Final Grades: Joe Sacco

There were no assistant coaches with HC experience “within”.

I remember a few fans had the place-holder idea, and to be honest, I didn’t think that was the case. But the lack of system coaching doesn’t make much sense. It makes me wonder if they hired Sacco because his theory was to not use a system, or was he in on the strategy, from the begining. If he was in on it, then it seems strange that he would take the job, when he was being setup to fail. I suppose he could have some sort of back-door-deal though. I suppose somebody that was able to watch his coaching in Lake Erie might know. What he using a system then, or not?

Damaging Thought
I don’t want these kids thinking this is the way this storied franchise really is.

They do not need to develop the mindset that it’s ok to lose because that only gains negative momentum. It’s easy to fall into that pattern.

Any coach worth his salt, would be doing everything in his power to divert that mentality, curb that thought process. The Sacco’s only response to anything is take a page out of "Tinkerin’" Tony Granato’s book and switch up lines.

The Sacco really needs to just resign. Just having a different coach on the bench is enough of a POSITIVE change for this team. (And don’t even get me started on Greg from Accounting.)

Pull the plug on the Sacco.

What is your problem with Greg from Accounting? I don’t think he’s done a bad job at all. If his reins are loosed, I think that he would be a great GM.

Greg from Accounting is just that…Greg from accounting. He’s only made deals to lower the cap—just as the careless Kroenkes have demanded.

Get him gone with the Sacco. Give the reins to Super Joe.

On a brighter note, a friend of mine who lives in Ohio but is a huge Flames fan can’t stop bragging about the talent we have down in Lake Erie. Here’s hoping we can see that next year with Lundy Ruff at the helm.

Despite ‘lowering the cap’, Sherman has made excellent trades. Meuller and Fleischmann were both good, the O’Byrne acquisition has really helped our D, and the jury is still out on Hunwick. Even Winnik for a third was a great deal. The point is not just that he’s lowered the cap, which is a good thing, its that just about every move he’s made has made our team better. Who wouldn’t want a better team for less money? The only true salary dump was Smyth, and while I do think we got a good talent in Quincey back for him, it was a real salary dump.

I love Mueller & Flash. But how has that panned out for us? The Johnson trade never had to happen if we wouldn’t have traded Cohen for Bumwick. How has the Elliot deal grabbed you? The trades he’s made aren’t the only problem—why didn’t we pursue somethin for Langenbrunner? Why didn’t we go out and try to get some good veteran leadership? Foote enough—didn’t think so?

Greg from Accounting has essentially removed all the picks/signings that Francois Giguere made. Last I checked Stewart & Shattenkirk haven’t been playing poorly.

Bottom line is The Sacco has decimated an already cursed season. This team is accustomed to losing. Its what they know, and Greg from Accounting has stayed the course. As a season ticket holder, I feel like I’m spending hard earned money that just goes directly to the St. Louis Rams instead of bettering this craptacular team.

I’m still wondering when The Sacco takes his own medicine & get sent down to Lake Erie. If he can’t send the players down anymore, maybe he should take a quick trip down. Maybe it’ll jumpstart something for him?

Everyone seems to think that Sacco is doing badly because he’s losing. I don’t think thats the case at all. I think he’s doing exactly what the plan has been the whole time, which is focusing on evaluating the team and working on skills with individual players. He’s not trying to win, he’s working with Sherm to build a team for the future.

They all know that winning now doesnt mean anything to the rebuild, but its not like he’s wasting time. I think he’s working with the players, shaping the team, but on an individual basis. He’s not doing team strategy until they have the team just the way they want it, and in the mean time, losing gets us a better draft pick this summer.

I just think that we all use the "Are they winning?" yard [or meter!] stick to measure Sacco, and thats not the only goal that this team might have. This might be exactly what they have been hoping for, being patient with, putting up with losing to get guys like EJ, Mueller, Duchene, Flash, Stasty, Duke, Jones, etc. When everyone is healthy we have a really good team, with more pieces like Elliott, Barrie, and Hishon waiting in the wings. Keep evaluating the players, make decisions in the offseason, get a goalie, and I think we’ll be laughing. Work on team strategy next year, when we have the best pieces that we can have, and go from there.

Really? Really?!?

How does losing 20 games in a row help young talent develop? Where was the Sacco’s "special individual attention" when he was sending them to hang out in the Bernie Doghouse?

You can’t truly be serious with that chain of thinking. Bob Hartley was fired for much less than this. The Sacco is a part of the problem can start getting them in the right direction.

But Greg from Accounting, the Kareless Kroenkes and it appears everyone else want to tank to get one player that won’t make the difference that they so truly need.

