Devils and coach part ways
- Thread starter Rhyan48
- Start date
Here is a quandary jumping forward, if we have a fully fit squad, win the playoffs, who do we congratulate, Skalde as he picked the team and drilled them for 98% of the season. Dupont & Franny, can they claim it was their coaching & bench decisions etc. Would the success been on Todd & the owners for sacking an incompetent coach ? Maybe we could give the players the credit for turning up at the last minute of the season.
Not sure why you’re over-complicating it. I think the owners and Todd wanted more “proven players”. Not necessarily veterans but proven. Where as Skalde went for a few players that were maybe a bit risky. Why would you not back your coach at that stage? I’m sure they were worried but you still back the guy you’ve recruited. And we went on to have a fairly underwhelming season. As I said earlier I think that was one of the few/many reasons they went their separate ways
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That's right, the Devils were out of it yonks ago. Just trying to put our 3rd place into a bit of perspective. The gap between Steelers in 2nd and the Devils was only 7 points which might have been gained if we had managed to ice a full defence corps and established some consistency.
The Devils might have won those games, we will never know. Steelers did slip up in the last few weeks.
To finish 3rd is not a disaster all considered.
The Devils might have won those games, we will never know. Steelers did slip up in the last few weeks.
To finish 3rd is not a disaster all considered.
Think we’ll have to agree to disagree if you’re putting a positive spin on our 3rd place. The two teams above us were better than us and then the teams that are usually very competitive (Panthers, Blaze, Flames) were dreadful at times. Nowhere near as good as they’ve been in previous seasons. Respect your opinion though ASHIPP
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I didn’t think l was, for me it’s very simple, if the owners wanted more proven players we had 18 months that Skalde was recruiting, why as owners take a punt on the coaching choice. It’s their business and the coach is an employee put in place to achieve their goals, why back a coach you believe is risking those goals.
If you know long term you are going to work with a coach then a 3rd place finish and a CC final is an ok return for a transition year. However if it's clear that it won't work then shake hands and walk away.
However it's the timing that stinks for me. In cup competition anything can happen. Whilst obviously the Giants and Steelers are going to be favourites for the playoffs - we beat them both throughout the season (I forget our series results against them). That's not a situation where we have no chance in the playoffs. Sacking Skalde then isn't like the Devils org.
Perversely, and bear with me on this, imagine if Skalde stays in charge but he's going to be shown the door after the playoffs. We win the playoffs somehow. How do you then sack him? A playoff title, CC final and 3rd place is a good return for a first season in the league.
Presumably his contract was up after playoffs anyway, so the question is then: how do you not renew his contract?
The timing is the thing for me.
However it's the timing that stinks for me. In cup competition anything can happen. Whilst obviously the Giants and Steelers are going to be favourites for the playoffs - we beat them both throughout the season (I forget our series results against them). That's not a situation where we have no chance in the playoffs. Sacking Skalde then isn't like the Devils org.
Perversely, and bear with me on this, imagine if Skalde stays in charge but he's going to be shown the door after the playoffs. We win the playoffs somehow. How do you then sack him? A playoff title, CC final and 3rd place is a good return for a first season in the league.
Presumably his contract was up after playoffs anyway, so the question is then: how do you not renew his contract?
The timing is the thing for me.
Is that bad 5 months before the season starts though? And I genuinely don’t think a lot fans refused to renew season tickets because Skalde was in charge. Also why bother sacking him a couple of weeks before the end of the season if it was mainly to do with poor season ticket sales? Not one of the reasons he’s gone in my opinion.
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Skalde’s appointment was announced in October 2020 and he would have been interviewed well before that. They wouldn’t have known who he was recruiting at that time. Not even Skalde would have known! You don’t know which minor league hockey players are available 14 months before the season starts! Mikkelson was our first new signing and that was 7 months after Skalde was appointed. It is possible to be blown away by somebody’s ideas at interview stage but having doubts further on down the line.
Im not sure things are as complex and sordid behind the scenes at the Devils as you often like to make out.
Im not sure things are as complex and sordid behind the scenes at the Devils as you often like to make out.
At the end of the day we’re all speculating wildly, but the TK quote is interesting to me. He may just be being professional and not wanting to throw Skalde under the bus, but it does seem it was a difficult decision that had to be made quickly & doesn’t seem like was due to personality clash if we take what he’s saying literally.
I still wonder, like with the rumours about certain names signing for next season, if a coach that TK feels has Devils DNA had suddenly become available for next season & he needed to move fast. If someone unannounced had signed in principle then that puts Skalde in an impossible position “Finish up the season then you’re done”. It’s all wild speculation but timing felt to me like there had to be a catalyst.
I trust TK entirely on recruitment, we’ve been making comments about us starting flat all season on here and I lost count how many times Skalde in his interviews post game regularly said “I felt we came out flat.”, or “We didn’t really get going until the 3rd”. That either suggests a deeper player issue or a coaching issue. Coughler coming in immediately upgraded the performances on the ice, but that was a high calibre player coming in rather than a coach turning around a team prone to early game lethargy. I wish Skalde all the best even if he does sign for Panthers, but I feel more excited for the style/intensity of hockey next season now than I would be feeling if I knew JS was here for another year.
I still wonder, like with the rumours about certain names signing for next season, if a coach that TK feels has Devils DNA had suddenly become available for next season & he needed to move fast. If someone unannounced had signed in principle then that puts Skalde in an impossible position “Finish up the season then you’re done”. It’s all wild speculation but timing felt to me like there had to be a catalyst.
I trust TK entirely on recruitment, we’ve been making comments about us starting flat all season on here and I lost count how many times Skalde in his interviews post game regularly said “I felt we came out flat.”, or “We didn’t really get going until the 3rd”. That either suggests a deeper player issue or a coaching issue. Coughler coming in immediately upgraded the performances on the ice, but that was a high calibre player coming in rather than a coach turning around a team prone to early game lethargy. I wish Skalde all the best even if he does sign for Panthers, but I feel more excited for the style/intensity of hockey next season now than I would be feeling if I knew JS was here for another year.
Swings and roundabouts, if's and but's, we were better than them in the netminding dept and they were better than us in the goal scoring dept, a team is judged by it's performance over the season and over that period they had the better team. You could easily say that if we'd have had another high scoring forward then they wouldn't have been so much ahead of us.
Hmmm. Complex yes, Sordid, no that’s not how l see the situations. Any business with multiple employees will be complex, especially within sports. It’s true I’m a fan that can point the finger at our owners, there is a strong level of Teflon from fans. Belfast & Sheffield are cheating, the ref is biased, the laptop, the coach, the players, some have a tone of blaming everything other than the management. Sorry but l stand by my comment that Lord without the Devils is nothing and the Devils without Lord are nothing. I truly hope in time I’m wrong, l hope they find someone Todd can work with and bring the success we all want. Yes I know it maybe difficult understand for some fans, but it is possible to critic peoples decisions and actions and still support the team and management. Todd for all his success and passion which brought him a success as a player and GM has a way of achieving that success and unfortunately that way is only his way. Which means if you have the right people it can work very well, the problem though is finding those people. Fingers crossed everything is in place nd this time next season we will be moaning how boring winning every game is........
With regards to season tickets, my gang started with 9 people and it’s now Down to 4 for next season, one has gone through Ill health but will continue to go perhaps 2 games a month, the damning bit is the other 4 gave up their season tickets Xmas week which the club were good enough to refund the remaining games , the reason , boredom,