nickstrument @nickstrument - Twitter Profile

@davidalter Its not that Leafs fans don’t like his season, its the kind of person he is that makes him easy to dislike. Fantastic player, terrible to his former team

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Chris McCluskey

@mcclusk

6 days ago

Thoughts on Jim Hiller… Bruce Cassidy has Stanley Cup pedigree. Joe Pavelski is a beloved, recently retired player with parallels to Martin St. Louis. David Carle is an up-and-coming, next gen coach who has been dominating the college ranks. Patrick Roy’s an experienced hall of famer with a larger than life personality. People found some reason to get excited about every candidate that emerged - albeit, entirely different reasons for each candidate. The feel-good narrative behind Jim Hiller doesn’t come as naturally. No low hanging fruit. That being said, most of the basis hype around a lot of the other candidates was largely superficial and irrelevant to their chance at success. I’ve never seen so much advocacy for multiple coaching candidates who don’t have a single game behind an NHL bench under their belt. The first thing that jumps out with Jim Hiller is that he’s been here before. In Toronto, that is. He knows Toronto’s best players. And they know him. Safe to assume these relationships worked in Hiller’s favour. Second is his experience. He’s been coaching ever since he stopped playing - well over 20 years, more than half of that in the NHL. Third, he’s not married to a system or style of play. He said as much in his presser. He plans to be versatile and calibrate to the team’s strengths. He plans to experiment. Right out of the gate, he’s alleviated concerns about square pegs and round holes. I haven’t followed Hiller closely in LA or anywhere else. I’ve got a lot of reading, watching, and all-around catching up to do. As it stands, I can’t tell you Hiller’s the guy. I can’t tell you he was the best available choice. I can’t tell you he wasn’t, either. I can only tell you that I’m very intrigued to see him emerge as the successful candidate from a deep pool of talent - Chayka & Sundin had some excellent options - and also that it seems he’s brought in with support from Matthews & Nylander, who know him well. Omission of Rielly is deliberate - not sure where he stands in the org at the moment. Don’t knock the hire just because you don’t understand it or because it seems easier to knock than to support, simply because he’s not the sexy hire. I’ve seen quite a few negative, impulse reactions. Toronto’s chased the sexy hire for years. It feels like this time, they’re serious about vetting for wife material. This much, I support. More to come.

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Sportsnet Stats @SNstats

7 days ago

LA Kings in 175 games under Jim Hiller: Goals Against/Game - 2.60 (1st in NHL) 5v5 Goals Against - 273 (1st in NHL) 5v5 Goals For% - 55.39 (3rd in NHL)

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