So he was tuning him out and not even listening to the staff? Lol. Let’s not forget how much more competitive the Ducks were last year despite a similar record to the previous season. Clearly the room needed a huge shift because there wasn’t any growth in the Eakins era.
Also, yeah, I’m sure it’s a magical feeling and rush to go from a basement team to a Cup contender. I really think he’s misattributing why he was unhappy there. It must be hard to have a coach coaching how to be a good team and win games only to go out there and pump out Ls.
Quirkeyturrtle
Ouch
AndiagoSupremo
IMO Cronin doing 5 minutes of drills then over to the boards for everyone watch him draw on the whiteboard for 5 minutes even at the end of the season is just bizarre. These players are so good they need to keep sharp on timing not yet another new drill.
Some of the peewee level drills they do in the summer are a complete waste of time (protecting the puck with your body is huge with Cronin, but we all learned this as 12 year olds). If someone is lacking they can get individual attention, but for the entire squad is a waste of time.
It has to be tough to have someone trying to hold others accountable but not being able to do his own job well enough. Especially with NHL dollars hanging in the balance.
dracomaster01
Oh this is an awful look into the dressing room and looks terrible for cronin. Ya’ll remember when O’Reilly went to buffalo and lost all interest in playing hockey? We’re almost at that point.
Dis-Ducks-Fan-1130
To be honest, this feels like a job I used to have. Manager was new and didn’t know what they were doing and thought they had all the right answers. Ran the team with an iron fist to “gain authority”. Realized they were doing it wrong and wouldn’t admit it and people left. Then I left.
OMGIts_Renegade
I mean, I think the actual take away is that they listened to what wasn’t working and then changed it.
Never mind the fact that what one player dislikes, another may gel with.
Cronin was learning last year just as much as he was teaching new systems. His seat is hot, as it should be for any team in the bottom 3. But it’s not because Boosh didn’t like his approach.
Luscious_Luke
Fire cronin
2minsFeelSHAME
Ridiculous. We’re going to burn out our young stars. Coach should be gone. Short lease for the GM.
BFever
lol at demanding a playoff spot this season.
cronin isn’t here for playoff success he’s here to establish a strong compete ethic in the youth to prepare them to be successful like Verbeek was. these are the lose games and do a lot of studying/homework years that lay the foundation for the new era of hopefully ducks success. so this sounds on point
Cryoflyte
I for one am shocked, *shocked*, to hear this about the guy who gave multiple press conferences throwing his team under the bus while essentially admitting he didn’t know how to coach them.
Though I am *actually* shocked that he apparently took two months to understand the purpose of warmups.
Edit: I’ve been trying to find one of the press conferences in question, but it turns out trying to track down specific postgame comments several months after the fact is harder than I hoped. It was discussed extensively enough elsewhere that I guess I just misremembered it coming up here also? But, since I can’t find the original source, I’ll leave this here and take my downvotes fairly.
BroLil
I want to preface this by saying I was kinda skeptical of the Cronin hire, but open to the possibility that he could blossom in to a great coach. These comments didn’t sway me one way or another.
The important thing to note is that it’s his first year. Yes, he was a long time AHL coach, but it’s a much different approach when you’re playing every other night in the NHL compared to the weekend series in the AHL. What I took from the warm up thing is that he wanted to try it his way, and eventually said hey, this isn’t working, let’s try it your way. A lot of people in positions of power call it my way or the highway. It takes a true leader to listen to criticism and observation and eventually adapt to it.
Regarding how tough he is, I mean, for one, he’s a Verbeek hire, so of course he is. You thought the little ball of hate was going to hire a little ball of teddy bears?
There’s a reason guys like Torts are still around, and even when Torts is coaching a losing season, he’s always in the Jack Adams conversation. A few years back, the league had a run on “players coaches”, and you’re starting to see that pendulum swing back the other way. There’s definitely a balancing act of being tough and demanding but not too tough that you lose the respect of the room, but you look at guys like Torts and Roy and see that the approach they take still works. Anyone that plays with them may have some things to say about him at the time, but a few years down the line will always reflect and say “yea, I get it now.” Sounds like that happened a lot with Cronin in Springfield too.