All I am saying is that WE DONT KNOW. If Lacroix, Sherman, Billington, et al want to keep Sacco around [as Dater has said they will], then they must have a reason. I don’t want to sound like Dan here, but dude, we really don’t have any idea what he’s like in the locker room. We can go and see practices, but we don’t know what he’s saying to the guys. Losing 20 games in a row, DOES help when you are trying to rebuild and want better draft picks. Lacroix threw all of the Avs’ ones away for years, which is why we didn’t have any players worth a shit after the lockout.

Hartley was fired when he had a STACKED team. I think it was a mistake to fire him, sure, but firing a coach with a shit team doesn’t make sense. Hartely was fired because he fucked up a team with Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, Duke, Morris, Blake, Foote, Tanguay, ROY. He had all that firepower and couldnt get shit done. It was a kneejerk decision to let him go, but I can see the reasoning better than firing a coach off of a shitty, rebuilding team that has no hope of winning anyway.

Also –
But Greg from Accounting, the Kareless Kroenkes and it appears everyone else want to tank to get one player that won’t make the difference that they so truly need.

What one player could we possibly get that will solve the problems this team has right now? What are you talking about? Will Bryzgalov suddenly make Hunwick stick to his man? Will it stop Mcleod from leading the team in stupid penalties? Will Yip suddenly turn into Patrick Sharpe? What do you mean here?
If Sacco is helping the young kids develop into better players, then that might be a good reason for him to stay. Losing isn’t so bad, as long as there is a plan. I don’t think this team would keep him around if he was really as awful as he seems. I have to believe there is more of a plan to this whole thing.

I’m of the same thought process you appear to be: one high draft pick won’t save this team.

However, when you lose 20 games (even if it’s the coaches/gm/ownership plans to do so) it creates the environment that losing is acceptable—even desirable. Any change behind the bench could spark something positive. As someone paying for the abysmal product on the ice, seeing them lose 10 games in a row is unacceptable. Bottom line, they continue down this path and we won’t have a team anymore because intelligent people don’t support lackluster, consistent LOSING performances—the team will move, history repeats itself.

Look, bottom line here is I think that we will never see eye to eye on this. But the Andy trade for Elliot was fine with me in some ways because its not like we were going to win at all, and with the way that Andy had been playing we probably couldn’t have gotten much for him. He’s a UFA at the end of the year no matter what, and people dont give up much for a goalie with that bad of a record for a playoff push.

Mueller and Flash’s injuries can’t be laid at Sherm’s feet. He went out and got us two point per game players when we needed them. He did his job as well as any of us could have expected. We can’t lay any of this other shit at his feet.

Langenbrunner wasn’t needed because he’s old. Why go after JL when we could have kept Smyth? They would have served the same function on the team.. .an older, veteran point scorer to add stability to a young team. But if they didn’t keep Smyth, they would never go after JL. Thats because they didnt want to waste money on old guys. Instead, put your money toward youth, people that will be around for a long time. Go ahead and trade Stewart [who can be replaced via free agency] and Shatty [who is effectively already replaced] for Johnson [who is totally irreplaceable, as the Blues will soon find out]. I do love that trade, because he went out and got a player that would have cost an absolute fortune in the offseason, if you were lucky enough to bid for him, and one that we didnt have coming up thru the system. He’s building from the ground up for the future, not to win right now. He doesnt care about winning now, he cares about winning in three years.

Furthermore, most of the signing that Guigere made were over the top for their return. Even tho they were good pieces, they were too expensive for a team dedicated to a rebuild. So he traded them away for good building blocks for the future. A healthy Quincey signed to a long-term, reasonable contract is worth more to this team than Smyth, at 7mil/yr, without a point shot to feed off of, for two years. Its all about prioritizing for the future, and Smyth is not our future.

I’d had no problem if this team was actually competitive. Last nights fantastic prevent defense will sitting on the worst statistical lead in hockey is a prime example. Or will you have me believe like the Altiboobs would want us to believe that it’s just because the Canucks are just so amazing?

Question: do you spend your hard earned money to go to games? When you go do you feel entertained watching the product on the ice? Is it a worthwhile investment?

I understand giving kids the time to develop, but the Sacco has decimated any chance of development they were heading towards. Again, I’d take Bob Hartley over this grade 3 clown who obviously hasn’t read past chapter 4 in John Davidson’s Hockey for Dummies.

Keep this up & we’re gonna be just like the Florida Panthers…irrelevant.

You are missing my whole point. We aren’t competitive now, but we WILL BE. Thats the whole thing. They don’t care about losing now, they care about winning down the road. That thing that I said about this team being good when / if everyone was healthy? That’s the beginning of being competitive. We were never supposed to be competitive this year, nor last, really. Last year we got lucky. This year we spent weeding out the dead wood, and acquiring pieces. Building for the future.

Have patience, dude. This is called rebuilding, and I would rather do it right than try to speed thru it and turn back into a mediocre team that exits the playoffs first round every year. This is how you build from the bottom up. You lose a little bit.