[Staple] The Athletic can confirm a report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman that Gallant and GM Chris Drury got heated after the Game 4 loss to the Devils, fueling speculation that a first-round exit might bring a change behind the bench.
by Mfed23
25 Comments
I mean if thats the case then it sounds like Drury has already had some issues with him. My speculation is that he can see the obvious: Gallant hasnt been getting the most out of this talented roster. Some of the kids have stagnated. The adjustments come too slow or not at all.
I too wanted to scream after game 4
Side note: hasn’t gallant had a track record with Florida and Vegas of getting in disagreements with management?
do we think drury wants the kids to develop?
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if he does, why does he keep bringing in talent that will be above them in the depth chart?
Just a reminder, game 4 is when Gallant sent out Barclay Goodrow as an extra attacker.
Gallant is incapable of change, and needs to be removed.
It pisses me the fuck off THERE IS APPARENTLY ONLY 40 CAPABLE NHL COACHES.
Such utter bullshit.
I am so insanely sick of the old boys club of professional sports.
It can be really hard to know exactly what the influence of a coach is. But one thing I feel like we did see during the series which worries me for the future seems to be GG’s inability to adapt mid-series. The blame is not entirely on him, don’t think he can do much about bread’s shitty ass plays on the ice, but in order to win a cup you gotta be able to adapt your team’s game plan for each round. Lindy seemed to have managed to do that, coming back from 2 big defeats in the two first games. We on the other hand got shutout by an AHL goalie. I’m not gonna start screaming “fire gallant”, but I do wonder if he has the resilience to be able to win us a cup. Drury built us a dream team for the playoffs while giving away very little of our future, I can understand he’s a bit pissed with the outcome.
This seems to track for Gallant. A good first year, a decline in the second year, and he starts butting heads with management.
Game 3 was the turning point just like it was against TB last season. We had great momentum in 3rd period and OT but instead of pressing to win the game, we played not to lose. Devils went all out knowing that it was do or die for them (if they lose game 3, they are toast) and made a last second push to win in OT. Basically, the team got complacent again and let the other team beat them.
Look at how Rod’s injury decimated team is performing without some key players. That shows what a good coach and system can do. Same goes for Seattle. When you get outcoached by Lindy Ruff, then you know there’s a problem.
Good, only positive thing that might come from this choke job
Drury needs to be a man and own up to bringing in an injured liability patrick. He took the Sather bait but watch him scape goat Gallant as per corporate politics. Without Gallant this team will revert to striving to reach wildcard spots
If I am to rank who is to blame for this mess Gallant isn’t the top. It starts with Chris Drury and the disaster of the Buchnevich trade and the fact he’s had to trade 3 first round picks and a slew of other picks for temporary band aids for that horrible deal in trading the guy 2 years too early.
Then you have the whole “Get Tough” narrative which greatly disturbed the make up of this team.
Then you had the “wow, all these tough guys” shocked Pikachu reaction after the season and we turned right back into a finesse team.
Then you had the kid line which honestly SHOULD likely be a scoring line on most other NHL rosters being stuck into a 3rd line that’s usually reserved for grinding out the opponents top line because half the top 6 can’t play that style and others like Mika are too valuable to be in that role
Then you use assets on Tarasenko yet then go and get Kane anyway when anyone with half a brain could tell you how it would all go and what we saw occur was exactly how it was going to end up. The only reason we got to 7 games is Kreider and Tarasenko got half our goals and the Devils in my honest opinion didn’t even play very well, espeically in the first 120 minutes of the series (duh).
And JD/Gorton are not blameless going after shiny toys like Panarin and Trouba and costing this team nearly $20M on just 2 players when our kids SHOULD have been givent he runway to play more minutes early on. And their scouting for European forwards SUCKED overall
In short, Gallant was set up to fail. The guy has a collection of parts with ZERO cohesion. This isn’t a team. It’s a bunch of players.
With all that said, Gallant also isn’t good enough to adjust to all this. He had no plan. He had no way to adjust to small changes by Ruff. It would seemingly take up to 2 weeks for the Rangers to make adjustments aside from that 25 game stretch of awesomeness in the winter (which got all screwed up thanks to Kane).
The issue for Gallant is this is our core. Flawed as it is, this is what we have. We can’t gut the roster.
So who is gonna take the blame? It should be Drury but hes likely teflon. So then who is next?
If I was Drury I would also get fucking heated after the way the team played in game 4.
Gallant took no accountability for getting his team ready to play. He blamed his players.
What exactly is Gallants defense to game 4? “It’s not my fault I can’t motivate my players”? Literally your only fucking job.
The ugliest look of this is that the team somehow came out worse in Game 5.
Yeah I mean if I was Drury I’d be pissed as shit after game 4
Rightfully so, I think all of us wanted to scream. Drury went out and got a 1st line & 2nd line right wingers. Built one of the most talented teams ever and guys like Gallant blew it. Thanks for throwing Barclay Goodrow out as an extra attacker at the end of game tho!
I think its time. Its not just this playoff series, all season this team showed the same issues, especially with taking periods off at an infuriating pace. They had a good season, but man it felt like such a grind
I am starting to think not only is GG a hothead, but so is Chris.
I know a lot of people are mad at panarin but at least he owned it. sounds genuine in his frustration, i just want him to do better.
I wonder how Drury felt after shutouts in games 5 & 7, and why there was no taxi called for GG in Newark
When a lump of coal is put under immense pressure it either crumbles to dust or becomes a diamond. This roster, this coaching staff, this core mostly crumbled under the pressure. It’s impossible to have a massive roster turnover this summer, so we have to find a coach who can turn this coal into diamond. I love GG, I loved the hire, I love what he managed to do with our 2022 roster to the ECF fresh off a rebuild, but this roster was built to not have holes and to make a deep run. 7 games is not a deep run
In Trouba’s exit interview yesterday they asked him what Gallant means to the player’s and his anwer didn’t seem all that great for Gallant. I know player’s don’t say much in these interviews, but his lack of answer to this question caught me off guard.
https://youtu.be/MX_X3hBuQpE
It is right at the 6:00 minute mark.
I don’t get Gallant getting so much shtick in here. Drury gave him a roster full of flaws. The players played scared. Those aren’t his fault.
All I fault him for is waiting till game 6 to take Kane off the PP. prob cost us the series
Best to just get Gallant out now so there’s no carryover apathy into next year. Set the tone right now.
Fuck it, let’s have Drury GM and coach
I’m a cello player. When I was a kid, I took lessons to get better. As an adult, I still take lessons, and I need outside perspective to get better. I’ve constantly thought about Gallant’s coaching style to my own relation of skill. The fact that Gallant’s main coaching is “The players can figure it out” and “Its not my job to develop” means to me that he is more than useless. I know a sports coach and a music teacher aren’t a one to one thing but that’s the person that’s supposed to give you the system, guidance, and growth. No matter what level you are. Beginner or Advanced. Laf or Panarin. In my eyes it feels like he’s done almost nothing at all