All that to say this. He’s learning, he’s growing, he’s adapting. We tried the nice guy approach with Eakins, look where that got us. Now we’re trying a tough guy approach. Unless we have live 5 wins going in to the new year, he’s lasting the season, and unless we don’t improve at all this season, he’s gonna start next year too.
This rebuild is taking a very long time, I get that, but you’ve gotta consider that this is kind of our second rebuild. The first “retool” went so poorly that it set us back years in a full on rebuild. Now it’s just going to take time. I’m hopeful that we will see improvement over the next few seasons, and I’m hopeful that the next CBA will make it a bit easier to sign free agents in California.
backhand_sauce
If you’re winning you love the tough persona, if you’re losing it blows
One of the most famous coaches if all time, bill belichick, is a notorious hard coach to play for. His teams won tho so players wanted to play for him
Tough coaches wear out their welcome fast tho if getting beaten doesn’t get results
Sharp_Eagle9236
Overall, I think this sounds more like a Lyubushkin problem than a Cronin problem. He didn’t like Cronin’s approach, but did he make an active effort to adjust to it? Did he ever sit down with Cronin and try to understand better? We don’t know, but to me it sounds like he didn’t immediately understand how Cronin’s lectures/speeches would relate to his personal on-ice performance and didn’t bother to learn or change his mentality, especially when he likely knew he would be traded at the deadline. Not to say this all falls on him or the players, but I think its a bit of an unfair criticism of Cronin. I mean, he even says Cronin made an adjustment. A head coach needs to understand his players mentalities and learning styles, and that takes a while. A brand new coach who has never been around the franchise is not going to figure it all out in his first season, and at the same time he comes in with a baseline approach that he’s not going to back down from entirely just because some players don’t immediately run with it.
The Ducks improved last season. I don’t believe Cronin is *necessarily* on the hot seat. I think making big changes to the system every other year would absolutely hinder the development of young players. You need some sort of consistency. If the Ducks are somehow not improved or worse this season, then we can absolutely figure that Cronin’s system just isn’t working, but for now I think we need to give it time and players also need to do their best to adapt.
_5GOLDBLOODED2_
It would be really telling if something else like this came out from somebody who has left the team. A strong locker room goes a long way in winning franchises. Teams are built from the inside out.
This looks extremely bad but it’s only one guys opinion.
DBacon1052
This is exactly the type of mindset you want to weed out of a locker room tbh. He said when he went to the leafs it was much better, but the Leafs have won exactly 1 playoff round in the past 8 years of playoff appearances. They lost to the Blue Jackets in the Covid Qualifier ffs. The Leafs should be damn near cup favorites, but their team lacks any ickling mental toughness.
Luscious_Luke
A lot of copium in this thread about how its the players fault. You guys dont get it, this is the only player speaking, but a lot of guys, especially north american guys and younger guys do not give honest interviews
ShowYourHands
Na, Bush was actually one of our better defenders but he knew he was going to be shipped off. Going from the Ducks to the Leafs is also a huge perspective change.
Nothing to see here.
RiteORZ
Like others have said, you can’t expect current players to be this transparent with their feelings towards the staff. Especially if they’re negative. But the only other times I’ve heard players talk about his coaching style was Killorn and Vatrano. Both have mentioned his tough coaching style and his accountability. Vatrano specifically said that he would regularly call out players during these meetings.
To me it sounds like Lyubushkin didn’t jive with Cronin’s style. But the bigger question is how many others also feel even somewhat similar to how Lyubushkin felt. Saying that he was losing his desire to play hockey at all is a huge thing for a player to say. If Cronin looses the locker room then he’ll be gone at the end of the year for sure. Which just starts the cycle of rebuilding the culture all over again.
That being said, winning can fix a lot of issues. If the team starts seeing positive results then their attitude will become better along with that. Obviously, the Ducks are not a playoff team this year. But if they end up with 70-75 points this year, I think that the outlook on the team and Cronin will improve.
kookforaday
Hmm young coaches need to grow just like young players is what I’m hearing. Interesting tidbit.
spacegrab
It would be so funny if the Ducks knocked out the Leafs. Obvious longshot but hey, it could happen.
