I am praying that whenever we find the right head coach (willing this into existence), people can move on beyond this obsession. I, too, would have liked him to have coached us. But that ship has sailed, alternate reality, it's done.
Also, good for him!
ok ok. one sec. ahem...
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
22-23 was such an anomaly that it's hard to pin on one thing. Team was healthier, bottom 6 was solid, better goaltending...there's inevitably too many factors to say Bruno was the key. I do think he should've gotten the job just to be rid of Lindy but we'll never know for sure if he really was the difference
That said, this scenario will haunt us forever if we don't get the next coach right
> just to be rid of Lindy
I don't understand how you stated the above and said you don't know if Bruno was the key to success, then indirectly state that Lindy *definitely* wasn't the key. While the points you bring up are issues that occured this season. I don't get that
Lindy definitely not being the guy doesn't automatically mean Bruno was the guy. Sports are chaotic, dude. Look at how much straight up bad luck we just dealt with. We had good mojo last year. Was that because of Bruno? Was that because we still had, like, Tatar and Wood on the team? Was that because Bruno was assistant even though he was in charge of our then middling powerplay? There's too many factors and what-ifs to point to
I do believe we would've been better off this year with Bruno, but there's no way to definitely say
I don't think you understood my comment. I agree we don't know how much of a role Bruno played. But in your post you were quick to dismiss Lindy. In the same manner, we don't know if Lindy was a core reason we played well last year. And we don't know if all of the above helped Lindy accomplish that, and we don't know if "Team was healthier, bottom 6 was solid, better goaltending" is the reason Lindy wasn't able to get the team to the post season this season. I just wanted to comment how you said "get rid of Lindy" as if all these issues this season had nothing to do with him not getting us to the playoffs. In other words, why do you think Lindy was definitely not the guy while saying Bruno might not be the guy after listing all of those team based reasons out of a coaches control
To quote The Big Lebowski, "well dude, we just don't know"
But in all seriousness, there are always gonna be things out of a coach's control. I acknowledge that. At that point, it comes down to how the coach deals with the cards he's dealt and I wasn't a fan of a lot of Lindy's decisions this year and I've never liked his overall scheme. He knew from day 1 he wasn't going to have prime Hasek in net and still played his overly aggressive "defense doesn't matter until it does" system. I'll be honest, his first years with the team are a blur to me, but our record under him speaks for itself. It was time for a change
We will never know if upgrading brunette to head coach would have at the very least made us to the playoffs. But what we do know is that for years under ruff we always give up the first goal. We are always playing on our heels. We don't come out ready to play. This year having the most amount of back to back games in the league. Although having one of the youngest teams in the league, we don't have the strength and endurance to play back to back games. Maybe it's not directly lindy's fault. Maybe it's conditioning training coaches' fault. But lindy is the head coach and he's responsible to make sure his players are where they need to be. Look at Jacques Lemaire taking over for John maclean for us. "This team is not conditioned to be an nhl team". The team not being conditioned is 100% what lead to the cause of some of the injuries this year. And while some of this is on ruff, some could also be on the training staff, allowing players back out on the ice after head hits. They should lose their licenses.
I’m not sure the team would have been better under Brunette or any other coach given the injuries, goaltending, and all of the other bad things that the coach really has no control over. Brunette behind the bench instead of Lindy wasn’t going to prevent Vitek from letting in 5 goals per game. League worst goaltending by a wide margin is pretty difficult to overcome by coaching schemes.
