If Homer called me into his office and took offense to using timeouts, I'd quit right then and there. Most coaches wait until they are useless and then call them so it looks like they're doing their jobs. Lavy actually uses them proactively before the game is out of hand.
It's kind of hard to question his time outs when it directly led to the, what, 2nd or 3rd comeback from 0-3 in NHL history?
I'm not saying the guy is a god. He has his flaws. My concern mainly is that his message may be repetitive, may be stale at some points.
As for the point about going head-to-head, no coach ever looks good when the other coach is winning. But they sure do look brilliant when they are winning, don't they?
His strengths appear to be motivational and coaching from emotions, using that to gain respect and influence. He's not a players coach by any means, but he will do things to get behind his players and show them he cares about them. Tactically he could be better - absolutely - but he's far from weak.
There are better coaches, sure, but how many? 5? 6? And none available now. He's got a winning record, and if one argues that his biggest concern has been the use of goalies, on THIS team, which hasn't been able to acquire a winning goaltender in 20 years.... well, there's a lot of sin to be shared throughout the building right there.
He's not the best, far from the worst, but for once I'm glad to have a competitive, actively engaged, risk-taking personality in town. If there were other options... I'd listen.... but what are they.
Murray?
Posted on Jul 27, 2012, 9:12 PM from IP address 64.121.102.63