinging to life.... things would fall apart for Seattle in the 2nd.

With a mixture of questionable calls and poor discipline the Americans cashed in on 2 of 4 power play chances to cut the lead down to 1 goal and with their one power play chance in the 3rd period the Americans cashed in and sent the game to overtime where Seattle unexpectedly lost the shootout 2-0.

Some good and some bad here... the 1st period was in my opinion the best period they have played all season... the bad side is that when you have a team down 4-0 early in the game you have to step on their throats and finish the game. Whether that means not taking penalties and playing super tight defense or if that means just continuing to score. Either way you can't let a team get back in the game and Seattle did and it cost them a point.

Unfortunately, I think this is what you're going to get out of this team. As the second youngest team in the league you are going to see this team go through some growing pains learning and figuring out how to win and close these games out.

Sometimes I really wish that I would just ignore the message board but I have to respond to some of the things I have been reading.

One... this "fire the coach", "fire the GM", "fire the scouting director" argument is not only tired but its not even convincing. I'm not a guy who defends management people no matter what... I screamed for years that the Mariners had a horrible GM in Bill Bavasi and the only way that team would ever get better is with a change at the GM position. What evidence does anyone have to support firing Rob Sumner? ok wait... let me re-phrase that. What "rational" argument is there that making a change at Head Coach is going to make this team better. Will offensive players suddenly become more talented? Will players automatically stop being the 2nd youngest team in the league? Seattle isn't getting out-coached right now... they are being out-played and out-"talented" if you want to call it that. If we were able to quantify a team's talent level... let's call the Tbirds a 5 out of 10 (just for arguments sake). The merit of a coach should be judged on how above or below that talent level a coach can get a team to play.

Example... if the Tbirds are a 5 out of 10 and they win the division, you would say a coach was pretty successful. If they were an 8 or 9 out of 10 and they finish last you would say he probably failed. Does that seem fair? ok... I'll assume it is.

If we assume this crude method to be a decent way of judging a coach (though let's not pretend it is the ONLY way or the concrete way) what talent level would you place on the current team? and how might you try to convince me that Sumner is not getting the proper level of "results" out of that talent level.

Is Seattle an 8? so being 2-5-1 is a disappointment? Or is it more realistic to say they are probably a 4 or a 5 and they are 2-5-1 and that's probably about right....

Point is... Rob Sumner has been very good to me, he has granted my interview requests and he has given answers to my questions that in my opinion went above and beyond the formulaic responses you might usually get from other coaches or what you usually get from him in his post game responses.

But that doesn't stop me from being objective and honest about his "performance" is he the best coach in the league? Quite easily no... Don Hay probably is the answer there. Has he consistently been able to get results out of his teams that exceed their talent level? I'd honestly say no there too...

But has he lacked results on teams that were loaded in talent? No there also...
So does he deserve to be fired? Not even close...
Does defending this point of view make me dizzy? Yeah it does...

Honestly... I'm so tired of this argument. I would love to not talk about this anymore until it is something worth talking about.

Second point... last night a thread was started to bash our 20 year old players. Specifically this is a defense of Lindsay Nielsen. So Lindsay Nielsen isn't going to score 90 points this year. What do any of you have to base your opinion that he is a "bad leader" and is a "bad captain". Let's see here... the guy is the best penalty killer on the team, wins faceoffs, backchecks consistently more often and better than any other player on the team. Yeah... that sounds like a guy I don't want on my team... boooo hissss... let's get a scorer who only plays at one end of the ice. Come on people... just because your captain won't be your leading scorer doesn't make him a bad captain or a bad leader. Just because the guy can't and won't crush people into the boards and doesn't drop the gloves very often doesn't mean he can't lead by example and finish checks. I've seen Nielsen hand out a few pretty good hits already this season.

Finally... linking both my Nielsen point and my Sumner rant together. Team success is based on the sum of the parts and not just the parts themselves. Just because you have a couple of drafted players doesn't mean you should win the Cup each year... and on the flip side... just because you don't score 100 points a season doesn't mean you can't still be a good hockey player and can't lead by example and help a team win. This team isn't losing because of Rob Sumner or Lindsay Nielsen or Prab Rai. This team is losing because collectively they aren't playing well enough. Fans tend to be quick to play the blame game but results are almost never based on one player or one thing... just like wins are rarely based on one player or one thing.

