Just what has French done for us lately

Am I the only one that feels that so far French has been a waste?

The team that is here was mostly here when he came. The other players were mostly already recruited.

He seems to have a definite lack of emotion behind the bench. I think he needs to be kicked out of a game or two just to get these guys to feel like he is serious.

As for players I think he has lied to all the fans long enough. It seems that we are always working a player in Europe, but they never seem to show up. (Or this could also be the front office [Chief])

He seems to be satisfied with the status quo and does not seek to improve the team. That is evidenced by the fact that we started out on top of the league and every team in the league has made changes and came up to and past our level and we have stayed the same. Oh yeah there have been a couple of players added but they are non existent on the ice.

He seems to have no control of these players off the ice. (Nickleback concert and drunk the night before we play Colorado is not acceptable.)

He can not motivate the veterans and it shows in their play as of late.

For the life of me I can not understand why Bain is still around. He is making pretty good money to just skate a shift or tow and then get his ass whipped. Send his ass packing and get someone else in here.

Now this one is going to piss some people off but I think Duda should be sent with him. Duda has Gretzky on the brain. He has turned down so many shots so he can maybe get the assist that the goalies no longer play him to shoot; they no he will pass and they play it that way.

Something needs to wake this team up, and I’ll bet we could get a couple good D-men for Duda, or at least somebody that would shoot and not play all his offense on the wall or behind the goal line.

I have no horse in this race, but this statement I have to take exception with- "He can not motivate the veterans and it shows in their play as of late."

A coach shouldn't have to motivate vets. The vets should take it on their shoulders to motivate the youngsters.

FastCars wrote:

I have no horse in this race, but this statement I have to take exception with- "He can not motivate the veterans and it shows in their play as of late." A coach shouldn't have to motivate vets. The vets should take it on their shoulders to motivate the youngsters.

I totally agree with you but when the vets are not doing that, then the coach needs to light their asses up and he is not doing that either.

As NB as I've been of late, I put more blame on the players than the coach. I blame the vets (mainly those wearing the "A"'s and "C") for the present lack of any offense, or motivation. I also blame the propaganda department for getting folks hopes up, only to not follow through with anything they've "hinted". I also blame the team for not having any type of "scouting" ability. French can only go so far with his contacts. There needs to be an "organizational" group of contacts to find "new" players. If there is, then it needs some serious reorganization. Because it hasn't worked for years. Other teams seem find "worthy" talent during the course of the season, while this team stagnates towards the end of the season, taking sporatic scraps here, and there, yet not improving the team. The recent "acquisitions" of Barker, Coughlin, and Rozenthal, have yet to show any "improvement" to the team. And how does having a player, for almost 2/3rds of a season, who sits 99.9% of the game sitting on the bench taking the place of any ppossible improvement, help this team? Is this the only way the team can show they have some "toughness" on the bench, literally? The guy's not going to improve, if he's not given a chance to play. So why keep him? For a almost "mythical" chance of "possibly" using his toughness? If his "goating" of Filipic into "extra" penalties was a good trade off, shouldn't he have been sent out some more to try and get some more "favorable" trade-offs? If you aren't going to use him for that, get rid of him, and get a mid, to low, tier player, that sees atleast 45% of the game, ON THE ICE!!!

May be a case, like in Memphis, where the vets figure they can, and do, out wait a coach they don't like.

I have no inside info on whether that is the case in ICT, but hopefully, for the fan's sake, it is not.

I don't know either, but there's certainly some problem of chemistry, as of late. And that's been noticed by multiple people that I've talked to.

One of the problems is that French has changed up a couple of the lines and it is not working. A few of the players were working great together before the change.
Time to look at what is not obviously working!

It's obvious SOMETHING has changed...but we also know this same combination of guys CAN produce results.
Question is...what will it take to bring the productive goal-producing game-winning team out?

Not to mention the defense...some are doing a great job in their positions but some are not. This results in the poor goalie left out there hoping like Hell he can see the puck in time to react.

The other rafter rats and I were all saying last night...if that would have been Wellsy or Laxdall...there would have been minimally a water bottle tossed onto ice and a lot of yelling at the ref. (not that it does any good )
Coach is too passive....time he needs to show his passion for the game.

Not condoning an all out temper tantrum, however, a "we're not gonna take it" type of attitude displayed would not only fire up the boys on the bench but also the fans.

A couple of quotes from todays paper says alot about what's wrong.