21 Comments
Pretty damning on Cronin
« listening to random stories »
« random »
So he was tuning him out and not even listening to the staff? Lol. Let’s not forget how much more competitive the Ducks were last year despite a similar record to the previous season. Clearly the room needed a huge shift because there wasn’t any growth in the Eakins era.
Also, yeah, I’m sure it’s a magical feeling and rush to go from a basement team to a Cup contender. I really think he’s misattributing why he was unhappy there. It must be hard to have a coach coaching how to be a good team and win games only to go out there and pump out Ls.
Ouch
IMO Cronin doing 5 minutes of drills then over to the boards for everyone watch him draw on the whiteboard for 5 minutes even at the end of the season is just bizarre. These players are so good they need to keep sharp on timing not yet another new drill.
Some of the peewee level drills they do in the summer are a complete waste of time (protecting the puck with your body is huge with Cronin, but we all learned this as 12 year olds). If someone is lacking they can get individual attention, but for the entire squad is a waste of time.
It has to be tough to have someone trying to hold others accountable but not being able to do his own job well enough. Especially with NHL dollars hanging in the balance.
Oh this is an awful look into the dressing room and looks terrible for cronin. Ya’ll remember when O’Reilly went to buffalo and lost all interest in playing hockey? We’re almost at that point.
To be honest, this feels like a job I used to have. Manager was new and didn’t know what they were doing and thought they had all the right answers. Ran the team with an iron fist to “gain authority”. Realized they were doing it wrong and wouldn’t admit it and people left. Then I left.
I mean, I think the actual take away is that they listened to what wasn’t working and then changed it.
Never mind the fact that what one player dislikes, another may gel with.
Cronin was learning last year just as much as he was teaching new systems. His seat is hot, as it should be for any team in the bottom 3. But it’s not because Boosh didn’t like his approach.
Fire cronin
Ridiculous. We’re going to burn out our young stars. Coach should be gone. Short lease for the GM.
lol at demanding a playoff spot this season.
cronin isn’t here for playoff success he’s here to establish a strong compete ethic in the youth to prepare them to be successful like Verbeek was. these are the lose games and do a lot of studying/homework years that lay the foundation for the new era of hopefully ducks success. so this sounds on point
I for one am shocked, *shocked*, to hear this about the guy who gave multiple press conferences throwing his team under the bus while essentially admitting he didn’t know how to coach them.
Though I am *actually* shocked that he apparently took two months to understand the purpose of warmups.
Edit: I’ve been trying to find one of the press conferences in question, but it turns out trying to track down specific postgame comments several months after the fact is harder than I hoped. It was discussed extensively enough elsewhere that I guess I just misremembered it coming up here also? But, since I can’t find the original source, I’ll leave this here and take my downvotes fairly.
I want to preface this by saying I was kinda skeptical of the Cronin hire, but open to the possibility that he could blossom in to a great coach. These comments didn’t sway me one way or another.
The important thing to note is that it’s his first year. Yes, he was a long time AHL coach, but it’s a much different approach when you’re playing every other night in the NHL compared to the weekend series in the AHL. What I took from the warm up thing is that he wanted to try it his way, and eventually said hey, this isn’t working, let’s try it your way. A lot of people in positions of power call it my way or the highway. It takes a true leader to listen to criticism and observation and eventually adapt to it.
Regarding how tough he is, I mean, for one, he’s a Verbeek hire, so of course he is. You thought the little ball of hate was going to hire a little ball of teddy bears?
There’s a reason guys like Torts are still around, and even when Torts is coaching a losing season, he’s always in the Jack Adams conversation. A few years back, the league had a run on “players coaches”, and you’re starting to see that pendulum swing back the other way. There’s definitely a balancing act of being tough and demanding but not too tough that you lose the respect of the room, but you look at guys like Torts and Roy and see that the approach they take still works. Anyone that plays with them may have some things to say about him at the time, but a few years down the line will always reflect and say “yea, I get it now.” Sounds like that happened a lot with Cronin in Springfield too.