Relax Tbird fans... is this probably going to be a long year? Yeah... probably is. Are we probably going to miss the playoffs? Real chance that is true. That doesn't mean you should let the negatives consume you and block you from also seeing the positives when they happen.... like Parker netting two really nice goals last night on a snipe and a dangle or Alos getting his first goal, on the PP... or Muth setting up the first goal with a slick cut to the middle from the point with a nice feed from Sena. Winning is always more fun than losing... but anyone thinking this team was getting to 100 points this season was probably not being realistic.

14 comments :

Anonymous said...

Constructive, objective and brilliant!

Anonymous said...

Nielson is garbage
Shappert got destroyed on a hit he was trying to make. We have the worst examples of leaders on this team i have seen in a long time. When you have two d men playing center and wing for your team it speaks volumes of where your team is heading. We have no on ice leadership and no identity. Until we resolve these issues we could score 10 goals and manage a way to lose.

Mr Tell13 said...

Very good post,

With that said, I think after watching last night's game, there are some things to be adressed on the team, young or not.
-I am also tired of the "fire the coach" thing. the display of some fans behind the bench (where they screamed after sumner) was shamefull.
-to see haber and Flemming up front is kind of telling of the state of the team right now.
-We need a big natural center on this team. A guy that knows how to consistently win face -offs. Lisday Nielson is a fine center on the second line, but we now are sorrely missing O'brien and even Boyer.
-on the plus side, i think that Alos,Muth, Sena, Jacobs and Schapp are playing really good in this situation
-Also on the plus side, Ramsay seems to be a great addition so far. Not super fast, but it seems like the younger kids are more confident with him in the line up.

Anonymous said...

Fire the coach?...omg- whatever

Anonymous said...

End of the day this coach needs to go.

Thunnex said...

right... because saying so just makes it true.

Anonymous said...

no because it true and you just can't come to grips with it. Write all you want to try to justify keeping him but he still needs to go.

Thunnex said...

You're right I should listen to "fans" who provide no rational evidence or argument... because it's a lot easier for them to just scream "fire the coach!".

Anonymous said...

I'm not going to comment on anything here except you said Neilson wins faceoffs..... He has not done that well at all this year. Other than that rant on

Anonymous said...

I'm not in the fire Sumner camp, I like him but his results aren't beyond question. My problem is with the man at the top, Farwell. Not because he is awful, but because he is the epitome of mediocrity. For me, Mediocrity is OK for awhile, but I'm not OK with it indefinitely and Farwell's been at the helm for a looooong time. Way too long for my preference. My patience meter is pegged out. If Farwell's Birds were a motorcycle gang their slogan would be FMMF forever mediocrity mediocrity forever. On the players, not long ago your prediction for Rai was "you can safely pencil him in for 40 assists and 20 goals as the absolute basement for his production" My response was he needs to be playing with folks that can put the puck in the net to get that many assists. Right now he's on pace for 18 goals and 9 assists for the season. Its early but I'll go on record right now, no way he gets 40 assists this year unless he is traded to another team. Nielsen isn't a 100 point player and I never dreamed he ever would be, not that he isn't of value to the team but right now it would be nice to get more scoring out of him, he's on pace for 0 goals and 27 assists for the year. Schappert is a -7, on pace for -56. No these 20 year olds aren't going to tear up the league. Thing is without them we'd really be in trouble. On the bright side wow on Jacobs and Pickard!

Anonymous said...

I was at the game sat, it was brutal to watch Jacobs is a one man band out there Rai was disgracful no heart at all. Acolatse feed Beach 4 lefts that was worth the price of admision.

4thebirds said...

Good blog Tyler. And many good points. If I could ask Farwell anything it would be, why are we carrying 3 goalies? My other question would be, is HE happy with our older players and going to stand pat, or does he see the same weaknesses that we do and will try and address them at the deadline? I'm totally happy with our younger core of players. From 18 down IMO we look pretty darn good. And my BIG question, what the heck are we going to do if the flood hits during a game? Do they have a plan in place that maybe they could make us fans aware of? Thanks again for all the work you do on this blog. Always good info!

Anonymous said...

So it sounds like we are back where we start before the long winded writing and an irrartional attempt to keep the coach & GM. Just because then are nice to you and provide information does not entitile them to keep there jobs. Look at he attendence numbers this year new building and still no fans. That equalls a problem why are there no fans coming to the games it never used to be this way before the current coach. It's getting harder and harder to renew the ticket every year when the don't seems to care about winning.

Anonymous said...

dude.. are you guys really this clueless?

Keep up the good work Tyler!

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