Dean may be a Great Coach & a Great Guy but His Goaltending Approach is Suspect IMO

I will say that from what I hear, John Dean is a great person. I will say from what I see, John Dean is a great coach; just look at how many times the Hounds have finished first in their division or conference since He came to the Soo. The one thing that I do think… (remember this is my personal opinion)… he has NOT done well is how he handles his goalies. There is a lot of confusion as per the fans to some level and certainly amongst the kids in net. 

Over the last 3 years, he doesn’t seem to have a number 1 goalie or a starter. It is always to the effect that he says he will let the kids compete for the number one spot, but it doesn’t get acknowledged. It must be a challenge for a kid to not know where they stand. If you are in London and you are playing well, you play until you start to play like shit (Dale Hunter will run a goalie 12 or 13 games in a row if the kid is playing strong) ….then the other kid gets his chance. I see Charlie Schenkle playing his ass off year after year, and he could even be in the middle of a streak or come off a shutout, and Landon (Miller) or Samuel (Ivanov) will get the nod. I mean, I understand that the coach knows he has to develop the kids and let them play from time to time as the backup, but back in the day, that meant maybe getting a start every 10 games. The Hounds could be playing well, and then for whatever reason the backup (LM) gets put in and we lose the game or fall behind the 8 ball. I like Landon and think he is a good goalie and has great nights, but Charlie is one of the top two or three in the league and should be assumed to start every game to give this young team a chance to get enough points to make the playoffs. We all know that He will most likely be shipped off in late Dec or early January to a contender, so let’s get as many points out of him as we can. 

This year Landon started off poorly and was pulled the other night for giving the Kitchener Rangers their third goal of the game as well as letting in a weak goal earlier. John Dean would never pull a goalie for an honest mistake but will if it the latest and He obviously thought Landon let in a soft one earlier and cough up was the last straw. For whatever reason, he is not concentrating and is distracted. It could be girls, it could be nerves, it could be anything. He is just a young man, and it is normal, but at the end of the day he is playing inconsistent.

Maybe John Dean is too nice of a guy and wants to please everyone, from the kid to his parents, to his agent, etc., but the bottom line is winning. 

On another note, the Hounds in front of him may be partially responsible for Landon’s off and on success this year. The games against Kitchener and London this past week showed how lost the Hounds are. They had no passion or compete and something has to be done. I know they are young, but I don’t see the captain, Caeden Carlisle, standing out during the game and throwing a bruising check to change the flow. I don’t see Owen Allard standing out; he looks like he practices twirling his stick in the faceoff dot more than he puts effort into his shifts at times, & Andrew Gibson of late hasn’t been the Gibson of past with bruising checks and scoring prowess from the blueline. Andrew is taking far too many penalties.

Yes the Hounds are young but should be more consistent. I don’t care if they lose every game but they need to show that they are motivated and want to win…not just stand around and watch and let the clock chime down. 

The power play needs to get better and scoring only against a week pk in Flint is not going to carry this team too far. Anyway, this is how I see it. I love watching the Hounds but lately it has been hard and not entertaining. 

Winding things up, the Hounds lose 5-0 to London on Wednesday, 5-1 to Kitchener on Friday, and win against Flint 6-2 on Saturday.

Go Hounds Go