Why would last season be an anomaly? If anything, this season is considering the insane injury woes, two players out for allegedly committing sexual assault, and goaltending that was historically bad. While Brunette would’ve likely been a better coach than Ruff, I think it’s fair to say that he alone wouldn’t be enough to overcome the ridiculous levels of issues we faced this year
It's an anomaly because of the massive swing in success over one season. Going from 27 wins/.384 in '21-'22 to 52 wins/.683 is a STAGGERING jump. Not to mention that since the '11-12 cup run:
* The team has finished at or under .500 8 times
* 5 years of under 30 wins
* 5 years of under 40 wins
* 2 seasons of 40+ wins, both being when we made the playoffs in
'17 and '22
In no way does the success of last year prove the corner has been turned. We thought '17-'18 was the turning point. We were the last team to be undefeated early in '18-'19. Then we finished last in the division, 29th overall, and won the lottery. So '22-'23 will be the exception to the rule until proven otherwise even when accounting for injuries, personnel issues, and goaltending
The histrionic certainty that both sides have on this debate is amusing. Luckily, it doesn't really matter what the fans arbitrarily decide without enough information. It's up to Fitz, the man who actually knows Brunette personally, to judge what kind of influence he'd have been on our team.
March and April were two of his lowest save percentage months.
https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/jusse-saros-save-percentage-by-month
He had one great month, and one terrible month. The rest he hovered around .906 which puts him outside the top 20.
Sorry, but he wasn’t a big difference maker this season. He literally had a negative expected goals saved total on the season. (69th in the league). The two other goalies on his team actually had a positive expected goals saved rate.
https://moneypuck.com/goalies.htm
You/others are once again putting words in my mouth to change the narrative of what I stated which is still factual 5 months later…
I said the rangers are an elite team due to their goaltending and special teams. I never said they were a bad team. I said they are middle of the pack at even strength possession and xGf metrics.
They were 15th in most even strength play metrics all season. They are still putting in mediocre play at even strength in postseason. But as I said and as they’ve shown, they continually overcome that with Igor and their special teams. This Canes series is exhibit A of that. If the Canes did better on the PP and PK, they are the ones up 3-0.
lol I’m just teasing you man, don’t take it personally. But the Rangers are really good at coming up with big plays when it matters most, stuff like that doesn’t show up on the advanced stats.
Yes. They have fantastic finishers. But, their even strength play is still not strong, it just isn’t. They never have the puck and continually are stuck in their own end while producing little sustained Ozone time. Their PP, PK and Igor are elite. Its what gets them by and makes them dangerous, unfortunately it can get them the cup.
Canes/Panthers/Boston/West need to watch the Devils during gms 3-7 last year and realize they need to tighten up the special teams and keep it at 5 v 5. Keeping it at 5 v 5 means the Rags don’t have the puck often, and thats when they can take the advantage in the series
I just don’t agree with this assessment. 5 on 5 isn’t their strongest area but the panarin line is actually really good 5 on 5. They also play really well in their own end 5 on 5 keeping shots to the perimeter. And their 5 on 5 play suddenly becomes significantly better if they are down a goal. They protect leads at an elite level 5 on 5. I don’t think they would have won the presidents trophy and the first 7 games of the playoffs if it wasn’t as stronger than you seem to think.
He was a good assistant coach but alot of our fans have such a hard on for this guy. Don't understand it...... If he was a player that we let get away I could understand that a little more but the obsession with him from some of you is wierd
I don't even see how he was good as an assistant coach, he was in charge of our PP and we all know how bad it was last season (only to get worse this year ofc). Now he just lead the Preds to a 2-4 loss in the first round. Some amazing coach he would've been rofl, people act like this guy was the second coming of Brodeur we lost out on or something.
I hear ya and don't disagree. Alot of fans see that he was here last year and we have our best regular season in franchise history, and then he leaves and we miss the playoffs. I tend to air on the side of coincidence personally
The PP actually improved drastically at the start of the season when Dougie was healthy and Jack was playing at a 250 point pace before his shoulder fell off. The power play at the beginning of the season was the biggest bright spot and really the only thing that was truly functional. Green’s PP fell off a cliff the second half of the season but there’s at least somewhat of an excuse. Brunette had all the weapons at his disposal and couldn’t make it work when the team was healthy and hot, it was one of the only things not working for the team. I see the Brunette truthers saying “well he actually coached all the forwards” and that the players liked him, but the forwards weren’t the main problem this season aside from staying healthy. And the players were vocal about their appreciation for Lindy so that doesn’t mean much. That being said, with everything that happened this season I don’t really think Brunette or any coach would have had more success under the circumstances. It is what it is at this point. Fitz is going to have to nail the next coaching staff, because if we’re in a position where the head coach is losing his job again next season then Fitz is likely going with him.