First

Quote:

"We came out hard in the first period and, after that, we slacked off big time," Tetrault said.

How many times to we hear "we didn't play 60 minutes" or words to that effect?

Second

Quote:

Colorado coach Chris Stewart said aggressive play is the key.

We played the first few games aggresively and then quit.

Just take a look at the better teams +/-

Laredo = +328
Colo. = +117
Bossier = +110
Odessa = +90
OK City = +70
Wichita = -12

Of our current skaters we only have 5 that are on the + side. To beat this team all you have to do is play physical and have a good penalty kill.

btw Fyrfytr

The rather than Duda, I'd package Bain and Blaznek and try to get a couple of hockey players.

Last edited by rovot on Sat Feb 11, 2006 10:15 pm; edited 1 time in total

RafterRat wrote:

The other rafter rats and I were all saying last night...if that would have been Wellsy or Laxdall...there would have been minimally a water bottle tossed onto ice and a lot of yelling at the ref. (not that it does any good ) Coach is too passive....time he needs to show his passion for the game.

It shows through the players that he's somewhat passive, but there were a couple times, after some seriously questionable penalties, that I thought the sticks weren't safe. But like what goes on the ice, alot of yelling, and jawing, but no action.

There are 4 players that want to be traded and French won't trade them.

Bain
Murphy
R. Couglin and
Liebel

The cancer in this team is French and that is all there is too it.

I got this from a pretty reliable source. One I trust anyway.

I wouldn't doubt Bain wants out of here. The damn coach won't play you for more than a min a game. He's probably tired of pulling splinters out of his ass after every game. Frenchy is seriously looking like Jimbo (Latos), in his in ability to play ALL the players on his bench. This is starting to be like Hewitt all over again. Hell, the some of the fans behind the bench were chanting for Bain, but Frenchy just looked straight ahead, like he was trying to will the puck into the net. I'm surprised he didn't pull a Dull, and tell the fans behind the bench to "Fuck off". It's been awhile, but I do believe Bain was one of his boys he brought in at the begining of the season. Maybe he's unwilling to admit his mistake, like Dull was with Sickavish. The others are just the first of the mice that realize this ship is sinking fast. I'd hate to have to deal with another coach search, and the subsequent spin doctoring. Besides, in the back of my mind, I'd like to give Frenchy a full off-season to put together his own team. I'd hate to lose Clayton, but the present vets need to go. I don't care how well they scored over the season. They aren't doing their job, with the rest of their game. It's time for a changing of the guard.

Quote:

The cancer in this team is French and that is all there is too it.

You better take a hard look at #14

And they said I had a Blahznek fetish.

38 is the only one who seems to play here are the players i would like to see go, in order.

25
15
19
39
and we also need a new Goaltender, Laplante can be good, but you can tell if he would have been in the E, he would be riding the pine as much as Bain

BT wrote:

And they said I had a Blahznek fetish.

Well BT, like you said if you worked with someone that got all the gold and glory, yet never had to do anything but what he wanted, how would that effect your work production?

Even stregth, this guy has been on the ice when the other team scored more times than when the Thunder have scored. If a player plays hockey the full length of the ice he can't help but draw a few contact penalties. #14 has collected 6 minutes of contact penalties in 44 games, but he has 12 minutes for running his mouth and another 16 for being lazy (hooking, tripping, etc.). Now if your a player that goes out and plays hard and picks up the brusies for the team and you watch the golden boy playing half-ass and being praised and paid for it, how will that effect your play?

Most teams can figure this out with in a couple of years.

Oh, I agree with you. But I was always the one that got slammed for disliking the whole Srome/Blaznek trade. And I still feel that been a continual downward spiral, since. But I let it go a couple years ago, and still get labeled a Blaznek hater. Now he's back to showing his inability to play defense, like he's done many times before he got here. And like Laplante said in the newspaper today, he, like so many others, are back to their "individual" ways. Definitely aren't playing like a team lately.

If i have to hear another "we want bain" chant again i'm going to throw up.

You guys can mark the day...no spin today LOL. Last night was not a performance for a crowd of 8500 people.

I hardly agree with the French criticism, but I will say that Me, Chris and Mark have discussed several things for the deadline tomorrow and if we can pull something off that makes the team better we will. We would love to add size and toughness and if we can on Monday we will.

On another note...thanks for all the support this season, as Wichita moved into second in the CHL for attendance. Three straight Saturdays over 8000 fans...even the 1994 and 1995 teams didnt do that!

10 am and nothing yet on PS