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Peter Laviolette as Leafs coach?

Guy Boucher. time to get a defensive coach.

It makes no sense to be an NHL coach for Dale Hunter. He takes a massive paycut to leave the Knights to coach in the NHL. He's in a unique situation with London.
 
This. I'm not sure why PhonyPony's pushing for him so hard. During his 12 year tenure as an assistant and head coach with the Hawks, they were an abysmal team for the entire time that he was there. It's also pretty rare that good former NHL players actually make good coaches, and Savard also hasn't coached a game at any level in any capacity since the Hawks fired him in 2008. Dumb suggestion.

As for who we should get, I love Pat Quinn and wish we'd never fired him, but the guy's 70 years old and he's only coached one season out of the last 8 years. Would he even want to get back into coaching? If so, I wouldn't mind giving him the job for the rest of the season and then deciding what to do from there.

For a more permanent solution, Laviolette would be good. The guy's got a pretty impressive resume---he actually managed to get the Islanders into the playoffs for two years in a row to start his head coaching career. Then he won the Cup and made it to the finals in his next two coaching stops. I'm not a fan of Guy Boucher---the ridiculous trapping system he tried to implement in Tampa was an embarassment to the league.

But do we give a rat's ass? If we win that's all that matters.
 
PK is a douche and as a result is hated by his coach, teammates and opponents.

I'm sure you'll say it is because everyone is racist.

His coach is a mental midget that is hated by his team and fans. Granted he is loved by his opponents because he is so ****ing stupid.
 
But do we give a rat's ass? If we win that's all that matters.
Look, I want the Leafs to win, but the reason I started watching hockey in the first place was because it's entertaining. So, I don't really have any interest in watching a team coached by a nutless twit that thought this style of "hockey" was a good idea:

[video=youtube;uEKE8QTbDTs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEKE8QTbDTs[/video]

It's always worth noting that once Laviolette exposed Boucher's passive defensive system, the Lightning cratered and fell out of the playoffs and then started like a bottom-5 team the next season, and Boucher had absolutely no answer for it.
 
It's always worth noting that once Laviolette exposed Boucher's passive defensive system, the Lightning cratered and fell out of the playoffs and then started like a bottom-5 team the next season, and Boucher had absolutely no answer for it.

Yeah, but lets be realistic. Every coach that has been fired has failed in the past.

What I like about Boucher is his creativity and hockey IQ. Sure it didn't last, but he was able to see something that let him develop a pretty unique system and let a team to the 3rd round. That was some impressive coaching. He needed to adapt quicker, but you have to think the guy learned from his experience in Tampa. Thats what experience does. So he should be better for it.

Plus Tampa was really shit because they had the worst goaltending in the league (.889 in 11-12 was 30th overall, and .899 last year tied for 24th). Don't have much of a chance with that kind of Toskala-esq goaltending. They stank until they got Bishop.
 
I don't know, I give kudos to coaches for trying new things... and while they are all known for particular styles of play, that isn't to say that they can't/won't adapt.
 
Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of trap hockey by any stretch, but Boucher's undoing in Tampa was the shitty goaltending he was given to work with.
 
I, personally, don't give a damn what style we play as long as we win. If the coach tells the forecheckers to screech like baboons before making a hit and it leads to a ten game winning streak, I'll be happy.
 
We haven't had a truly defensive coach in 19 years since Burns was fired. I think it's time to go in that direction for a change. Is it fun to watch? Nope. But I think the team will be better for it.

Hitch**** is a great defensive coach who's been fired a few times now. But he's always bounced-back with his new team. Boucher may have looked exposed after a while in Tampa, but I don't buy he can't return to the NHl and succeed again.
 
I just want this team to play good and win dammit!

I don't care who the coach is, so long as we win!
 
I want Wilson back.

We were a good team under Wilson even with less talent than we have now, we just had godawful goaltending.
 
I want Wilson back.

We were a good team under Wilson even with less talent than we have now, we just had godawful goaltending.

One of the reasons we had shit goaltending was Wilson's insistence on playing Reimer behind Giguere & Gusto...as you very astutely bitched and moaned about back in the day.

Not to mention his complete distaste for Kadri

We need new blood.
 
Screw Wilson. You guys need a coach who understands d, but kindly lay off Boucher as Habs will need him when they fire Therrien next season.
 
Granted I dont watch habs games but yeah, their record and play seems to be good enough to make the playoffs, good luck firing the coach there.

I am absolutely dumbfounded on how the leafs have regresssed from last year and heck like zeke said from the Wilson years with a better roster?
 
People almost forget how bad Wilson was as a coach - FOR TORONTO.

Wilson had crappy goaltending, and maybe he didn't realize what he had in Reimer, who knows? But his biggest problem was his arrogance and his constant feud with the media, with his players ... He didn't work out in Toronto and he will not work in Toronto.

Firing the coach might be the easy way out and as much as I see a lot of flaws in Carlyle, the problem is he might be the best coach we can have right now.

And - I think coaching is overrated at times when the team is winning, and also overrated when the team is losing. Coaching makes a difference, but it's the players who determine the W and L on the ice at the end of the day.
 
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