Catching Up With River Rats Coach Jeff Daniels
by Cory Lavalette on Dec 10, 2009 10:50 AM EST
57 comments
When I originally attempted to contact Albany River Rats general manager/head coach Jeff Daniels, I mainly wanted to discuss acquisition of Jiri Tlusty, who arrived — after some immigration issues — in Albany courtesy a trade between Toronto and Carolina Dec. 3. Five days later, there was plenty more to talk about: coaches, trades and recalls.
Tlusty had an uneventful debut in the Rats' 4-1 win Dec. 6 against Wilkes-Barre, registering two shots on the night. The aforementioned immigration troubles contributed to that.
"For a first game he was fine," Daniels said. "He had gone four days without skating and admitted he didn't have his legs. But he was real good in practice [Tuesday], and showed us what he's capable of."
Despite coaching in the AHL the past two seasons —where Tlusty has spent most of his time — Daniels had limited knowledge of the 21-year-old forward because Albany and the Toronto Marlies are in different conferences and do not play in the regular season. But Daniels echoed Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford on the reason for the trade.
"[Tlusty's] further along in his development than Paradis," Daniels said.
* * * * *
Daniels also weighed in on Peter Laviolette and Kevin McCarthy reuniting on the Flyers bench.
"I was excited for both of them," said Daniels, who coached along side both during the Hurricanes' run to the Stanley Cup in 2006 and also played under McCarthy as a player. "It's a chance for [McCarthy] to get back behind the bench." (McCarthy has coached from the pressbox during games since Paul Maurice replaced Laviolette last season and Ron Francis joined the coaching staff.)
* * * * *
"It's about filling a role," Daniels said. "They asked who was playing well, and with Corvo going down I told them Rodney was our best power play guy. But with them heading on the road, I think they wanted more defense [and went with Harrison and Carson]."
One defenseman who hasn't suited back up yet is hard-luck Casey Borer. Borer broke one of the vertebra in his neck in the Feb. 19 River Rats bus crash, a horrifying incident that Daniels said everyone involved has tried to move on from.
Borer underwent surgery on his neck Sept. 22, and Daniels said the resulting scar is a reminder about what happened on the Massachusetts Turnpike.
"He's still a ways away," Daniels said of Borer. "He can't do any contact right now. But he's skating and happy to be back out there with the team. Taking the first hit — that'll be his next hurdle."
* * * * *
The River Rats — who have won four straight and are 5-0-1 in their past six — return to action Friday at home against Hershey, the first of three games in three nights. They then host providence Saturday before wrapping up their busy weekend at Hartford.
Jerome Samson leads the team in scoring (11-12-23 in 27 games), followed by captain Patrick Dwyer (11-7-18 in 22 games). Justin Peters (9-5-2, 2.23 goals-against average, .923 save percentage) and Mike Murphy (5-6-0, 2.74, .919) continue to share the load in net.
For more on the team, visit their Web site or check out The Infestation, a great blog dedicated to the team.
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Does he need help?
Like a veteran Captain and someone who can show them what NOT to do on defense?
Would they still count against the cap then?
When all else fails, read the instruction manual.
plus he would get picked up on waivers ands we would have ot pay half his salary for this year and next
Brind'Amour on Waivers
For some team to pick up Brind’Amour on waivers would be ideal for the Hurricanes financially. I can’t speak to the impact on team morale with that move. I personally doubt any team wants a 39 year old, $3,600,000.00 cap hit, $3,000,000 salary, center/forward who hasn’t scored a goal since October 9th and who is getting 9 minutes of time on ice on the fourth line. That is a high price to pay for leadership in the locker room.
rats in Norfolk 3/4 and 5
Maybe we can all go to Norfolk on and see the Rats take on the Admirals. Hopefully most of the talent will already be in Raleigh by March.
by Caniac233 on Dec 10, 2009 11:09 AM EST via mobile reply actions
believe the trade deadline is March 3, fwiw.
