AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > April > 05 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.US‘07-‘08 Post Mortem Pt. 2 of 3
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Again we find in the morgue, standing over the cold body of the Thrashers ’07-’08 season, scalpel in hand…Rawhide in smock, rubber gloves and mask.
Continuing with our autopsy…Today could get messy, so if you’re the squeamish type, you may wish to stay toward the rear.
Today’s topic of discussion: Coaching. Or better stated, the lack-thereof.
Last October, general manager Don Waddell decided to hit the panic button after the team’s 0-6 start and relieved Bob Hartley of his head coaching duties. At that time I wrote that judgment of the move would be withheld depending on who was brought in as Hartley’s replacement. Now I can make crystal clear what those of you who frequent this blog have probably already come to surmise.
It was the wrong move to make and it was a big part of why we are looking at this carcass now.
Now, I know I am probably of the minority opinion on this, but my reasons are thus…first of all, there were several new faces on the roster and six games into the campaign is not enough time to adequately judge the team, even though the stats were quite ugly. Even Don Waddell himself had indicated that he would wait at least ten games before making an evaluation. He made it 60% of the way there. Coach Hartley was given a smaller, “faster” squad to deal with. As we now know, it was not one that was destined to succeed. Getting outshot on a regular basis, as they were in those first six games, turned out to be the norm…not simply the product of Hartley’s system.
Also, in coach Hartley, the Thrashers had found the one person that can be attributed any measurable success in the team’s history. When he was hired in January of 2003, he inherited a team that had trudged through 3-1/2 season of losing in their initial years. It had started out 8-20-4-1 before letting the team’s initial coach go. Hartley then directed that team to a 20-14-5-1 record to finish the year with 74 points, (20 points better than the previous season). Over the course of the next three seasons the Thrashers elevated their success. First to 78 points in ’03-’04 and then 90 and 97 points in the first two season after the lockout culminating in their one and only appearance in the playoffs.
That, boys and girls, is an example of “incremental progress”.
One would think that this past history of such success would have earned him the opportunity to right the ship. After all, two years ago the team got off to a slow start, (4-9-1), and Hartley then guided that squad to within a Mike Dunham “phone in” from earning a playoff spot. However he is the one and only person who, to date, has been held accountable for this year’s debacle.
One of the knocks against Hartley was that some described him as a “hard [butt]”. True enough. But the fact of the matter, in my humble opinion, is that the one major thing this team sorely lacked over this past season was discipline. Not the type of “discipline” that sees a “coach” throw down is gloves and stick on the practice ice and berate them verbally. That, my friends, is simply losing the governance of one’s passions and venting frustration.
The type of discipline I am referring to, as any parent understands, is the type of action that leads to correcting an attitude and directing the subject of the discipline onto the correct path. One way might be to sit your star forward on the far end of the bench…the seat of shame, if you will…because he was dogging it on a shift or two. Ask Mr. Kovalchuk about that…then take a look at the type of maturity he displayed throughout this season.
That would be an example of “measurable results” from disciplinary actions.
Continuing, I know that by simply implying that maybe…just maybe…the team would have ended up better had Waddell not been trigger happy last fall will cause me to suffer the slings and arrows from those who believed then, and believe now, that it was the right move to make. That is perfectly fine. Reasonable, rational, respectful dissent is always welcome here and agreeing with what I say is not a requirement to participate.
However, I would ask you then… just how was the team better in his absence?
Can you tell me how the team could have finished “laster” in the Goals Against statistic?
Could the team have finished “laster” in the Shots Against stat?
Could it have finished “laster” in the amount of times outshot by an opponent?
Could it have finished “laster” in the Shots on Goal stat?
Could it have finished “laster” in total number of regulation wins?
“Laster” in GF/GA differential?
“Laster” in 5 on 5 Goals Against Ratio?
No Thrashers team coached a full season by Bob Hartley finished last in ANY of the above statistic…much less ALL of them.
“But Rawhide, your wrong because Hartley’s power play sucked”! Oh? What was the power play efficiency last year? 16.5%. What is it now? 16.6%, (going into Saturday’s game). So, was it just Hartley? Obviously not. Moreover, two seasons ago it was 18.9%, which was 7th best in the league. What’s the difference between ’05-‘06 and the two that followed? Oh I don’t know…could one of the reasons be that it was the last year the team had a true #1 center in it’s employ… maybe?
“But Rawhide, the young talent would have been wasted under Hartley’s watch”…Really? Two of the brightest stars that emerged from this mess of a season have been Tobias Enstrom and Bryan Little. In the six games they played under Coach Hartley, Enstrom played right at 20 minutes per game and Little logged more than 15 minutes per game and had accounted for a goal and 2 assists. In fact, when you consider Sterling and Haydar as well, of the nine goals scored in the first six games these young-uns had goals or assists on five of them. So, the rookies were playing and contributing.
Regardless, even if you disagree with me and feel that the firing was the right thing to do and the right time to do it…I’m sure common ground can be found in the fact that the person that pulled the trigger on that move, and then talked ownership into allowing him to remain behind the bench to coach the team toward “success”…that person completely botched the aftermath of the firing.
