I'll try to keep this blog on the light side of things and yes this one will be in english. The boys are simply not showing up and something needs to be done or else this season will be the worst one in decades!!!
I don't want to keep on burning our goalies via this blog but that cartoon really looked like Nishi with the net full of pucks....there's also that jersey that looks like the Ottawa 67's!!! ;---P
No matter how much you want to blame our bad luck of injuries and goal posts everynight you can't turn the other cheek on our goaltending. Last night was a perfect exemple of how terrible it can be...you cannot at any stage of a season live with goaltending that give you 3 goals on 4 shots...i'm combining the performance of 2 different individuals here by the way!!!!
-Let's move on to something else....our special teams.
How come we're so terrible at this with the talent we have??? Surely we must practice special teams ...tell me that it's not true that Groulx only starts practicing this in January?!?!? If so...why on God's green earth would you do such a thing??? How can this be positive???
We have 3 guys from the Chicoutimi trade down to show for Pageau, Ouellet and Gagnon...these guys are all on defence and these guys are all players that we're highly regarded before showing up with us...what the heck happened in less then a year??? They seem lifeless on the ice or simply not confortable with there new environnement....why?!?!?!
OK so our goal tending is horrible, our special teams is sub par and our defence is lost on the ice....
Aanything else???
-Yap.....
Althought we're surely one of the smallest team in the LHJMQ we're also the most penalized one in the league....BUT we have no tough guys to show for!!! This is beyond belief and a total mess has for managing player personnel.
Aaaaaaanything else...???
-Yaaaaaapp....
There's the intensity/heart/Olympique factor....what bloody intensity?!?!? Where's our Hull Hockey??? Where's my Colin White?? Where's the player who's ready to bleed for the Hull jersey??? Howcome our boys don't seem to want to play for us???
For Pete's Heaven....aaaaaanything else???
-You bet your...@&$!!!
A three games in 3 nights road trip against the bottom feeders of the league...meaning that if we actually loose all 3 games and that Sherbrooke and Shawi win against there next opponents...we could come back home has the last place team in the league and out of playoff contention for the first time this late in the year in a very very long time!!!
I'm not a fan of Groulx, everyone knows that...although I respect his antics of being a hard nose coach I also know that he very rarely panics has a coach (we have seen different has GM)...having said this....he's evaluating his team right now...just like we are.
He cannot be happy with much of what he sees out there....so modification will be made soon....he already started with Belding and King. I trust he will bring back some sense of entertainment to the Guert has a coach....but i'm very worried the price he will pay has a Gm for that entertainment!!!
Expect another long 6 weeks....until trade period and a possible Robert Steeves early return to action...we will look like what we have been looking lately....how can thing change over night??? We need a leader, a player that's willing to take over the team and I don't believe we currently have this guy!!!
I suddently remember all the bashing Jerry Dupont got in the papers about the players not playing for him...aren't we witnessing the exact same thing right now???
Dupont was blame for being a wild man behind the bench...i'm not going to say the opposite, he was entertaining to watch...but I will say this....at least he was talking to his players, something Groulx never does...he puts his arm on the board behind him and he stays there like a statue for minutes sometimes!!!
The bench often looks like a firstline of offence in a military line up....everyone his thight, unconfortable and ready to be shot at.
I'll give the coach the benefit of the doubt...meaning that he has a bunch of players that are not a good fit for his ways of coaching...cough cough, HIS WAY OF COACHING, he only has one....!!!
Groulx is a student of the game....having said this he will make the best of what he has on the ice....
The problem in all of this....
Groulx his also the guy who will be making the trades, he's the one who evaluating potential new players outside of his system before he brings them with us, he's the one creating problem for HIMSELF every time he picks up that phone!!!
Someone relieve him of his GM duties, we need an outside guy to step up with connections and ties in the league...Groulx the coach can save the season from there with what he will have....Groulx the GM will kill this franchise!!!!
Keep on dropping the gloves kids, it's part of the game!!!
