The Unofficial Fire Ron Wilson/Ron Wilson is the Greatest Thread
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http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=381462
"All we ask everybody who comes in is to understand what our identity is, identify with it and play to it and we've done that really well," Wilson said. "We try to go on the attack every single time we're on the ice so I think it's a fun way to play. And it's an entertaining way to play. Sometimes you trade chance for chance [and] maybe we give up more shots or goals against than we should, but we want to have fun when we go out there and I think the players are really enjoying it right now."
Hope folks bear that in mind when scrutinizing the defensive stats down the road. I don't think it's merely about "we want to have fun". It's about getting the most out of the players you have. This style of play is a heck of a lot closer to accomplishing that with the collection of players Wilson has than the defensive style of play Wilson tried to implement last season.
"All we ask everybody who comes in is to understand what our identity is, identify with it and play to it and we've done that really well," Wilson said. "We try to go on the attack every single time we're on the ice so I think it's a fun way to play. And it's an entertaining way to play. Sometimes you trade chance for chance [and] maybe we give up more shots or goals against than we should, but we want to have fun when we go out there and I think the players are really enjoying it right now."
Hope folks bear that in mind when scrutinizing the defensive stats down the road. I don't think it's merely about "we want to have fun". It's about getting the most out of the players you have. This style of play is a heck of a lot closer to accomplishing that with the collection of players Wilson has than the defensive style of play Wilson tried to implement last season.
bustaheims
Active member
It's still too early to start seriously thinking extension for Wilson. If/when the Leafs make the playoffs, then, yeah, he probably gets a couple more seasons, and, at that point, I'd say it would be well earned . . . but, not until that point. You just don't extend a coach that missed the playoffs for 3 seasons because of a good two months to start a season.
leafsjunkie
Member
Busta Reims said:
^ This.
If Burke gives Wilson an extention, before we've actually locked up a playoff seed, I think I'll cry.
bustaheims
Active member
leafsjunkie said:
I don't think he will. I mean, maybe if, around the trade deadline, the Leafs are in a position where it would take an epic collapse to knock them out, he might go for it before a spot is officially clinched, but, otherwise, don't see it happening.
maplesyrup
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If we've got a nice fat cushion around Christmas, it might be a nice holiday gesture by Burke. Otherwise, yeah, I wait.
leafsjunkie
Member
Busta Reims said:
With the Leafs luck though, Wilson would get the extention at that time, then the EPIC collapse begins and we miss the playoffs, by one point, on the last day of the season, a la Isles vs Jersey of a few years back. Then we're stuck with him for a couple more years cause they won't fire him right after extending him! Oh, I shudder the thought.
Guru Tugginmypuddah
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How can anybody pin the last 3 years on Wilson?
leafsjunkie
Member
RedLeaf said:leafsjunkie said:
Man. How do you sleep at night?
Easy, all this stuff makes me tired and makes my brain hurt, lol.
Guru Tugginmypuddah said:
Yeah, I mean you can't blame Wilson for a lack of qualified personnel. Toskala, Cujo, Gerber were all out of the league shortly and played terribly. Moore, Stempniak, Mitchell, Finger, Mayers, Frogren, Hollweg, Van Ryn are some of the glaring holes. The forwards that put up points were defensive black holes, and we couldn't get a save to save our lives. Then the team was in the midst of getting blown up in 2009.
By the start of 2009, yes we had Kessel, but he was pretty much the only bright spot on the team. Grabovski and Kulemin weren't the players they are today, Hagman and Stempniak were crap again, Beauchemin wasn't working out, Mitchell was crap, Stalberg was marginally effective, Exelby and Sjostrom were disasters. This team was just horrific. We're lucky Goose even had a SV% above .900.
The 10/11 Leafs were arguably a team that could've made it if they didn't collapse early on in the season. But when a fragile team's first year captain goes down early on it creates a big problem imo. But this is the year we got rid of quite a bit of the dead wood and brought in some decent young talent. We turned a corner when we got Lupul also.
