Apr 28, 2015
Thumbs up to Trotz and down to the Leafs
TSN's Dave Hodge puts out his thumb to Barry Trotz and what might have been with the Toronto Maple Leafs, as well as things that simply make no sense in these Stanley Cup playoffs (see Niklas Kronwall from Monday night).
By Dave Hodge
Once more, the timeline.
April 11, 2014 - Brendan Shanahan was hired as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs and a full review of the team's coaches, players and other members of the organization was promised. It was fully expected that Shanahan would fire head coach Randy Carlyle in due time.
April 14, 2014 - The Nashville Predators fired the only coach in their history by saying goodbye to Barry Trotz after 15 seasons. Trotz was immediately mentioned as a coach deserving of consideration by Toronto and other teams.
May 8, 2014 - Contrary to popular opinion, Shanahan and the Leafs announced the retention of Carlyle.
May 26, 2014 - The Washington Capitals hired Trotz to replace the departed Adam Oates.
So it took Toronto just under a month to decide not to make a coaching change and for almost all that time, Trotz was available. There is no way of knowing if he'd have preferred a job in Toronto to the one he took in Washington, largely because there's no evidence to suggest the Leafs had any interest in Trotz.
It's been said here before, but thumbs down to the Leafs for not wanting to replace Carlyle with Trotz to start the 2014-15 season. And thumbs up to Barry Trotz for the job he has done in his first season with the Capitals.
They might want to do as Nashville did and keep him for 14 more.
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Thumbs down to things that simply make no sense.
Detroit defenceman Niklas Kronwall blasts Tampa's Nikita Kucherov with a devastating check to the head and everything below it. No penalty is called, but the entire hockey world describes Kronwall's hit as a 'suspendable offence.'
Whether or not he's suspended is part of a different discussion, but if things made sense, there would be no talk of a suspension on a play that didn't bring a penalty.
Or, if things made sense, a check that might well cost Kronwall the chance to play in a seventh game would have sent the blueliner out of the sixth game, or, at the very least, to the penalty box for two minutes.
Now to the bizarre nature of infractions that were called or ignored during the seventh game between Washington and the Islanders. In fact, all but one was ignored. The only penalty of the game was a roughing minor given to Capitals' defenceman John Carlson.
It came with 2:54 left and Washington clinging to a one-goal lead. If things made sense, and no penalties had been called throughout the game, Carlson wouldn't have received a penalty. Or, if things made sense and Carlson deserved his penalty, there would have been a bunch of others in the first and second periods as well as the third.
But things don't make sense - or they didn't last night, anyway.