by Cory Lavalette on Dec 10, 2009 11:14 AM EST reply actions
which is just a few days after the Olympics
by Cory Lavalette on Dec 10, 2009 11:15 AM EST up reply actions
draft
Maybe you can do a NHL draft prospects piece to discuss possible draft picks for the Canes. I know it is early, but the Taylor Hall sweepstakes is more exciting than periodic 4 to 5 game losing streaks. Does anyone know if Hall is NHL ready like Tavares, Hedman, and Duchene? Who else is out there as #2?
by Caniac233 on Dec 10, 2009 12:59 PM EST via mobile reply actions
In the OHL, Tyler Seguin (Plymouth) is No. 1 by CSS, Hall is second. I think they’re considered 1-2 overall, as well. Defenseman Cam Fowler is No. 3.
It is kind of early … the World Juniors helps determine a lot. Maybe after that (Xmas-beginning of January).
by Cory Lavalette on Dec 10, 2009 1:11 PM EST up reply actions
The Quest for Tyler....it's a Caniac Thing
I guess it is Tyler something then…
When is FSN gonna drop the Roddy captain character thing? It talks about being effective on both sides of the ice..ANY QUESTIONS?
The Brind'Amour ad -- just sad, that's all
The Brind’Amour ad — just sad, that’s all. Given the disastrous two seasons, it’s as painful to watch the ad as is it painful to watch Brind’Amour struggling to recapture his youth on the ice. It can’t cost that much to either run Ruutu/Jokinen/Staal/PItkanen/Gleason/Whitney ads.
This is presumably the next one. It was posted on the Canes Facebook page this week (needless to say I linked to it). It was pulled a couple of days ago but now it’s back so perhaps it’s getting ready to launch.
Intimidation – Its A Caniac Thing
(note, apologies if you can’t launch without a Facebook ID, can’t find another link source)
SISU
Another q: When do they announce the Olympic rosters? Seems like I heard it would be December…?
Hurricanes Hockey:
Never for the faint of heart.
Nor for the weak of stomach.
It may be ESPN, but it has all of the teams all in one place. :)
Plus it would be hard for them to screw that up.
Not really as ESPN is such a Mickey Mouse operation
When all else fails, read the instruction manual.
not to mention they list Canada as Dec. 31 while the CP is reporting Dec. 30.
Stupid ESPN.
by Cory Lavalette on Dec 10, 2009 2:52 PM EST up reply actions
I thought they were going to announce the US team during the Winter Classic?
by packpigskinfan25 on Dec 10, 2009 5:49 PM EST reply actions
I guess it depends on what we want... a Center or a Winger
Tyler Seguin
Season Team GP G A PTS +/- PIM
2009-10 Regular Season Plymouth Whalers 28 25-21 46 3 32
2008-09 Regular Season Plymouth Whalers 61 21 46 67 4 28
Name: Tyler Seguin
Number: 9
Pos.: C
Shoots: R
Height: 6.01
Weight: 186
Birthdate: 1992-01-31
Birthplace:
Hometown: Brampton, ON
Taylor Hall
Season Team GP G A PTS +/- PIM
2009-10 Regular Season Windsor Spitfires 33 26 32 58 25 17
2008-09 Regular Season Windsor Spitfires 63 38 52 90 29 60
Name: Taylor Hall
Number: 4
Pos.: LW
Shoots: L
Height: 6.01
Weight: 185
Birthdate: 1991-11-14
Birthplace:
Hometown: Kingston, ON
Either one is just fine
Either one is just fine. They are both potential superstars with natural scoring ability, speed, respectable size, and the ability to finish one on one. We will take either one right now. Let’s lock in last place this year. I am happy at this point to watch the team start rebuilding. For the Mo haters, they should be happy he is coaching because if he is truly the source of the losing ways, he is helping the team grab the prize of Hall or Sequin (and I’d add Kavanov to the group). The last thing in the world the Hurricanes need is a too little, too late race to 9th or 10th place.
Kabanov not Kavanov
Sorry for the typo. Missed it before hitting return….
