Orange County Register

 16 Comments

• Jeffrey says:

  October 22, 2009 at 2:51 pm

  Hey Ducks….if you want Carlyle gone for one reason or another….say so!!! Don’t make your loyal fans sit through another debacle such as the ones we witnessed the past few games. My beer league team plays with more heart than you’ve shown lately….and that’s not saying much.
• ClippinWings says:

  October 22, 2009 at 2:54 pm

  “We’re a playoff team. ”

  um, excuse me Bobby… No you are not.

  You can be, but the way you are playing now, you are a “draft lottery team”
• Alisa says:

  October 22, 2009 at 3:24 pm

  Eric:

  In watching how the team was practicing prior to today’s practice vs. how practices were in the 06-07 SC winning team, do you notice a difference in the intensity and the tempo? Did the 06-07 team practice a lot harder, more uptempo, more intense?

  Or is this just another trick that Carlyle is trying to pull out of his bag?
  • Eric Stephens says:

    October 22, 2009 at 10:59 pm

    hi alisa. i’d say both. there was a definite difference in intensity today and i’d say it resembled more the earlier days or the first couple of years under carlyle.

    i wouldn’t say that practices had gotten soft over time but the hard, quick practices didn’t happen quite as often, perhaps because carlyle felt it was a largely veteran group that had accomplished some great things.

    as far as any tricks out of the bag, i think randy is just trying to find any answer. it’s one thing to struggle offensively or go through a bad spell with special teams but it’s another when the team just isn’t ready for games at the start.
• backcheck says:

  October 22, 2009 at 8:50 pm

  BTW, that’s a great question Alisa.

  The way Coach Carlyle defends his teams and takes responsibility is his saving grace in my book. He’s like a big mama bear who can criticize her cubs but nobody else can.

  I totally agree that you play the way you practice. You want up tempo games you better you practice up tempo. You want to finish your check in a game. You have to finish your check in practice.

  There’s no excuse for our Ducks to be 3-4-1, with a GF/GA differential of -7. We have so many weapons and can win so many ways. This start really is unacceptable.
• czhokej says:

  October 22, 2009 at 8:59 pm

  Eric, is anything brewing in the locker room, like players versus the coach? I still remember similar situation in January 09 (and we were playing miserable hockey too), after which Murray said:
  “Randy’s not going anywhere,” Murray declared in a very public vote of confidence. “If our players are thinking they’re going to use that as an excuse – because you know that’s what happens – well, the heck with that. There are going to be a lot of players out of here before he’s out of here. He’s done a heck of a job . . . he’s not the problem.
  Some players had to go.
  • Eric Stephens says:

    October 23, 2009 at 12:35 am

    czhokej –

    tough to say if players are tuning out randy or flat out against him. i think the clearest sign of that would be if their play continues to stay at this pace for next several games.

    i wouldn’t think that bob murray would stand for another four months of malaise but then i’m not the GM and i don’t get paid to make those decisions. put it this way, i haven’t seen a bunch of grumbling yet when the tape recorders are off.
• Alisa says:

  October 22, 2009 at 11:56 pm

  I completely agree with you backcheck, I like the fact that Carlyle steps up and takes the responsibility for what the team does squarely on his shoulders. When the team’s down, he’ll criticize them and call them out (I’m sure everything he tells the media, he has no problem telling the guys straight to their faces). But the minute someone from the outside tries to blame the individual players he steps right in and won’t have any of that. And when the team is doing well, he puts it squarely on the guys and singles them out for their wonderful play and won’t even allow the media to talk about how it may be the coaching staff. I would imagine that the players love that he tries to protect them. Like you said, it is like a mama bear protecting the cubs.
  • backcheck says:

    October 23, 2009 at 3:38 am

    I really thought Randy Carlyle had lost the team last season. The room was so sour even a couple players, Pronger and Cap IIRC, talked about it openly. Now, I’m thinkin’ I was wrong.

    It isn’t so much that Coach Carlyle lost them then or now. More like the team itself is lost. It can be traced back to March ‘08 when our Ducks began to slump and blew the playoffs.

    Nobody saw it. If somebody did they didn’t talk about it until after Dallas stunned all of hockey by beating our Ducks in the first round.

    How we went from SC winner to 1st round exit and making the playoffs by the tie breaker, has much to do with team speed. Brian Burke’s blind side seems to a lack of appreciation for speed. Look a Leafs new D. Slow as a teenage boy asking for his first date.

    Look at what Burke did here. Trades Fedoruk and brings in Parros. We lose speed. AndyMac for Dough Weight and we’re slower again. Brings in Morrisonn and his gimpy knee. Slow. Todd Bertuzzi. Slower still.

    This is just, maybe a weird theory. I just can’t help but wonder if Burke created this idea that speed wasn’t all that important. Maybe not intentionally but when the results of most of your moves are to make the team slow and plodding? The question begs asking.

    Maybe the guys got this idea that deliberate and methodical is acceptable in hockey. Maybe that’s what Bobby Ryan was trying to put his finger on when he talked about being comfortable, instead of making more of an effort.

    Somewhere along the line our Ducks went from being an aggressive, in your face, smash mouth hockey team to being a “Skate to me and I’ll get in your face” kinda team.

    Like everybody else, I don’t claim to have the answer. Just offering an idea that might or might not have some merit.