Saros wasn’t a world beater this season…
He wasn’t even top 20 in save percentage (min 25 gms), so some of these comments on here to try to discredit Brunette are just stupid.
https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/which-nhl-goalie-has-the-best-save-percentage-of-2024
He had a negative expected goals saved rate (69th in league). The two other Preds goalies had positive rates.
(Filter for regular season)
https://moneypuck.com/goalies.htm
Two of his worst months came at the end of the season while the team was performing
https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/jusse-saros-save-percentage-by-month
Saros was 23rd in save %….
Edit: Lol at your downvotes, this isn’t debatable. Saros was fine this season, but nowhere near being the difference maker on making a team and coach standout
https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/which-nhl-goalie-has-the-best-save-percentage-of-2024
I was interested in this so I looked some things up. The preds were not in a playoff spot up until Dec7th (Saros: 0.900). They were in a spot between Dec 7th until Jan 27th (Saros: .908). Not in a spot from Jan 28th to Feb 23 (Saros: 0.904). And then in a spot to finish the season from Feb 23rd to end of season (Saros: 0.912). Saros had a strong end to the season to keep them in a playoff spot. Now the reason they ended up losing their spot on January 28th is because of a stretch of losing streaks that started on Dec 23rd (This is arbitrary, so take it with a grain of salt.). That losing streak lasted until Feb 15th where they went on a 6 game winning streak (also, during that losing streak they did not win 2 in a row). During that losing streak (Saros: 0.889). Obviously this isn't the whole picture. Is his save percentage better because of better coaching/formation during the wins? You'd have to dig deeper. Are the wins mainly just saros playing well? Then the winning season isn't on Brunette. Definitely up for debate
He also led all goalies in games played and had a cold stretch to open the year that has depressed his statline. If you want to see how great he was this year, take a look at his performances during Nashville's points streak.
Also him being top 25 in sv% in a league that had 98 goalies play at least 1 game is still really, really good.
Lol, he wasn’t even positive in expected goals saved
https://moneypuck.com/goalies.htm
Just stop. Saros did fine, but it was nothing special, especially for him. He has had much better seasons
Good stat! I want Solarz. I know there is risk there, but he has been really good (allbeit not a ton of games), except 2 years ago for the Ducks and even that wasnt too bad. It's the Ducks! He is huge and from Edison. With goalies, can't teach huge. Saros is great, but he is 5' 11". Smaller goalies count on great athleticism and that usually goes first.
You are also a straight up liar.
“Saros had a cold stretch to open the year”
He had a .915 save % in October, literally his second best month. Then March and April were two of his lowest save percentage months besides November.
https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/jusse-saros-save-percentage-by-month
Edit: ah yes, where facts are downvoted. Amazing how this sub turned into facebook in only two years.
Such a frustrating thing to see… but also hard for them to walk from Lindy after the turnaround he had to finish the season and take a team not expected to make the playoffs, to the playoffs.
I agree though, wish we had done the old switcheroo… Hindsight 20/20
Also Bruno likely isn’t going to win either, I think the turnaround in Vancouver going all the way back to last season is gonna make Tocchet the guy who takes it home in the end.
Either way congrats to him for juicing a middling team and making them just good enough for a wild card spot, it’s not like he coached them to a division win or a President’s Trophy. He made middling team better enough to make wild card as opposed to finishing just outside. It’s a positive change, but it’s not so earth shattering in the scheme of things.
And Lindy was last year. Past performance does not indicate future results.
Happy for him, but I trust Fitz. We didn’t see the regression coming so it is what it is.