Like I said…the only way to gauge whether or not a coach firing is successful or not is what happens afterwards. Well, we look down at the warped remains of what happened after…and it’s un-good and ugly.
Butt-ugly.
zipping back up the body bag…wheeling it back into the cooler
Next time, we discuss the person who hit the panic button and his role in the demise of this season.
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Sage of Bluesland
April 5, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this
All things pathetic in the figurative joke otherwise known as “Blueland” lead to one person—and one person alone: Bumbling Donny Waddell.
Wake up and stop subsidizing the incompetence. He has YET to be held accountable for the mess he has created for near a decade now.
If you enable him any further, you’re part of the problem, as opposed to part of the solution.
Think about that.
By Bob
April 5, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
The problem this year was that Waddell just plain didn’t assemble a competitive squad.
However, Hartley had lost the team. It was clear that the players didn’t respect him, and they tanked it early this year to get rid of him. That forced Waddell’s hand to fire him, and they got a nice little standard bump that always happens after a firing, but then the reality of our lack of talent set in.
By R. Stroz
April 5, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
Bring your bullhorns tonight and join in the FIRE WADDELL CHANT.
I’m stoked just thinking about it.
By Bob
April 5, 2008 10:27 AM | Link to this
Bring signs as well, this is our last chance to save our team and let the owners know that Waddell has to go.
By Nix
April 5, 2008 12:02 PM | Link to this
I don’t know that I completely agree that we would have been a better team if Hartley was still here, Rawhide. During that first game, 6 months ago, the team looked like they’d never even scrimaged together before. And they didn’t get much better in the short term. That seems to be something Hartley should have addressed before the season started.
On top of that, this team has never seemed to consistantly work as a team. At the THM, Levensen and Waddell claimed that it was different factions in the locker room contributing to that, but that’s something a coach mitigates or exacerbates and he certainly wasn’t addressing adequately if one faction of the team was trying to get him fired and another wasn’t.
You are right, though, that even if those stats were worse, they wouldn’t have positioned us worse in relation to the other teams. We really can’t can’t definitively say we’d be in the playoffs this season if he stayed, any more than we can say we definitely wouldn’t be. But my gut thinks that the problems in the locker room and on the ice started during his tenure, and they still haven’t been resolved.
By Nix
April 5, 2008 12:08 PM | Link to this
BTW, is the CNN food court open yet?
By Thin Air
April 5, 2008 12:10 PM | Link to this
I can’t really explain why I’ve waited until the last day of the season to post my first post except to say I just couldn’t let this conversation pass without throwing my hat in the ring in full support of the dump DWad chorus. Looking back 3 years ago when I got on-board the Thrash bandwagon and brought my whole family with me, it is now obvious that we were getting on-board a sinking ship. Now my kids have a basement full of blue stuff and I have the crumpled remains of 40 season tickets laying around the house but the ship has sunk and we’re all bobbing in the water waiting to be rescued. Someone save us. DWad can’t- he’s a fake.
By B. Thenet
April 5, 2008 12:13 PM | Link to this
Sorry Rawhide, it was 10 losses in a row including the putrid team effort vs. the Rangers.
The problem is not that we fired Hartley, we should have fired him when the team was tanking before the trade deadline.
By LAC
April 5, 2008 12:33 PM | Link to this
Well Sage, NASCAR DAVE, Brenden all agree the biggest PROBLEM this team has is don waddell.
The man cannot judge NHL talent worth 2 cents, he cannot draft at all, he signs OLD retreads who nobody else wants and third and fourth line ECHL players NOBODY wants and proclaims the team is better than last season.
So… What needs to happen ?
If a professional franchise ever needed a breath of FRESH AIR, it is The Thrashers. don waddell is a cancer on this team and simply put he cannot remain.
I, for one, cannot believe his aggaront attitude towards the fans. He goes around acting like he is Scotty Bowman or something, can this IDIOT not see what WE the Fans are telling him ? Does HE think he can produce anything except more losing ?
Why can don waddell not admit he is NOT AN NHL GRADE GM and RESIGN it is for the good of the team, we simply cannot take anymore of him driving the team into the ground… or ice if you will.
The man needs a reality check and needs to understand that it is time to go, not to stay one second following the game tonight, he needs to step down for the sake of the team and FANS, at this point there is NO choice for waddell, he cannot remain… IF he does, the Thrashers will be a LOSER next season, as he wants to bring back so many from the team this season…remember his comment recently that TODD WHITE is part of the Thrashers FUTURE ?
No don… both YOU and todd white need to go and go quickly, we have had more than enough of your failure at NHL GM 101…Go Back To detroit, I am sure there are several used car lots you would be perfect for.
Then you and snot can be best of friends because you are NOT an NHL GM !
By polskidawg
April 5, 2008 1:04 PM | Link to this
It seems that the team was not responding to Hartley by the 6th game of the season. Likely, there were many reasons for this (tired of the physical/mental pressure that he used, rotating goalies, the constant linemate switching, etc) and it seems that he had worn out his welcome, as he had in Colorado.
