Av-merican wrote:
Unfortunately, it's at times like this you need a coach willing to roll the dice. Therrien is simply too conservative. You're not gonna get anything out of Thomas Vanek if you keep limiting his minutes. At least put him out there in the role he was meant to play, and if he fails, he fails. Nothing to lose at this point.
You know, I've liked pretty much every move Therrien has made this playoffs aside from the 'one final Murray experiment' one. I don't think a guy who regularly benches a playoff vet like Travis Moen can be deemed too conservative, or a guy that starts a rookie like Tokarski over the veteran former NHL starter Budaj, or dresses a rookie like Beaulieu for his first playoff action in an elimination game. Heck, the Habs played 5 minutes without a goalie down two goals!
I actually like this version of Therrien. He's taking risks, but generally ones that have high payoffs. Vanek is a bit of a different beast right now. I wish he'd play LW again so he'd at least be in better shooting position because his puck carrying is really damn hard to follow.
I don't think you can pin Vanek's play to Therrien or his ice time at all. He's freestyling out there and no one has even remotely come close to figuring him out yet.
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