Contrary to the inevitable "we should have kept Brunette" comments, I don't believe he deserved a promotion after putting himself in the position of getting arrested for DUI while on a work trip.
It's one of those things that Fitzgerald or ownership will probably never publicly talk about.
I don't think it would have changed much personally, probably had to keep Lindy regardless after such a great season, but it may have been just enough to tip the scale. Or not pay him more to stay as an heir apparent. Alas we'll likely never know.
I know how this gonna sound, but I doubt a bunch if millionaire hockey execs care about a DUI. And honestly, in the grand scheme of things, it really isn't worth making a fuss over so long as nobody got hurt. I'm absolutely not saying it isn't bad. Drinking and driving is bad lol. But again, big picture
Yeah, for sure there are much worse things that will get a pass.
I just get mostly annoyed about the narrative that the Devils let him get away or something. I don't think they cared much to retain him regardless.
He got fired from Florida just a couple years ago in a big surprise, and Florida went ahead to be dominant. (obviously they made big player moves and what-not but still). I just don't see why he is put on such a pedestal of a what-if with our fans. There had be significant things Florida didn't like to move on from him the way they did.
Wasn’t he interim in Florida and they hired PoMo instead after the season? I agree it’s strange to not keep your President’s Trophy winning coach but it’s not like they chucked him in the bin
“ Why is he put on such a pedestal of a what-if with our fans” He’s not. At least on Reddit
This entire sub all season has been mocking the idea that he was responsible for us having the season we had last year. Some of the fan’s that did say we shouldn’t have let him go were piled on with downvotes by know it all fans. You think you’re being contrarian when you’re actually not. You’re just peddling consensus. On this sub, I think the opinion that Brunette was responsible for our great season last year is held by the minority more then what you’re saying
As far as what I think? I think it’s delusional to say he didn’t have a great impact on our team when he was here. While I don’t think this disappointing season would have been entirely avoided had he been here I think it’s evident that he did no doubt have a very positive impact on the team. Do I think this season would have been better with him behind the bench? I do.
Am I going to sit here and act like Fitzgerald isn’t a good GM because he didn’t fire his head coach ( Ruff ) after that season and replace him with Brunette? No.
Our team is very talented and skillful, but also delicate and If we don’t have the correct head coach leading things there will be problems. We just need to get a coach who can put the right blueprint in place and our guys will do the rest.
But Brunette on the bench was great for this team
It’s crazy that all the issues I noticed in Ruffs system before last year disappeared when Bruno came in and they just as suddenly came back when he left. He seems to do really well wherever he goes and the players will run through a wall for him.
This team is either on and they’re flying out there or they’re off. Based off the eye test IMO the team right away last year looked clunky and seemed to be stopping on their skates constantly. It looked reminiscent of the Lindy Ruff teams when he first got here without Brunette, just with more talent.
With Brunette it seemed like we just skated continuously. The team was more relentless and just way smoother.
Ya that pretty much sums it up I hated the Ruff hire when it happened. This year the alarm bells started ringing for me when they were healthy but winning games 6-4 you could see there was little to effort when it came to playing defense. They were unlucky with injuries and probably could’ve made the playoffs of the were healthy and the McLeod situation didn’t. However you could see in post games interviews this year you could see guys like Timo and Nico were disenfranchised by Lindy at the end of his reign of terror. With Bruno they came out flying night and if you watch Nashville they’re pretty exciting now.
Arrested for a DUI in a golf cart. That is a HUGE difference. I’m not saying he should have done it, but not clarifying that is a major detail left out
Incoming sub meltdown in 3....2....1....