For the record
I do not HATE Mo…I just hate his coaching philosopy and the results it brings over the long term. Mo seems like a good guy, lots of personality…just has not proven to be a great NHL Coach thats all. Since he has coached in over 900 NHL games I just feel he is a known quantity he has shown his limitations over and over again.
That’s super. I want to write in a question now….Hmmm.
Hurricanes Hockey:
Never for the faint of heart.
Nor for the weak of stomach.
by hockeymomof2 on Dec 11, 2009 1:29 PM EST up reply actions
Maurice as Coach -- the Long View
Maurice is at a career crossroads. If Maurice brings this team around and makes some deep runs into the playoffs and then within the next four years win a Stanley Cup, he will have earned the right to be considered an excellent NHL head coach. On the other hand, if the team flounders next season, I doubt he will be with the Hurricanes for the third year of the contract. It is hard to imagine that if Maurice gets fired by the Hurricanes that he will ever coach again in the NHL. He has plenty of incentive to prove himself.
I like Maurice II (the Maurice since his return) far better than Maurice I. I think Maurice has to demonstrate that he can motivate the team and can help nurture young players. He has some decent excuses this year for the team’s underachieving ways; but he has no excuse next year.
Normally you and I are in the same ballpark, but I gotta disagree with you here. I see very little difference between Maurice I and Maurice II. The hallmarks of Maurice I were offensive anemia, under performing power play, riding the number 1 goalie too hard for too long, an inability/unwillingness to play aggressively with as little as a one goal lead. Couple that with locker room issues, and you have Mo version 1 in a nutshell. You can draw parallels to every one of those in Mo version 2.0.
I also don’t think he has a good excuse regarding this years team. Every pre-season ranking I saw had us in the middle of the playoff picture, EVERY one of them. While injuries can be pointed at, we started right out of the gate looking like crap. How is it every pundit and hockey mind can agree that the players on this squad are collectively playoff calibre and yet here we are 30th in the league by a considerable margin. This year is even worse than season from Hell. And we have TONS more talent than we had that year. Mo the sequel is not just bad, it is a disaster.
Final thought A, I really don;t want you to get to pumped for next year. Next year is going to be about rebuilding. I really expect us to look and play a lot like this years leafs, or last years Isles.
I hope you are right...I am having a hard time seeing any of the change you see?
He took a team that Laviolette had been coaching for three years, got a little boost from the coaching change, got further boost from late season addition of Cole and the emergence of Jussi to the Conf finals. The way I see that is: a team that was a Contender already but lacked confidence and a top 6 forward to replace Williams, so he comes in gets argubly 2 top six forwards instills a little confidence, Cam gets Red Hot the team gains confidence from that and the rest as they say is history.
Now with more time to “Coach” his style we see the results. The Scenario you propose is true of any coach…trick is saying it is one thing doing it is another. I see no reason to believe Mo is going to Coach this team or any other to a Stanley Cup. If someone ask me which Coach of the two would be more likely to Coach his team to a Stanley Cup Mo or Laviolette I would take Laviolette every single time, what about you? I am a Hurricanes fan and always will be but I can be honest about that can you? I am also a FSTH thanks to Laviolette before that amazing season, I attended anywhere from 5 to 20 games a year and watched a few on TV. now I am A FSTH and watch nearly every away game that is available thanks to DVR. I had a 10 game ST in 05/06 season yet I attended over 30 reg. season games and every single home game of the playoffs.
Mo is making me question the wisdom of keeping FST, I mean I could go back to a mini pack, not what I want but if this kind of hockey continues next year…and Mo stays I will be back to a mini pack guaranteed! If Lavi had been replaced with a different coach I would be much more tolerent, that may seem harsh or strange but simply put I have seen and lived the Maurice experience once already so patience is really thin
I understand Rutherford is Maurice’s friend but he can give him a job without it being the Coach!
Reply doesnt work here at work, so this is a little outta place, but in regards to some of the draft talk above, I sure do hope we dont end up with Kabanov. Lord knows if he aint quite ready and has to go to the “A” for a little bit, he’ll probably cry and run back to Russia. It amazes me how those guys choose be the best player in an inferior league rather than toughing it out in a more prestigious league.
