Rod Brind’Amour’s rookie year as head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes was a huge success. In my mind, the definitive cut line for success last year was just to push into the playoffs which the team obviously did. Interrelated to that accomplishment, I think he and Justin Williams made significant strides changing the culture and attitude of the team.
Each season in the NHL is its own journey with its own challenges. Today’s Daily Cup of Joe highlights a few challenges that I foresee heading into the 2019-20 season.
The power play
The power play was a negative in 2018-19. Despite having what I think was a decent amount of talent, the power play never really clicked and finished below average for the season. The 2019-20 season sees Brind’Amour with a few new pieces in Jake Gardiner, Erik Haula, Ryan Dzingel and possibly one or both of rookies Martin Necas and Julien Gauthier. Just like with 2018-19, there is enough talent there. The key is figuring how best to utilize different players’ skill sets and meld a system to be successful.
Managing goalies
Brind’Amour openly admitted that the goalie management was almost solely the result of trusting Goaltending Coach Mike Bales who proved to be a goalie whisperer. With Bales departed and Jason Muzzatti now in that role, the question is if the team can find that same magic. In an ideal world, Muzzatti will have the same magic touch as Bales, but if that is not the case, Brind’Amour could be forced to play a larger role in managing the goalie rotation.
Integrating imperfect skill players into the lineup and maximizing their skill sets
The 2018-19 Carolina Hurricanes started the season with three rookie forwards in the lineup. Warren Foegele and Lucas Wallmark were Brind’Amour type players. Foegele plays an aggressive gritty game that is heavy on compete level even if sometimes light on scoring. Wallmark won his job by being sound defensively more than anything else. And because returning the OHL made no sense and the AHL was not an option, Brind’Amour pretty much had Svechnikov inked into his lineup whether he wanted it or not.
As the season wore on, Brind’Amour demonstrated a preference for players with defensive soundness and forechecking capabilities as a foundation. With many options, he settled on hard-charging players like Clark Bishop, Greg McKegg and later Saku Maenalanen over skilled scorers with more defensive flaws like Aleksi Saarela, Martin Necas, Andrew Poturalski and Julien Gauthier.
But heading into 2019-20, arguably the greatest upside at the forward position comes in the form of high ceiling offensive players who are very likely to be a bit messy at times defensively. The question is whether Brind’Amour can put players like Necas and/or Gauthier in positions to leverage their strengths to the tune of point production and minimize any growing pains in terms of their broader games.
The leadership
In 2018-19, Brind’Amour and captain Justin Williams functioned as an integrated unit. They were completely on the same page. Combine that with Williams being a natural for the role, and that portion of the 2018-19 was easy. Fast forward to 2019-20, and Williams is gone, and I do not think the most obvious choice, Jordan Staal, is a natural in that role. Staal can lead, but I just do not view him as having the same ability to move the whole locker room whether it needed to be one player at a time or the entire group in unison. As such, I think Brind’Amour first has a difficult choice to make in terms of naming a captain. In addition, I think he may need to play a larger role in managing that captain.
What say you Canes fans?
1) What are your thoughts on these potential challenges for Brind’Amour in 2019-20? Which do you see as most integral to the team’s success?
2) Do you foresee any other challenges facing Brind’Amour in the upcoming season?
Go Canes!
Yep, I have a concern that Dzingel and Necas may flounder a bit in a RBA system that demands strong 2-way play. Hopefully they bring that finishing touch, but also RBA brings our their best defensive play.
I think the best move on the captain issue is give out only A’s this year (esp with possibility of Williams returning at some point). For me, it would be: Aho, Staal, Slavin, Martinook.
1.
The PP has suffered not because of talent but because of approaches – do the same thing and expecting different results. That has to change – and it is on RBA to do that, given how coaching the PP was one of his responsibilities under Peters.
Going from Bailes to Muzatti is a huge drop – Muzatti has been working with college players (in a volunteer position, did I hear correctly?); has he ever worked with NHL players?? Or will Mrazek and Reimer tune him out such that the primary responsibility of a NHL team goalie coach – “goalie whisperer” – can’t be done.
I was frustrated (and I heard in Vellucci’s voice last season that he was frustrated) with the types of players RBA wanted on NHL ice. It’s hard to argue with results, of course. But grit and grind will only take you so far, and if the team really outplayed it;s own talent to achieve that success (a theory I think has merit) then you have to be willing to take chances. I don’t think that is part of RBA’s make-up to let players make rookie mistakes – you end up with players like Fleury playing scared, or Necas trying not to make the wrong move.
I don’t know what to say about leadership because I always thought that element was over-rated, even with JW. But the players talk about it so it’s valid. RBA will have to make adjustments to a different dynamic is the obvious statement.
2. The biggest challenge I think is managing expectations. We advanced to the ECF. Therefore to improve we need to make it to the SCF. But is that realistic. We got better this off-season, but so did many other teams in the division. We had to go on an amazing tear the last half of the season to squeak into the playoffs – the Blues did the same, of course.
If in previous years the team was better than the record, something I heard frequently stated, were we really as good as our record last season? And will we play that way?
Locker room culture, tied to leadership in part, will be a factor.
I guess I am a little tardy this morning, because tj made most of the points I wanted to make and, as always he made them sound better.