All that to say this. He’s learning, he’s growing, he’s adapting. We tried the nice guy approach with Eakins, look where that got us. Now we’re trying a tough guy approach. Unless we have live 5 wins going in to the new year, he’s lasting the season, and unless we don’t improve at all this season, he’s gonna start next year too.
This rebuild is taking a very long time, I get that, but you’ve gotta consider that this is kind of our second rebuild. The first “retool” went so poorly that it set us back years in a full on rebuild. Now it’s just going to take time. I’m hopeful that we will see improvement over the next few seasons, and I’m hopeful that the next CBA will make it a bit easier to sign free agents in California.
If you’re winning you love the tough persona, if you’re losing it blows
One of the most famous coaches if all time, bill belichick, is a notorious hard coach to play for. His teams won tho so players wanted to play for him
Tough coaches wear out their welcome fast tho if getting beaten doesn’t get results
Overall, I think this sounds more like a Lyubushkin problem than a Cronin problem. He didn’t like Cronin’s approach, but did he make an active effort to adjust to it? Did he ever sit down with Cronin and try to understand better? We don’t know, but to me it sounds like he didn’t immediately understand how Cronin’s lectures/speeches would relate to his personal on-ice performance and didn’t bother to learn or change his mentality, especially when he likely knew he would be traded at the deadline. Not to say this all falls on him or the players, but I think its a bit of an unfair criticism of Cronin. I mean, he even says Cronin made an adjustment. A head coach needs to understand his players mentalities and learning styles, and that takes a while. A brand new coach who has never been around the franchise is not going to figure it all out in his first season, and at the same time he comes in with a baseline approach that he’s not going to back down from entirely just because some players don’t immediately run with it.
The Ducks improved last season. I don’t believe Cronin is *necessarily* on the hot seat. I think making big changes to the system every other year would absolutely hinder the development of young players. You need some sort of consistency. If the Ducks are somehow not improved or worse this season, then we can absolutely figure that Cronin’s system just isn’t working, but for now I think we need to give it time and players also need to do their best to adapt.
It would be really telling if something else like this came out from somebody who has left the team. A strong locker room goes a long way in winning franchises. Teams are built from the inside out.
This looks extremely bad but it’s only one guys opinion.
This is exactly the type of mindset you want to weed out of a locker room tbh. He said when he went to the leafs it was much better, but the Leafs have won exactly 1 playoff round in the past 8 years of playoff appearances. They lost to the Blue Jackets in the Covid Qualifier ffs. The Leafs should be damn near cup favorites, but their team lacks any ickling mental toughness.
A lot of copium in this thread about how its the players fault. You guys dont get it, this is the only player speaking, but a lot of guys, especially north american guys and younger guys do not give honest interviews
Na, Bush was actually one of our better defenders but he knew he was going to be shipped off. Going from the Ducks to the Leafs is also a huge perspective change.
Nothing to see here.
Like others have said, you can’t expect current players to be this transparent with their feelings towards the staff. Especially if they’re negative. But the only other times I’ve heard players talk about his coaching style was Killorn and Vatrano. Both have mentioned his tough coaching style and his accountability. Vatrano specifically said that he would regularly call out players during these meetings.
To me it sounds like Lyubushkin didn’t jive with Cronin’s style. But the bigger question is how many others also feel even somewhat similar to how Lyubushkin felt. Saying that he was losing his desire to play hockey at all is a huge thing for a player to say. If Cronin looses the locker room then he’ll be gone at the end of the year for sure. Which just starts the cycle of rebuilding the culture all over again.
That being said, winning can fix a lot of issues. If the team starts seeing positive results then their attitude will become better along with that. Obviously, the Ducks are not a playoff team this year. But if they end up with 70-75 points this year, I think that the outlook on the team and Cronin will improve.
Hmm young coaches need to grow just like young players is what I’m hearing. Interesting tidbit.
It would be so funny if the Ducks knocked out the Leafs. Obvious longshot but hey, it could happen.