There was a strong signal yesterday that Devils had passed on Berube, when he told Andy Strickland that Devils players were “too sensitive” for him (he has never met most of them). Bad-mouthing a organization when they don’t hire you…is not a great look. But sounds like he found something else.

Berube to Toronto?!?!

I did call it lol. I’m happy with that hire, I think he’s a great fit for the leafs. My only concern is that the team is going to think he’s too harsh or something and want to quit on him. But at this point I hope they’re beyond that

Called Berube coming for months since after STL fired him

He just fit the system Brad wants this team to play and him not being afraid to calling out the big players for underperformances is just what the doctor ordered.

Gonna be very interesting and so now we see where the other available HC end up

I think you’ll be be pleasantly surprised.

IMO he’s a huge players coach.

He does adjust opportunity based on effort, but I never saw him like pick on somebody, repeatedly punish anybody. Kyrou was the most “in his doghouse” which meant his icetime went down for a game. Then you’d see a social media post where he’s working with Kyrou at practice, and that was it.

I think the main benefit of him as a coach is that he keeps it very simple. Offense and defense can be advanced and complex - that’s on those coaches - but from the team perspective he seems to be able to compress things down to simple terms. Probably a major benefit of being an ex player.

There were great times while he was the head coach and there were awful times, and in both extremes, and the middle, he was very chill, very direct and simple. He’s an easy guy to root for and it’s seemed players really responded to him. I mean we won a cup so it did happen at least for some amount of time.

Glad to hear that, more convinced than before he was a good hire. Still hope they make a big move with one of the players though

best guess at why things ended in st.louis?

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/chicago-blackhawks/latest-news/chicago-blackhawks-face-new-suit-that-claims-alleges-fraud-breach-of-contract-and-sexual-harassment

Welcome to part 856 of the blackhawks saga

Entirely roster based in my opinion.

Without writing you the essay my brain wants me to write, I’ll stick with this highlight: We shipped out barbashev, orielly, tarasenko, and accairi the same deadline, replaced them all with Kevin Hayes and vrana……

Was time for us to become more developmental - berube could do that, he did that for us previously, but it worked out with our internal promotion and it seems to have worked out for berube too. He’s prob at the point salary wise where having him as a developmental coach doesn’t make much sense.

RIP Boston Bruins.

appreciate that insight. so not a case of his voice growing old in the locker room? just curious, what happened in the 2022-2023 year that put them behind the 8ball and forced them to move some of those pieces. why were they losing some of those games pre-trade deadline in 2022/23

The Arizona Coyotes are officially dead on Capfriendly. Rest in peace to the best logo in the league 🫡

Panthers or Rangers in ECF? I got Panthers in 6.

That overturned goal has to be one of the worst calls in the entire NHL history.

Can someone smarter than me explain why that wasn't a goal

I hope so get Okposo that cup

https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1791702144522818044

Best bit about this explanation by the NHL is the fact it doesn't explain anything. The rule used here is not broken in any way.

Looks like the tweet icon doesn't work anymore.

Phew...

Puck don’t lie.

Well Duchene does interfere a bit with Georgiev (part Duchene, part Makar’s fault, they both played a part in Georgiev being out of position), however Duchene’s out of the crease so theoretically it shouldn’t matter that he interfered

Dallas still won anyways, so that disallowed goal didn’t change much

Primarily Left handed defense injuries, but also 23/yo Thomas and Kyrou skating their first full season of legitimate top 6 minutes/matchups:

For a substantial period of time during the beginning, then later a huge chunk of the middle of 2022/23 , Krug, Perunovich, and Scandella were on IR simultaneously.

We also did not love Mikkola, ejecting him at the deadline to NYR (who also did not retain him, validation), and did not have a deep left handed pool, relying on first time NHL late round draft picks and Nick Leddy. Our depth chart was Leddy, then the 6th and 7th option down the list who had no nhl experience for weeks at a time. It’s kinda shocking they did as well as they did, tbh.

Combine that with super young Thomas and Kyrou playing the role of grown player - it just was a very inconsistent team. I don’t personally recall ever hating their effort and felt they were competitive in a lot of losing games.

This was also usually extreme consistent parayko’s worst year, and it had been reported as a rumor he was fighting a back issue that has since resolved itself. But he may have been awful just because whatever partner he’d skate with was an anchor.

Chiefs breakout was very simple. It requires the weak side d to be netfront to take the pass of a board 50/50 win then advance the puck to either side forward creating rush. All the d has to do is stand there, positionally discourage opposition centering attempts, then convert a reasonably low risk one touch pass to a usually wide open forward, one side or the other. Mikkola, as an example, failed at this. He’d leave the slot/net front and approach the 50/50, which resulted in him being in nowhere’s land in the events of either team winning the 50/50, both giving up the net front to the opposition as well as providing no outlet for teammates. This is Mike Van Ryns system, unsure who your d coach will be, and your scheme will be diff prob, but this is very elementary and all teams rely on this to some degree. It makes sense for us to basically only zone and breakout in this manner cause Parayko is 6 foot infinity, Pietrangelo was big - were able to own our net front more than not, win a lot of 50/50 pucks in the corners. It also cuts down on random centering passes from opponents - the team is ready to convert those in a touch to a rush attack, so you can’t just fling em Willy Nilly. This breakout and Kyrou led to a whole lot of goals.

I don’t know that any coach could have changed the outcome. I’m pleased that the various individuals all developed well during the time. Matt Kessel seems like he may be able to become a legitimate bottom pairing D, something we’d probably never have figured out if not for this season. At the deadline we thinned our roster so much it was curtains: 3 top 6 skaters who usually filled 18 min or more gone with nothing at the moment coming back. The last chunk of the season a manufactured tank.

https://x.com/ARHockeyStats/status/1791721709826974171

"I’ll be very surprised if Martin Necas plays for Carolina in the next season. As his dad said, Martin wants to play in 1st line & 1st PP unit. His dad even said in an interview for DenikSport:"Martin wants to be traded.” "

He's definitely not going to make the first line on the Canes, but he 100% should have been on PP1. He's their best one-timer threat, and their entire PP2 zone entry strategy was "give it to Necas and hope he can get in himself", which worked more often than not. Also one of the best players in the league 3v3, him and Caufield (if it's MTL) would be scary during regular season OT.

He's got so much talent and I wouldn't be surprised if he broke 100 points on a team that can tolerate his mistakes and passes to nobody, but he's obviously frustrated with the Brind'Amour system that doesn't leave too much room for freewheeling skill. Even the stars on the team, Aho, Svech, Jarvis, are all kinda forced into being defensive-minded, which works great but isn't for everyone.

I'll miss him if he gets traded.

I wonder how hard it would be to acquire Necas? It seems like a value challenge:

His performance combined with his size means there’s gonna be interest. Hard to pass on him. Excellent winger to add to a deep team.

But if he’s only looking at premium offensive minutes, Carolina kinda has to value him as if he were a premium contributor…cause that’s what the buyer thinks they’re buying and what the skater thinks they are.

But he isn’t that …. Yet. I’d say he’s a positive contributing top 6 winger, but he isn’t the guy who would automatically get premium minutes over his peers without question . But his age and next contract are very appealing if he is…


Kinda like he might be too expensive to trade? Or that the cost plus the risk gets too high to do the deal? If Carolina does believe he could put up 80-100 points in a different system they can’t give him away cheap, right? There’s a lot of upside but a lot of questions. Really seems like hockey trade situation and I’m struggling to find the magical fit. Who knows - no clue what their front office is planning. I wouldn’t be upset if my team took a shot at him but I would if they paid a super premium to do so.

Panthers in 5
Stars in 6