1) RBA seems to struggle with allowing players to play in ways other than how he played—I still am bothered that he stated that Aho “needs to be better” when in fact Aho was obviously the key player for much of last season. As a manager I have always found that complimenting improvement and then challenging individuals to find new abilities within that they haven’t been bold enough to try out works better than the message implied by RBA, which was you weren’t good enough. The best professional sports coaches seem to use some variation of this (in fact I plagiarized it from Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich).
Think about leadership—the highly respected captain of the Islanders left last season—where was the leadership issue?
Again echoing tj, I struggle to say the management moves this off-season made the Canes much better. Dzingel/Haula for Williams/Ferland seems pretty even. Gardiner/Edmundson for Faulk/de Haan is a slight improvement if the PP improves. Reimer for McIlhenney is a slight downgrade. The “better” team comes from Aho taking another step, Svechnikov taking maybe two steps, and one of Necas/Gauthier hitting the ice with good production. That would have been the case without any changes to the roster from last season. Too many fans are confusing quantity of activity with quality. I think the team is as good as last season but struggle with some who argue that it is substantially better.
2) I heard an analytics viewpoint on NHL radio of some of the key factors in last year’s playoffs. When they talked about the Canes/Boston series the analyst said that all the data suggested that attacking the Bruins’ power play was all risk with little reward. He specifically stated that the Canes never changed their penalty kill strategy during the series. I had forgot that the Canes were up 2-1 entering the third period of game 1 only to give up back-to-back power play goals in the first three minutes of period 3. If the Canes win game 1 in Boston who knows what happens. I am certain some will argue that the Canes weren’t tough enough to beat the Bruins, but it was actually the PK that lost all momentum in that series. I worry that RBA will continue to struggle with using analytics “in game” to make the best use of players and tactics.
This is comical. Maybe they should just fire Brind’amour. You guys could probably do a better job. Even the owner, who has quite the ego himself, says Brind’Amour is the key to what has happened with the Canes. This org would be right back in the crapper with a different head coach.
There is nothing wrong with a little critical thought and commentary, lts. While I am definitely not a mindless fanboy I am also not hyperventilating crap like others do.
RBA knows that as a coach, just as a player, he has to prove himself every season.
And not everything is perfect or perfectly done.
There are a lot of new pieces on this team. Only one goalie returns. About 1/3 of the forwards are new. 1/3 of the defense is new. The team needs to mesh, develop chemistry, trust each other. RBA needs to see exactly what the new players bring to the party. This preseason has been much more about evaluating young players than creating team work. A team needs to constructed out of this bunch of jerks. 2 dress rehearsals remain before the season starts and every point is crucial.
At last a voice of reason. Thanks, surgalt.
For me “integrating imperfect skill players” and “leadership” are the top issues, for many of the reasons Surgalt lists. Players are not interchangeable. Each one brings a different “talent stack” and personality.
With 1/3 new players, 2/3 of last year’s leadership gone, and a new goalie coach, this is a completely new season. While the veterans should hit the ground running, the 1/3 new players may take until December to fully play the system the way RBA demands. Nino blended in quickly as a mid-season add so there is precedent for a quick ramp up for a new player, but a sample size of one may or may not be indicative of other players.
If RBA -and the team, most importantly the leadership- can have the same patience and confidence they had in Svechnikov last year, the canes will be very good. The way the veterans embraced Svechnikov was a beautiful thing, if that becomes part of team culture then Willy will leave a lasting legacy and perhaps a dynasty behind him.
The rule of thumb for effective roster turnover in hockey about 25% (see “The Battle for Alberta”). With a roster of 23, this is really just one or two players difference between 25 and 33 per cent turnover. Close enough for government work. With the exception of the Islanders I think every team has comparable turnover. So this is the expected turnover and, as such, I don’t a big deal can be made about turnover as a factor. So we are playing with the same mixed deck.
All 31 teams experience turnover each year, either to address team needs or simply adjust for future financial implications. I think Don Waddell did an excellent job adjusting to the inevitable. Once the training camp dust settles, I believe the team improved on PK, PP and goaltending. But that is opinion before the facts are known. We will soon find out.
RBA captained an NHL team to a dream, and in ways coached this team almost to another. His #1 concern as coach is having his players be ready and “buy into the system”. What RBA does not seem to do (and should not) is concern himself with past AHL success or recommendations of whom should be promoted from CLT. RBA knows better than anyone you’re either good enough for the NHL, or not. Meaning, if a young guy plays tentative due to the window of opportunity or gets disappointed for spending another year in the AHL (or not being called up) then so be it. If Necas wants to make it, fit the system and score goals. If Gauthier wants to make it, have a quicker step, play physical and bury chances. If Bean wants to make it, play defense and quarterback the offensive rush like you own it. Simply put, you have to make noise in NHL games at some point…and when you get your chance be ready and own it.
To that point, almost the ENTIRE preseason has been about giving those on the cusp their fair shake, and we are seeing who may be ready versus not, regardless of what others feel. This is why I love RBA’s coaching mentality, because he’s giving them the chance…and he knows full well how important it is to start the season off on the right foot. He will ice the team that gives us the best chance of winning. RBA did that last year, and will do that again this year.
Two things have changed that should be significantly positive for years! The average age of this team is likely the youngest in the league, and the fast team of last year…got faster! You can’t teach FAST!