What was he thinking?
December 24th, 2007
I don't know about everyone else but I tend to ask myself this question a fair bit about Paul Maurice. He seems to make very odd decisions. I'm not saying that they are bad or good, just odd.
Near the beginning of the year on the first line we say Sundin, Ponikarovsky and Blake. Whenever the team started loosing the game, he would put Sundin, Ponikarovsky and Antropov on the first line. There is nothing wrong with mixing lines up when your loosing to see what will happen. BUT he always goes back to this as the first line when the game is on the line. For a long time I kept asking myself why didn't he just start the 3 together since he almost always ends up with them together at the end of the games.
Very similar to the last point, Jason Blake was on the first line for a very long time before being moved to a different line. While it is understandable to keep a line together for a while just to see if someones performance is a fluke (good or bad fluke), Blake was having a terrible season and still kept on the first line.
Kilger and Bell always seem to end up on the 4th line. Mark Bell is a recent addition to the team, we have yet to see how he performs when given adequate minutes. He was placed on the first line with Sundin for bits and pieces of 1 game then yanked out and put back to the 4th line. Chad Kilger most likely leads the team in points per minutes played (if there were such a stat), yet he is still on the 4th line. I'm not really sure what these players must do to prove they deserve more ice time? Yet when someone like Jason Blake does not produce he is still kept on the first line? Odd.
Paul Maurice must have something against Belak. If he is lucky enough not to be a healthy scratch and put in a game, if he takes 1 penalty or makes 1 bad defensive move, he is either out for the rest of the game, or misses half of his shifts. In the past Belak hasn't been the best player and used to make many mistakes. Recently he has stepped his game up and has played much better. The most memorable moment was when he scored his first goal in 4 years. It wasn't just that goal or shift, he played amazing the whole game - yet he still did not get anymore ice time than usual.
At the beginning of the year, Bryan McCabe was having a terrible year. Even though he was not putting on a good performance he was still averaging 20+ minutes a game.
All of this seems very odd to me, I'm not sure if I may be missing some facts, but Paul Maurice just seems to have an odd coaching strategy. I'm just hoping it helps the Leafs get into the Playoff this year!
Categories: Maple Leafs Articles