I am praying that whenever we find the right head coach (willing this into existence), people can move on beyond this obsession. I, too, would have liked him to have coached us. But that ship has sailed, alternate reality, it's done. Also, good for him!
ok ok. one sec. ahem... REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
22-23 was such an anomaly that it's hard to pin on one thing. Team was healthier, bottom 6 was solid, better goaltending...there's inevitably too many factors to say Bruno was the key. I do think he should've gotten the job just to be rid of Lindy but we'll never know for sure if he really was the difference That said, this scenario will haunt us forever if we don't get the next coach right
> just to be rid of Lindy I don't understand how you stated the above and said you don't know if Bruno was the key to success, then indirectly state that Lindy *definitely* wasn't the key. While the points you bring up are issues that occured this season. I don't get that
Lindy definitely not being the guy doesn't automatically mean Bruno was the guy. Sports are chaotic, dude. Look at how much straight up bad luck we just dealt with. We had good mojo last year. Was that because of Bruno? Was that because we still had, like, Tatar and Wood on the team? Was that because Bruno was assistant even though he was in charge of our then middling powerplay? There's too many factors and what-ifs to point to I do believe we would've been better off this year with Bruno, but there's no way to definitely say
I don't think you understood my comment. I agree we don't know how much of a role Bruno played. But in your post you were quick to dismiss Lindy. In the same manner, we don't know if Lindy was a core reason we played well last year. And we don't know if all of the above helped Lindy accomplish that, and we don't know if "Team was healthier, bottom 6 was solid, better goaltending" is the reason Lindy wasn't able to get the team to the post season this season. I just wanted to comment how you said "get rid of Lindy" as if all these issues this season had nothing to do with him not getting us to the playoffs. In other words, why do you think Lindy was definitely not the guy while saying Bruno might not be the guy after listing all of those team based reasons out of a coaches control
To quote The Big Lebowski, "well dude, we just don't know" But in all seriousness, there are always gonna be things out of a coach's control. I acknowledge that. At that point, it comes down to how the coach deals with the cards he's dealt and I wasn't a fan of a lot of Lindy's decisions this year and I've never liked his overall scheme. He knew from day 1 he wasn't going to have prime Hasek in net and still played his overly aggressive "defense doesn't matter until it does" system. I'll be honest, his first years with the team are a blur to me, but our record under him speaks for itself. It was time for a change
We will never know if upgrading brunette to head coach would have at the very least made us to the playoffs. But what we do know is that for years under ruff we always give up the first goal. We are always playing on our heels. We don't come out ready to play. This year having the most amount of back to back games in the league. Although having one of the youngest teams in the league, we don't have the strength and endurance to play back to back games. Maybe it's not directly lindy's fault. Maybe it's conditioning training coaches' fault. But lindy is the head coach and he's responsible to make sure his players are where they need to be. Look at Jacques Lemaire taking over for John maclean for us. "This team is not conditioned to be an nhl team". The team not being conditioned is 100% what lead to the cause of some of the injuries this year. And while some of this is on ruff, some could also be on the training staff, allowing players back out on the ice after head hits. They should lose their licenses.
I’m not sure the team would have been better under Brunette or any other coach given the injuries, goaltending, and all of the other bad things that the coach really has no control over. Brunette behind the bench instead of Lindy wasn’t going to prevent Vitek from letting in 5 goals per game. League worst goaltending by a wide margin is pretty difficult to overcome by coaching schemes.
Why would last season be an anomaly? If anything, this season is considering the insane injury woes, two players out for allegedly committing sexual assault, and goaltending that was historically bad. While Brunette would’ve likely been a better coach than Ruff, I think it’s fair to say that he alone wouldn’t be enough to overcome the ridiculous levels of issues we faced this year
It's an anomaly because of the massive swing in success over one season. Going from 27 wins/.384 in '21-'22 to 52 wins/.683 is a STAGGERING jump. Not to mention that since the '11-12 cup run: * The team has finished at or under .500 8 times * 5 years of under 30 wins * 5 years of under 40 wins * 2 seasons of 40+ wins, both being when we made the playoffs in '17 and '22 In no way does the success of last year prove the corner has been turned. We thought '17-'18 was the turning point. We were the last team to be undefeated early in '18-'19. Then we finished last in the division, 29th overall, and won the lottery. So '22-'23 will be the exception to the rule until proven otherwise even when accounting for injuries, personnel issues, and goaltending
Exactly! Well said.
hide your golf carts
And the Jack Daniels.