    Right or wrong or in between Coach Carlyle’s up tempo practice and Bobby Ryan’s comfort comment seem to be on the right track.

    One thing we do know is that when we’re skating, it takes one heck-of-an effort by a very good hockey team to beat our ducks. San Jose couldn’t do it and it wasn’t about them choking either.
• John says:

  October 23, 2009 at 7:42 am

  1-3 at home. YUK! Come on Dux. We’re better than that.
• Alisa says:

  October 23, 2009 at 1:45 pm

  Backcheck, I completely agree with you.

  I do agree that Carlyle’s approach of you play how you practice is the key. I do assume that Carylyle had maybe given the team a bit of a break due to the the fact that they were a) more of a veteran team, and b) they had proven that they were winners. So he probably took the foot off the gas a little hoping that the guys would police themselves and put in the time, energy and effort necessary to win. Perhaps the team became complacent because of the fact that they were winners. They figured, did it once, they can turn it on and off when they want and do it again. Then reality hit them that it’s not so easy. I am sure that after the SC hangover, Carlyle didn’t want to push the guys too much.

  From there, perhaps it became a bit of the culture that practices weren’t as uptempo, fast-paced, intense. And as new players came in, they didn’t get the feeling that we had those kinds of practices. Bad habits create more bad habits.

  Now that we only have a handful of SC winners on our team, Carlyle figured that he needed to turn this thing around. He can’t make it comfortable or complacent for the team.

  The team needs to understand that it’s not an on and off switch you can just turn on when you want to. That it’s a life you have to live. Practice hard, work hard, play hard, train hard.

  I like this approach. And I hope it works.

  I personally don’t think it’s the Coach’s fault. There was a Pierre LeBrun article on ESPN.com yesterday talking about Coach Carlyle and how he takes on the responsibility of the team when they aren’t doing well. He does a good job of protecting his players and not hanging them out to dry in the media. I think that gets over looked a lot, especially when the team isn’t doing well. It’s easy to blame the coach.

  In this case, I think that the players need to look at themselves in the mirror, and then look at each other. They need to hold each other accountable for what goes on when they hit the ice.
  • backcheck says:

    October 23, 2009 at 5:46 pm

    Yup, we got it. You, Eric & me. You had to know it was our problem when for so long we’ve been beating ourselves. Other than beating ourselves, only Detroit beat us and that took 7 games, two mistakes and a goal post.
• czhokej says:

  October 23, 2009 at 5:37 pm

  We all gave Carlyle and Burke a lot of respect for winning SC. However, Alisa, if you look at our designed plays, our positioning, our miserable defensive system, you can not help and have to blame the coach. He is the one who has a wide view of the ice. For example, in the offensive zone, we always go to the corners and behind the goal, which usually doesn’t accomplish anything. The Blues and the Stars had so much room and so much time in our defensive zone, that it was insane. After several disasters against Dallas with his dump-and-chase strategy, you would expect that Randy would change the game plan, but no! Turco easily handled so many pucks, and our guys looked totally confused. However, I blame the players too. If you cannot play pretty hockey, you have to skate and work harder, you have to be physical, and we did not do it.
  • backcheck says:

    October 23, 2009 at 6:50 pm

    Geez you make some great points czhokej. As a player I hated dump & chase. Much more fun to push the D back off the blueline or even better, split the D and get behind them. Besides, you’ve got the puck, why throw it away? Plus you don’t need to dump & chase to establish a forecheck.

    Dallas plays a system I prefer. 2-1-2, short gaps, stuff the center lane slot to slot, short passes, use the triangles to trap & out number the opposing player at the puck. That’s as close as it gets to old school in the new NHL

    Respectfully disagree with ya that the system is responsible for our 4 losses though. Against Minnesota we battled them even, picked it up a notch and tried to protect a 3 goal lead. We stopped doing what got us the lead.

    Against the Sharks, Blues & Stars we flat out didn’t show up. We didn’t fight through checks, only skated parts of those games and didn’t meet the opposition’s intensity from the opening face off.

    Islanders? 3rd road game in 4 nights. Totally forgivable.

    I totally agree with you that Coach Carlyle bears some of the responsibility. Especially for not asking more of the guys at practice. I just don’t agree it’s a system thing and I agree with ya about the system, lol.
• backcheck says:

  October 23, 2009 at 7:11 pm

  My bad. If the opposition is lining up 3-4 guys across their blue line, you pretty much have to dump & chase. Shouldn’t have said, “hated it.” Sometimes yer forced into it.
• czhokej says:

  October 23, 2009 at 10:49 pm

  backcheck, I also prefer to mix it up, and keep the opposition guessing. As you said, sometimes it’s necessary to make tactical adjustments against different teams and defensive systems. We also know it’s important a) to have your linemates speeding towards the blue line when you want to dump it; b) to have some signals and plans what to execute at any given time; c) to place the dump well with expected bounces (same corner, other corner, soft, hard, etc);
  To battle for the puck along the boards, we need to be physical (of course speed helps too - as many people here commented regarding the loss of Kunitz, Andy, and others). That bothers me too - we lost too much talent, skills, speed and our physical presence is not there either.
  Let’s wait for tomorrow and let’s hope that our best players will start earning their salaries.