I do not disagree with anything you say. Groulx simply should not be the GM, and while I am still willing to believe in him as coach, his time is running out if he can't do something about this fiasco. What is most ridiculous is that he does not seem to be trying anything new. It is true that except when the referees cause him to snap, Groulx is quiet behind the bench. But am I safe in assuming that this team is getting blasted big time behind closed doors, and in practice? They certainly should be? But if they don't care, then it won't work anyway. Few players on our team seem to give a crap about the hockey.
RépondreSupprimerBut, maybe there are a few positives. Reway of course is very slick and has toughness, he should be great to watch for the next couple of years. Burke has impressed me for the first time in his career with us. I really hope the kid can stay healthy. Poirier needs to backcheck, but on offense he is really showing some good skills. Brassard looks like a good goaltending prospect, though I agree that he is not yet ready for prime time.
But overall, this franchise is in a very sad state. I see no reason why attendance will not continue to drop. There is a good chance we will miss the playoffs. With the exception of Hyka, I don't see how we can trade down, and with Groulx making the decisions we may be lucky to get some used jock straps for him anyway.
I have really grown to love the Hull/Gatineau Olympiques, they are by far my favourite organization that I have supported throughout my life, and this includes the Toronto Marlboroughs, the London Knights, the Guelph Platers (who won the Memorial Cup one year by beating Hull in the final game), and the Ottawa 67s.
GO HULL GO!!!!
We agree to agree...we're really heading for the bottom of the league...maybe people should of listened to me instead of banning me a few years back!!!
RépondreSupprimerI was the only one who had enough vision to see that Groulx didn't have the tools to be coach/Gm...people gave this guy way to much credit and not enough to the players he had in front of him!!!
A great coach knows many different ways to win a hockey game, he knows how to adjust to another team with what he has in front of him and not only what he knows!!!
As for blasting players at a practice...ask Lafontaine what he thinks about it??!!
If I we're Groulx...short term I would get rid of Reggy and find my self another 20 year old who can play the game 2-ways with some toughness...that would be my first move...naturally after I get a freaking goalie who can stop pucks...something that Charlie would of resolved some time last year!!!
I wonder if Gryger and the other mook mooks understand now days that I was right about Groulx all along???
Well, of course Gryger is silent on the Olympiques forum because he is afraid to ever be critical, and there is nothing good to be said. Some of the others who used to attack me and you for being negative too much, in their opinion, are now whining like Sydney Crosby does. It is very funny actually to see how the forum is finally getting the point.
RépondreSupprimerI gave you credit on the mook mooks forum my friend :)
RépondreSupprimerAs for Regimbal, he is worth nothing, so i can't understand why Groulx keeps playing him. There's no need to showcase him. Send him home and get a 20 year old that will be mean on the ice. That's what we need right now.
RépondreSupprimerI don't want to smell the flowers I'm sending to myself here...LOL....but that forum has no credibility at all....the little it had was lost when they banned me and I seriously hope it looses all it's blogers and eventually has to close down for being TOO BORING!!!!
RépondreSupprimerA lot of people quit that forum over the years because they didn't get along with me...administrators saw me has the bad guy...which was wrong....they should of seen me in what I really was...SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THE DAM GAME!!!
People needed to adjust to me....not the other way around. Yeah I can be an ass sometimes....but that's only when someone disagrees with me on hockey related stuff....stay cool with me and i'm cool with everyone!!! Start telling me I don't know the game and your in for it my friend...that's it and that's all....
It's the Canadian way to take care of business!!!
I was on that forum from the age of 19 to 32 years old and banned me for saying "ta yeule" to Gryger who never talked about hockey when posting there....How stupid can they be!?!?!?
Where's Olivier D'Aoust (we gave a thirs rd pick for 7 games last season) and where's Garret Clarke (5th and 9th rd pick last year)....???? Again we paid way to much for guys that didn't really help us and on top of that we didn't even bring them back this season. What did we do instead....we gave more draft picks to Victo (2nd and 3rd) for Dubé, who off course very disapointing!!!
RépondreSupprimerGroulx should be on a leesh barking in the parking....instead of being on the ice with a whistle in his mouth after making moves like this....unreal!!!
I have not necessarily quit the other forum, but I agree it is a terrible forum. Few people are willing to be critical, and those that are, like me and you, are generally attacked and often insulted, even though you and I are right far more often than we are wrong.