Laviolette v. Maurice
I too am a FSTH and have been for some time. The worst of the worst for me was seeing the Hurricanes flounder in 2006-2007. I had friends who stopped coming to the Hurricanes games because the team seemed to have zero heart. I saw during that season little of the “whatever it takes” attitude than made 2005-2006 magical. I heard rumors that the team just stopped listening to Laviolette and that he was playing favorites with the guys that lead the Stanley Cup run. Whatever it was, it was boring, awful hockey that season. During 2007-2008, the same kind of funk hit the team and I desperately wanted Laviolette fired. Maurice was nowhere on the radar in my brain.
My reaction when Maurice was named was incredible skepticism. He wasn’t my last personal choice, but he was close to the bottom. I thought he did a great job last year for whatever reason. This season has been awful, and if I were given a polygraph I would say in my heart of hearts I still have reservations, deep reservations about Maurice. Still, in fairness, he took on a difficult task last year and the team played extremely well. If he is going to get significant blame for the flop this season, he is entitled to be given credit for the team’s improved performance last yuear. From my perspective, he has earned the right to prove he can lead the Hurricanes as its head coach. I wish him well for all our sakes.
His task last year was easy compared to what Lavi faced from the start of last Season
He opened the season with Williams injured again, a team that knew that the Owner and GM wanted him out and had made that obvious to everyone by waiting 2 months to say a word about whether Lavi would be retained…the whole time allowing speculation to run rampant. There were other injuries as well but the biggest problem with Lavi last season and the previous year or so was lack of support from Management…they simply did not seem to like each other which simply will not work!
Maurice came in to a Great situation, GM that openly LOVED him and would do anything needed to help him succeed..that gets players attention which in turn gets results…GM then went out and proved that he was committed to winning by acquiring real talent…first time that had been done in a significant way since Cup season when Recci and Waite were brought in as help.
oh yea and as a Brindy fan this is hard to say but...
He also had a Captain coming off two injuries that still thought he was a first line Center and expected to play minutes like one!
Yeah but
Yeah but you didn’t mention that they gave Lavi a generous multi-year contract. They learned to dislike Lavi because of his epic failures the next two full seasons after That Year.
I’m not Mo-phobic like maybe 98% of the folks on here so I’m not going to waste 30 secs. typing anything in his defense. But I think you framed the question perfectly a couple comments upstream where you ask who would most likely lead a team to the Promised Land. Mo, Lavi, or someone else? Sad to say I would rank Mo third.
They should hire someone else (Nolan, Stevens) then rotate them every couple years with Mo and Lavi, since hockey players seem to ‘tune-out’ coaches so often.
by drifterscape on Dec 11, 2009 12:13 PM EST up reply actions
I was so happy when Maurice I was fired; and was frankly even happier when Laviolette was fired. I am bending over backwards in my own mind to give Paul Maurice II the benefit of the doubt. I fear you are right; and there is a large part of my brain that is saying it is painfully and obviously true. On the other hand, I am hoping that Maurice used the time away from the Hurricanes to improve and grow as a coach. As much hockey knowledge as he has and as much as he wants to be a great coach, it just can’t be beyond his ability to learn how to motivate his players and how to assess the strengths and weaknesses of any hockey system. If this year is indicative of the best Maurice II can do with the Hurricanes, he needs to have a shortened stint with the Hurricanes. If I were GM, I’d give him more time; but I would do so with my eyes wide open that I needed a Plan B.
I confess I am optimistic about next year. It is true that if the new players are not ready for the NHL, we will look like the Leafs and the Isles. I am hoping next year’s team is more like Chicago — where their talent overcame issues of youth exuberance. Here are my lines for next year — assuming of course Taylor Hall (or somebody equivalent is picked) and that there is a major trade for a scoring power forward. It’s for illustrative purposes only.
As long as the team next year has young, talented players who make mistakes due to inexperience and not lack of grit and heart, I am fine with whatever happens.