Zee
Active member
Guru Tugginmypuddah said:
It's not a matter of pinning anything on Wilson. Why give a coach an extension a quarter of the way through the season? Shouldn't we at least lock up or be close to locking up a playoff spot before you even consider it? Let's say Burke gives Wilson an extension next week, a nice fat 4 year deal, and then the Leafs proceed to lose 8 straight? Then what?
Drop The Gloves
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Guru Tugginmypuddah said:
I don't think you can pin the leafs record on him. But I think the teams horrible PP and PK over the last couple of season can be pinned somewhat on him.
Corn Flake
New member
PK last 12 games: killed 36 of 42, or 86%
PP last 12 games: 12 for 39 or 31%.
Special teams = improving.
Only 2 teams have better records than the Leafs since the All-Star break last year:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/leafs-beat/brian-burke-hits-three-year-mark-with-leafs-flying-high/article2252974/
PP last 12 games: 12 for 39 or 31%.
Special teams = improving.
Only 2 teams have better records than the Leafs since the All-Star break last year:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/leafs-beat/brian-burke-hits-three-year-mark-with-leafs-flying-high/article2252974/
Guru Tugginmypuddah said:
I think he shares in the responsibility of the results of his prior seasons. Some of the things I've complimented him on doing this season (like sitting the enforcers for example or altering his system to be more run and gun from defence first top6/bottom6), I criticized him last season for not doing them - prior to him not doing them. Ron picks the roster. Overall, in previous seasons, I think he underachieved with the talent he had to work with - particularly last season.
This season, he's currently on pace for maybe overachievement or getting the most out of them. Credit where credit is due. Good job so far!
But just because he's deserving of praise this season doesn't mean he had no responsibility or should be exonerated for his shortcomings or underachievement in previous seasons. In my opinion, where they finished in the standings wasn't exclusively related to the lack of talent on the roster. The defence first system and the top6/bottom6 roster was a major design flaw because it seemed obvious to some that the top 6 wasn't strong enough to carry the offensive load and people on this site pointed that out in the summer of 2010 - before it played out. They needed to exploit the waterbug offensive talents of the skill they had, which they're doing better this season, with the run & gun and they needed to shore up the third line to help provide secondary scoring. Guys like Sjostrum weren't going to cut it on the 3rd line. Ron made that decision.
I appreciate that the man learned from his mistakes, acted on that and is doing a pretty darn good coaching job so far this season. But under his own philosophy of meritocracy, I think it's fair to hang some of the responsibility for underachievement last year on him. In my opinion, he made some serious mistakes that cost them dearly and again, some said that before that season unfolded - so it is not merely 20/20 hindsight criticism that couldn't be foreseen.
Optimus Reimer
New member
I may have been one of the more vocal 'fire Wilson' people, but that was because he finally had some talent on the team, but for the first 19 games, they were not playing great hockey. Sure they were winning, but it was how they were winning that concerned me. The past 5 games, the Leafs have dominated some decent teams. I don't expect the Leafs to win every game, but on game day, it is as if I am expecting the Leafs to win, or at least have a decent chance of winning. Whereas in the past, the expectation was that the Leafs would lose, and it would be torture to watch. If the Leafs are still playing like this halfway through the season, I would be okay with Wilson getting an extension.
cw, I don't have the same impression of a real 'defence' first Leaf team last year, I think there may have been an over reaction/misguided decision to try it when they had no goaltending and lost Phaneuf and Army but when they were back, with a crappy offensive roster in terms of depth and a decent goaltender I thought it was more balanced than that, well to a degree at least.
Ron may pick the team but honestly that begs, what alternatives did he have with that roster that would have made a real significant difference?
Ron may pick the team but honestly that begs, what alternatives did he have with that roster that would have made a real significant difference?
Optimus Reimer said:
Sometimes rosters and new systems come together and take off out the gate. But often, it takes 20 games or so for these things to work themselves out and evaluate what you have. I can't fault Wilson tons for that. Throughout those games, for the most part, he was right on top of which guys were playing well and making adjustments accordingly.
One other thing to consider when evaluating Wilson's accountability over the previous three seasons: this past summer, Wilson's own GM demanded two of the assistant coaches be fired. I cannot interpret that demand as a gigantic vote of confidence that the team's coaching is free of any responsibility for the prior three seasons.
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