RépondreSupprimerI agree with you of course that Groulx has not done a good job as a GM, and he should certainly not be serving in this function. And I am starting to wonder about him as a coach as well. How can the powerplay be that bad, game after game, and even season after season? Why does he not bench the lazy players and give someone else a chance? Is there no way he can get the forwards to backcheck a little? Can he not convince his defencemen to stop backing in too deep on his goaltenders? Groulx seems clueless here, as if he has no idea what to do. I have no idea what sort of relationship Sear has with Groulx, but I can well imagine some of the things you or I would be saying to our coach if we owned this hockey team.
In fact, some on the other forum are being critical of Sear, and this is a joke because they are the same people who argued that Groulx has carte blanche, and agreed that Sear hired the right man!! So, how can they blame Sear. To me, Sear made a good move at the time, and now it is true that it is not working out, but I cannot blame him for the move he made hiring Groulx. Although now I do think he can be blamed if he does not fire Groulx as GM and keep him on only as coach.
RépondreSupprimerFirst and foremost, I blame the players. They are the ones wearing the jock straps, and most of them don't seem to give a crap about the team. Secondly, I blame Groulx for sure.
Now, Hull4life, have you booed them yet? Will you boo them soon? I myself booed once during the last game, in the third period. I wonder if some fans are hesitant to boo for fear of being noticed and standing out on their own? Maybe if a few more people would boo, then the entire house would join in? I almost never boo the home team, it is very rare for me. But I am to the point now where I did boo once, and would be quite willing to boo these bums right out of the building if enough other fans joined in.
I never boo players...when I boo I boo Groulx, like i always do....players follow there coach's orders....speaking of order...there is none in this team. Groulx is blamed in my book before the players....want to know why??? Because he's the one who got those player!!!
RépondreSupprimerI wonder what Renaud Lemay thinks of Groulx....Lemay with the tools he has in front of him, tries to draft players that fit into the Olympiques standard...fast forward a year and half later...Groulx bashes them via the papers and then trades them for crap or draft picks!!! The funny part in all of this is that these players are introduce to us has warriors when we draft then....and when we trade them we treat them has bums!!!
Brilliant minds are running our team that for sure!!!!
Well, you may be right. I agree Groulx has gotten us a lot of hockey players with bad attitudes. Do you think he can turn this around, or is he washed up? Like you said earlier, he won't be fired, so if he does not quit we might be stuck with him and a lowsy team for a while. Do you think this could get so bad that the fan support drops and drops and then the owner will want to leave town?
RépondreSupprimerWe here the leave town crap every year or so or the story where someone wants to buy us and move us to the maritimes. Some of it is true and some of it is embalished....it's a good way to have people talk about your brand....in our cases, our team.
RépondreSupprimerThe only thing they can do is to ask Groulx to step down from the GM position, now hide from us or don't...I don't care....but have someone take over the GM duties...and let Groulx the coach...do exactly that....coach!!!
Tomorrow in le droit a 90 minute interview with Groulx to talk about the start of the season...it's a can't miss.
Don't get to excited thought...because 80 minutes of the 90 minute interview will be answers that will lead us to more questions.
Here's two things he will say for sure...
Goalies and injuries are our biggest problem...confirming something that we knew would have since last year at about this time!!!
It will be very interesting to see what Groulx has to say in this interview. We will see if he bullcraps his way through it or is honest. Of course he will mention goaltending, it is a problem. But it is not the only problem, and it is debatable whether or not it is the most serious one. I have said before, even if we had Terry Sawchuck in net, this team would still suck. The general attitude of the team is a very serious problem, the lack of working hard, the lack of backchecking, the lack of playing defense, the terrible powerplay...
RépondreSupprimerGroulx has a lot to answer for, and of course as you note, all of these problems I mention are with players that Groulx himself brought in. He is the complete architect of this mess. But I do not see how he can admit this unless he does actually step down as GM.
Basically, at minimum Groulx has completely pissed away one full rebuilding year. He needs to start from scratch again, as if last year and not two years ago was the big year. Neither of us are convinced he can do it.
This could get worse before it ever starts getting better.