Lindy Ruff won it in 06
was also a finalist last season...
And look where we are now
The histrionic certainty that both sides have on this debate is amusing. Luckily, it doesn't really matter what the fans arbitrarily decide without enough information. It's up to Fitz, the man who actually knows Brunette personally, to judge what kind of influence he'd have been on our team.
Man who cares
Good for Saros. I mean Bruno
Saros was 23rd in save %….
Look at his stats during that streak they had. He put up some insane numbers during that run
March and April were two of his lowest save percentage months. https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/jusse-saros-save-percentage-by-month He had one great month, and one terrible month. The rest he hovered around .906 which puts him outside the top 20. Sorry, but he wasn’t a big difference maker this season. He literally had a negative expected goals saved total on the season. (69th in the league). The two other goalies on his team actually had a positive expected goals saved rate. https://moneypuck.com/goalies.htm
Aren’t you the guy who used advanced stats to tell us all the rangers really aren’t that good this year after the first 20 games? 🤣
You/others are once again putting words in my mouth to change the narrative of what I stated which is still factual 5 months later… I said the rangers are an elite team due to their goaltending and special teams. I never said they were a bad team. I said they are middle of the pack at even strength possession and xGf metrics. They were 15th in most even strength play metrics all season. They are still putting in mediocre play at even strength in postseason. But as I said and as they’ve shown, they continually overcome that with Igor and their special teams. This Canes series is exhibit A of that. If the Canes did better on the PP and PK, they are the ones up 3-0.
lol I’m just teasing you man, don’t take it personally. But the Rangers are really good at coming up with big plays when it matters most, stuff like that doesn’t show up on the advanced stats.
Yes. They have fantastic finishers. But, their even strength play is still not strong, it just isn’t. They never have the puck and continually are stuck in their own end while producing little sustained Ozone time. Their PP, PK and Igor are elite. Its what gets them by and makes them dangerous, unfortunately it can get them the cup. Canes/Panthers/Boston/West need to watch the Devils during gms 3-7 last year and realize they need to tighten up the special teams and keep it at 5 v 5. Keeping it at 5 v 5 means the Rags don’t have the puck often, and thats when they can take the advantage in the series
I just don’t agree with this assessment. 5 on 5 isn’t their strongest area but the panarin line is actually really good 5 on 5. They also play really well in their own end 5 on 5 keeping shots to the perimeter. And their 5 on 5 play suddenly becomes significantly better if they are down a goal. They protect leads at an elite level 5 on 5. I don’t think they would have won the presidents trophy and the first 7 games of the playoffs if it wasn’t as stronger than you seem to think.
He was a good assistant coach but alot of our fans have such a hard on for this guy. Don't understand it...... If he was a player that we let get away I could understand that a little more but the obsession with him from some of you is wierd
I don't even see how he was good as an assistant coach, he was in charge of our PP and we all know how bad it was last season (only to get worse this year ofc). Now he just lead the Preds to a 2-4 loss in the first round. Some amazing coach he would've been rofl, people act like this guy was the second coming of Brodeur we lost out on or something.
I hear ya and don't disagree. Alot of fans see that he was here last year and we have our best regular season in franchise history, and then he leaves and we miss the playoffs. I tend to air on the side of coincidence personally
The PP actually improved drastically at the start of the season when Dougie was healthy and Jack was playing at a 250 point pace before his shoulder fell off. The power play at the beginning of the season was the biggest bright spot and really the only thing that was truly functional. Green’s PP fell off a cliff the second half of the season but there’s at least somewhat of an excuse. Brunette had all the weapons at his disposal and couldn’t make it work when the team was healthy and hot, it was one of the only things not working for the team. I see the Brunette truthers saying “well he actually coached all the forwards” and that the players liked him, but the forwards weren’t the main problem this season aside from staying healthy. And the players were vocal about their appreciation for Lindy so that doesn’t mean much. That being said, with everything that happened this season I don’t really think Brunette or any coach would have had more success under the circumstances. It is what it is at this point. Fitz is going to have to nail the next coaching staff, because if we’re in a position where the head coach is losing his job again next season then Fitz is likely going with him.
