UMMM no MORON it’s do to Having a REAL coaching staff as opposed to a Poser like Gretzky

God you are HORRENDOUS !!!

Posted by Evilpens on 10/18/09 at 10:43 AM ET

Last season, Phoenix scored slightly more goals per game thasn they have this year.  Their improvement so far is due to more than halfing their goals against (while dropping shops allowed by 4-5 per game).  There are multiple reasons to explain a drop in goals against.  Coaching might be one of them - but to deny that haing a goalie with a .953 saves percentage and a 1.14 GAA is not the biggest one (by a large margin) shows a serious lack in understanding of the game of hockey.

That level of play from a goaltender is incredible.  No goalie has ever sustained it over a season.  Goaltending like that is enough to make an otherwise poor team win games.  Coaching cannot have the level of influence that goaltending of that level has. 

Dave Tippett may be a better coach than Wayne Gretzky, but he is hardly the best coach in hockey.  He is a coach who missed the playoffs last season - and with a more talented team than Phoenix.  He cannot possibly make the kind of impact that a goalie who literally lets in half as many shots (by percentage) as the average NHL goalie does (at least so far this season).  To suggest otherwise shows a profound lack of understanding of hockey.

Posted by PuckStopsHere on 10/18/09 at 12:13 PM ET

I like to pick candidates for awards after 82 games. I’m pretty sure the awards are for the whole season.

Posted by Muero from Ohio on 10/18/09 at 01:06 PM ET

I like to pick candidates for awards after 82 games. I’m pretty sure the awards are for the whole season.

It is a lack of intellectual curiousity that makes you disinterested in picking the interim leaders during the course of the season.

Posted by PuckStopsHere on 10/18/09 at 01:12 PM ET

Wow. I actually laughed out loud when I read your stupid comment. “Lacking intellectual curiosity” is the one phrase in the English language that describes me the least. Plus your argument is retarded. Do I lack intellectual curiosity because I don’t try to predict who will be the first overall pick in the NHL draft 10 years into the future? There are literally trillions of things that people don’t think about, because some things are worthless to think about and people don’t have time to waste on stupid stuff. For example, who will win major awards less than 10 percent of the way into the season.

Posted by Muero on 10/18/09 at 01:21 PM ET

I am not predicting who I think will win the award (at least not in this post).  I am stating who I think has been the leader so far this season based on the play we have seen so far.

I think it is an interesting question to see who the award leaders are at any given point in time and to see how that evolves over the course of the season.  I think it is interesting to see how quickly the eventual winners establish themselves as front-runners. 

You appear to have mis-represented what I am writing about in order to try to justify your lack of intellectual curiosity toward the subject.

Posted by PuckStopsHere on 10/18/09 at 01:55 PM ET

lol. PSH fighting back. Glad to see it.

Posted by Osrt on 10/18/09 at 03:28 PM ET

hey Dickstopshere Go look at who was out & who was the co-GM’s Genius, Brendan Morrow’s Name ring a bell among a bunch of others or or are you to Busy Circlejerking to the Corsi ratings ??

Amoeba Brain

Posted by Evilpens on 10/18/09 at 03:33 PM ET

TPSH,

I don’t think you can simply look at the statistics and conclude one man is making the difference, be it the coach or (in this case) the goaltender. There are too many moving parts in hockey, and they all come into play.

Is Bryzgalov’s performance due to an early hot streak? Or, perhaps, his maturity as a goaltender? Or maybe the different systems instituted by the new coaching staff? Or perhaps the quality of the team around him where (if nothing more) all those young guys have another year of experience? I think the correct answer is “yes to all.”

At the very least we need to look a bit deeper into the statistical record, looking at the quality of the offensive chances being offered up by the Coyotes last year and compare them to the quality of the offensive chances allowed this year. So many key questions to be addressed to form a reasoned analysis. To wit:

* Is Bryzgalov facing more of fewer shots per game?
* What is the quality of the shots faced this year vs. last year?
* Have higher quality chances been reduced?
* Is Phoenix performing better or worse on defensive zone faceoffs?
* How much time is Phoenix spending in their own zone per game?

Those are just a few of the questions that should be answered before we can adequately determine if Brzygalov is primarily the causal agent of the Phoenix’s hot start, or if he is the main beneficiary of improvements in overall team play.

Posted by Matthew McCallum from Redding, California on 10/19/09 at 01:39 PM ET