I made some assumptions and some painful decisions about who I would keep and who I would trade. Here are my proposed lines (if I were Supreme Commander of the Universe)
ASSUMING ONLY A TOP THREE DRAFT PICK
Zach Boychuk Eric Staal Taylor Hall
Jussi Jokinen Matt Cullen Tuomo Ruutu
Jiri Tlusty Brandon Sutter Eric Cole
Taylor Pyatt Jerome Samson Tom Kostopoulos
ASSUMING A TOP THREE DRAFT PICK AND A MAJOR TRADE FOR A BIG, FAST, SCORING POWER FORWARD
Nathan Horton Eric Staal Taylor Hall
Jussi Jokinen Brandon Sutter Tuomo Ruutu
Zach Boychuk Jiri Tlusty Eric Cole
Taylor Pyatt Jerome Samson Tom Kostopoulos
Talk about baffling....Lavi haters are EXTREMELY hard to understand
I mean do they not like Winning, exciting, agressive Hockey?
Just ask yourself a few questions concerning the team in the 2 years post Cup
What if PK and JR had of used the same budget they used this year rather than 5 or 6 mil below cap?
what if Cullen had been re-signed?
What if Williams injury in 06 had been handled by trading for a real top 6 forward not Anson (healthy scratch) Carter
What if in 07/08 the re-injury of Williams, injuries to Whitney, Walker, Cullen had been handled by actually acquiring top nine forwards rather than a revolving door from an undermaned Albany? At times Lavi was putting a competitive team on the Ice with 6 AHL players
Then what if JR had actually supported Laviolette rather than undermining him? How much confidence do players have in a Coach when they know that Management want them gone ASAP?
Sorry just think a Coach who has been as successful and Laviolette deserves a little respect…he has over a 50% win percentage which in the NHL is excellent. Maurice on the other hand is around 40% no Championships of any kind that I am aware of?
You are probably right about Laviolette. Lavi will get a great chance in Philly to silence his detractors, including me. I can’t articulate well my reasons for being glad Laviolette was fired (although I really hoped he would coach again in the NHL); but I heard too many different stories about a dysfunctional locker room under Laviolette to discount all the stories. The last straw was when the Albany Rats were benched at the end of the season and veterans who clearly were not ready to play were brought in. You make great points. I readily concede Lavi has a magnificent record and wish him well.
Difference in our opinions really about where the disfunction started
I see now that our opinions are different in that I firmly believe from what I have heard that the disfunction came from the relationship between Coach and management and ownership…I had been hearing that for a couple of years. That JR and Lavi did not agree on Players needed and personel decissions. I honestly was still a little reluctant to believe that until JR did during spring/summer of 08 and then the final revalation for me was when Karmonos came to town last spring and really disparaged the Cup Championship with his negative comments obviously due to is dislike of Laviolette, that sealed it for me personally.
Is Somethinfg's Up?
Although I wish it were not due to injuries; but I am glad for the opportunity to see Dwyer and Tlusty. I know LaRose has been battling injuries. Odd that Cole, too, is unable to play. I wonder if something is up re: trades.
While anything is possible, they are putting both Cole and LaRose on the IR. Are you allowed to trade someone who’s on the IR?
I remember him having a shoulder injury, but not sure if he was on IR at the time or not.
Live & Learn
I’m having a hard time finding anything from Ottawa about his status at the time of the trade. But based on the moves we made right after he was acquired, I’m thinking he was off the IR when he got here.
February 14, 2008 Placed defenseman Dennis Seidenberg, center Matt Cullen and right wing Patrick Eaves on injured reserve; recalled defensemen Casey Borer, Tim Conboy and Joey Mormina from Albany of the American Hockey League.
February 11, 2008 Acquired defenseman Joe Corvo and right wing Patrick Eaves from the Ottawa Senators for defenseman Mike Commodore and left wing Cory Stillman.
Justin was in the trade with E.Cole and P.O’Sullivan. Gleason was J.Johnson.
by drifterscape on Dec 11, 2009 8:41 PM EST up reply actions
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