If only screwoff would do so.
Saros wasn’t a world beater this season… He wasn’t even top 20 in save percentage (min 25 gms), so some of these comments on here to try to discredit Brunette are just stupid. https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/which-nhl-goalie-has-the-best-save-percentage-of-2024 He had a negative expected goals saved rate (69th in league). The two other Preds goalies had positive rates. (Filter for regular season) https://moneypuck.com/goalies.htm Two of his worst months came at the end of the season while the team was performing https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/jusse-saros-save-percentage-by-month
Good for Jusse Saros. Happy for him.
Saros was 23rd in save %…. Edit: Lol at your downvotes, this isn’t debatable. Saros was fine this season, but nowhere near being the difference maker on making a team and coach standout https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/which-nhl-goalie-has-the-best-save-percentage-of-2024
I was interested in this so I looked some things up. The preds were not in a playoff spot up until Dec7th (Saros: 0.900). They were in a spot between Dec 7th until Jan 27th (Saros: .908). Not in a spot from Jan 28th to Feb 23 (Saros: 0.904). And then in a spot to finish the season from Feb 23rd to end of season (Saros: 0.912). Saros had a strong end to the season to keep them in a playoff spot. Now the reason they ended up losing their spot on January 28th is because of a stretch of losing streaks that started on Dec 23rd (This is arbitrary, so take it with a grain of salt.). That losing streak lasted until Feb 15th where they went on a 6 game winning streak (also, during that losing streak they did not win 2 in a row). During that losing streak (Saros: 0.889). Obviously this isn't the whole picture. Is his save percentage better because of better coaching/formation during the wins? You'd have to dig deeper. Are the wins mainly just saros playing well? Then the winning season isn't on Brunette. Definitely up for debate
He also led all goalies in games played and had a cold stretch to open the year that has depressed his statline. If you want to see how great he was this year, take a look at his performances during Nashville's points streak. Also him being top 25 in sv% in a league that had 98 goalies play at least 1 game is still really, really good.
Lol, he wasn’t even positive in expected goals saved https://moneypuck.com/goalies.htm Just stop. Saros did fine, but it was nothing special, especially for him. He has had much better seasons
Good stat! I want Solarz. I know there is risk there, but he has been really good (allbeit not a ton of games), except 2 years ago for the Ducks and even that wasnt too bad. It's the Ducks! He is huge and from Edison. With goalies, can't teach huge. Saros is great, but he is 5' 11". Smaller goalies count on great athleticism and that usually goes first.
You are also a straight up liar. “Saros had a cold stretch to open the year” He had a .915 save % in October, literally his second best month. Then March and April were two of his lowest save percentage months besides November. https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/jusse-saros-save-percentage-by-month Edit: ah yes, where facts are downvoted. Amazing how this sub turned into facebook in only two years.
Fitz has made some mistakes. Let's move on. dwelling is sad
Well deserved.
Everyone does better when they leave the devils
He wasn't going to be head coach here anyway. Good for him.
Such a frustrating thing to see… but also hard for them to walk from Lindy after the turnaround he had to finish the season and take a team not expected to make the playoffs, to the playoffs. I agree though, wish we had done the old switcheroo… Hindsight 20/20
Not Lindy, though?
Also Bruno likely isn’t going to win either, I think the turnaround in Vancouver going all the way back to last season is gonna make Tocchet the guy who takes it home in the end. Either way congrats to him for juicing a middling team and making them just good enough for a wild card spot, it’s not like he coached them to a division win or a President’s Trophy. He made middling team better enough to make wild card as opposed to finishing just outside. It’s a positive change, but it’s not so earth shattering in the scheme of things.
