Interesting comment by a guy on a different site
I said this a few times last year in regards to different things, but doesthis (in bold) ever take me back to the Maurice-era with Carolina 2009-November 2011 when they fired him. This is one of the EXACT points I andmany other Canes fans used to make. Bizarre to read this so manyyears later with a completely different organization. Surprising?no.. but this really takes me back.We may have only played game #1 of this season, but I am the guy whowatched Maurice on two separateoccasions in Carolina, most recentlythe dog days of 2009-2011 when he was fired. And I'm just reliving it all now. Frustrating. I try to have some optimism but it's incredibly hard.I read a post here the other day, I forget by who, but they saidsomething to the effect of "Maurice can have a roster of individual talent but he can never get them to consistently play as a team". This is another post that really took me back, as it is another argument I and Canes fans made here regularly. It was just baffling. And so incredibly true for Maurice coached teams. Look at the Canes in 2010-11. Many players had some pretty darn goodyears that year, but the PP sucked, PK sucked, no identity, no consistency as a team, the list goes on and on. Staal racked up 76 points. Rookie Skinner scored 31 goals and 63 points. Tuomo Ruutu had a great year posting 57 points while playing in all 82 games. Same for Erik Cole, played all 82 games and notched 26 goals and 52 points. Jussi Jokinen played 70 games and accumulated 52 points. Depthplayers LaRose, Sutter and Dwyer (who Maurice played in roles above their heads) all combined for 38 goals and 78 points! Offensively speaking from the backend Pitkanen and Corvo both had 35-40 points. 22 year old dman Jamie McBain hit 30 points as a rookie in his first full NHL season. For heavens sake Cam Ward hit 37 wins, a 2.56GAA and a SV% of .923! How the **** did this team NOT make the playoffs?!?! Hello Paul Maurice. Andthe arguments many make about the Jets/Maurice now are the EXACT cries I and other Canes fans made back then.- That year the Canes were the 5 or 6th highest scoring team in the eastern conference, but allowed the 6th most goals in the conference. Goal differential of -3.- 7th worst PP (How does a team this offensively potent have such a **** PP?)- 11th worst PK- Allowed the most shots against per game (33.2)- 3rd worst in shot attempts againstWant to see Maurice's special teams rankings prior to joining the Jets (dating back to 02-03)Leading up to Maurice being fired in November 2011, it was just comical. Despite PP "specialists" like Joni Pitkanen and Tomas Kaberle on the roster, bottom pairing/AHL level defenseman Jay Harrison, who had never scored a PP goal in his career, was getting over two minutes of average PP time per game.Again prior to Maurice being fired by Carolina in 2011, the most used line for Carolina was third line of Brandon Sutter, Patrick Dwyer andJiri Tlusty. Their second-most used combination was again their third line, this time consisting of Sutter, Dwyer and Alexei Ponikarovsky. Just baffling.When Eric Staal was in a big slump, Maurice, in all his widom, movedStaal to LW and formed a no. 1 line of Staal - Sutter - LaRose...............Up to that point, over his last six years of coaching, Paul Maurice had an ugly 50-66-28 record in October and November; that equates to amiserable 34.2 winning percentage in the first two months of the regular season.But don't worry, his teams finishstrong when it becomes meaningless.Maurice-coached teams' record in final 10 games of the season2016-17 Jets finished the year 8-2-02015-16 Jets finished the year 6-2-22014-15 Jets made the playoffs2010-11 Canes finished the year 7-3-12009-10 Canes finished the year 5-3-22008-09 Canes made the playoffs2007-08 Leafs finished the year 4-5-12006-07 Leafs finished the year 6-3-1I should also add, Maurice was (re)hired by Carolina December2008 after they fired Laviolette. Paul instantly turned that team around going 33-19-5 and advancing to the eastern conference finals. The next season came and the team SUCKED. They had just 3 wins by mid-NOVEMBER and at one point lost 14 games in a row. Jim Rutherford shipped out lots of vets and deemed it a "re-build" that year (2009-10). The team expected to make the playoffs in 2010-11 (Failed) and also expected to make it in 2011-12, but Maurice was axed inNovember.It's a similar trend to Maurice's time in Winnipeg. Hired, immediate results/playoffs, then a re-build, and now we are seeing what Paul can do coming out of that rebuild. I'm not holding my breathe.
Damn. That's not looking good. I like maurice the person but the coach seems to be repeating history. Good talker tho.. But his results just arent there.