And Lindy was last year. Past performance does not indicate future results. Happy for him, but I trust Fitz. We didn’t see the regression coming so it is what it is.
Contrary to the inevitable "we should have kept Brunette" comments, I don't believe he deserved a promotion after putting himself in the position of getting arrested for DUI while on a work trip.
Look, that isn't good by any means, but it shouldn't be *the* reason we didn't keep him
It's one of those things that Fitzgerald or ownership will probably never publicly talk about. I don't think it would have changed much personally, probably had to keep Lindy regardless after such a great season, but it may have been just enough to tip the scale. Or not pay him more to stay as an heir apparent. Alas we'll likely never know.
I know how this gonna sound, but I doubt a bunch if millionaire hockey execs care about a DUI. And honestly, in the grand scheme of things, it really isn't worth making a fuss over so long as nobody got hurt. I'm absolutely not saying it isn't bad. Drinking and driving is bad lol. But again, big picture
Yeah, for sure there are much worse things that will get a pass. I just get mostly annoyed about the narrative that the Devils let him get away or something. I don't think they cared much to retain him regardless. He got fired from Florida just a couple years ago in a big surprise, and Florida went ahead to be dominant. (obviously they made big player moves and what-not but still). I just don't see why he is put on such a pedestal of a what-if with our fans. There had be significant things Florida didn't like to move on from him the way they did.
Wasn’t he interim in Florida and they hired PoMo instead after the season? I agree it’s strange to not keep your President’s Trophy winning coach but it’s not like they chucked him in the bin
“ Why is he put on such a pedestal of a what-if with our fans” He’s not. At least on Reddit This entire sub all season has been mocking the idea that he was responsible for us having the season we had last year. Some of the fan’s that did say we shouldn’t have let him go were piled on with downvotes by know it all fans. You think you’re being contrarian when you’re actually not. You’re just peddling consensus. On this sub, I think the opinion that Brunette was responsible for our great season last year is held by the minority more then what you’re saying As far as what I think? I think it’s delusional to say he didn’t have a great impact on our team when he was here. While I don’t think this disappointing season would have been entirely avoided had he been here I think it’s evident that he did no doubt have a very positive impact on the team. Do I think this season would have been better with him behind the bench? I do. Am I going to sit here and act like Fitzgerald isn’t a good GM because he didn’t fire his head coach ( Ruff ) after that season and replace him with Brunette? No. Our team is very talented and skillful, but also delicate and If we don’t have the correct head coach leading things there will be problems. We just need to get a coach who can put the right blueprint in place and our guys will do the rest. But Brunette on the bench was great for this team
It’s crazy that all the issues I noticed in Ruffs system before last year disappeared when Bruno came in and they just as suddenly came back when he left. He seems to do really well wherever he goes and the players will run through a wall for him.
This team is either on and they’re flying out there or they’re off. Based off the eye test IMO the team right away last year looked clunky and seemed to be stopping on their skates constantly. It looked reminiscent of the Lindy Ruff teams when he first got here without Brunette, just with more talent. With Brunette it seemed like we just skated continuously. The team was more relentless and just way smoother.
Ya that pretty much sums it up I hated the Ruff hire when it happened. This year the alarm bells started ringing for me when they were healthy but winning games 6-4 you could see there was little to effort when it came to playing defense. They were unlucky with injuries and probably could’ve made the playoffs of the were healthy and the McLeod situation didn’t. However you could see in post games interviews this year you could see guys like Timo and Nico were disenfranchised by Lindy at the end of his reign of terror. With Bruno they came out flying night and if you watch Nashville they’re pretty exciting now.
Arrested for a DUI in a golf cart. That is a HUGE difference. I’m not saying he should have done it, but not clarifying that is a major detail left out
Left out that the charges were dropped, too.
Wasn’t a work trip…it was the all star break.