That being said, I’m not convinced that he and DW ever were on the same page as to the makeup of the team - last off-season proves the point.
I’m still hopeful that the ASG will recognize the issue and act upon it within the next week or two.
New VP, President, GM, Director of Scouting, Coaching staff.
That’s the only thing that will provide the opportunity for long-term success.
By Rawhide
April 5, 2008 1:36 PM | Link to this
Some very good points being made here…I really like what Polskidawg said about Don and Bob not being on the same page…and pointing to last summer. That does make a great deal of sense.
One question I do have to all who intimate that the team “quit” or “tanked” on Hartley…if indeed they did “quit” on hartley, what do you call what they did the past month and a half of the season???
Can the arguement be made that they “quit” on Waddell as well, (or for that matter McCrimmon)?
I think it can…
By Thrasher Ryan
April 5, 2008 3:11 PM | Link to this
If Hartley goes to Ottawa, he’ll get to team up with the Heater once again… then they’ll kick our @ss 5-6 times a year.
Folks, Hartley WASN’T the problem, Waddell is. He has now been exposed, and it obvious to everyone. If you disagree, you are not accepting reality, and you must have some sort of alterior motives for your blind pride. Waddell put the roster together, Hartley had no success with it, AND Waddell had no success with it. What does that tell you?
Waddell is at fault here. If I go tonight i’ll be wearing a “Fire Waddell” T-Shirt. Still debating though… Final 4 Basketball sounds much more exciting to me than an AHL hockey game.
Glad to see all my picks made it. Calgary and Nashville out West, and Boston in the East. I’m pullin for the Caps too… that would be a great story… so similar to ours, except THEY actually made the “Right” decisions, whereas “we” sat around and did nothing and let the cancer spread.
Oh well. Bygones.
By R. Stroz
April 5, 2008 4:39 PM | Link to this
Bob - If you are in the house tonight, come by Section 216, Row E and say hello.
By ThrasherNY
April 5, 2008 5:53 PM | Link to this
Hartley should have been fired after the Rangers took out the brooms up here in NYC.
DW should have been fired on the exact same day. I pray to god that this is the last game with DW at the helm of this ship.
I have already digested the reality that we will not be a Cup contending team next season. I have even started to swallow the fact that we are likely not even a playoff team. I just cant expect a new GM and coach to turn around the damage DW has done.
I see this offseason as a heart-breaker in light of truly low standards i set for the team above because if ASG doesnt fire DW then I have to prepare myself for the loss of Kovalchuk. This is a truly scary thought. DW can not produce a Cup contending team. He has proven this year after year. That is what Kovy and Hossa both want. So I will likely start to shed my tears on April 8th if I dont wake up to the fantastic news that DW is gone.
By HookyBob
April 5, 2008 6:39 PM | Link to this
Still reading Rawhide and posters entertaining, insightful blog,…but am generally without comment.
While I’ll be interested to hear the coroner’s report on what killed this season,….I gotta think it has been written ad naseum on this very blog.
Where to focus now,…I have my picks for the 2nd season. But to be honest,…with the Thrashers out,..I am simply interested closing out this season by watching good hockey, whoever plays it.
Those who are drawn to the Washington Capitals should be aware that there is quality coverage of them at www.washingtonpost.com.
With the post mortem nearly complete is it time to look forward to Monday night? If so, visualize a top lottery pick for Blueland (one of PJ’s prayers wouldn’t hurt either). I gotta think that even getting Stamkos isn’t what this franchise needs most. It needs to change course and go in a different (ie right) direction. But I’ll wait for the coroner to confirm this.
By LAC
April 5, 2008 7:25 PM | Link to this
Boy don waddell sounded like he was ALREADY fired before the game, he looked bad and sounded worse… and that is GREAT NEWS !!!!!!!!
The Thrashers need to get rid of Darren Elliot, he saying we are close, give us a break Darren, PLEASE… also JP needs to go, need more of the Jiggs type announcer…JP is just DULL and Darren just cannot tell the truth very much !
I now think waddell may well be FIRED, for the sake of the Franchise PLEASE FIRE waddell !!!!!!!
By Rawhide
April 5, 2008 10:14 PM | Link to this
Great win to end out the otherwise disappointing season.
Intersting…Little scores first and last goal of the year.
HookyBob - Coroner’s final entry into the post mortem to be made available tomorrow afternoon….
PJ - Wadda ya say…a draft lottery prayer for Monday???
By PJ
April 5, 2008 11:20 PM | Link to this
Rstroz Thank You!!!
Rawhide Yea, yea I’ll see what I can do about a prayer come Monday. Since I started my new job it’s been a little hard to manage. The Thrashers are always in my prayers though.
I’d like to say Thank you to everyone who posted their oppinions on the blog this season. You’ve made me laugh and I have learned alot too. And a big thanks to everyone who Amened the prayers all season.
Can anyone tell me what was said in Kovy’s post game interview? I was being herded like cattle out of philips, saw him on the screen but couldn’t hear a word.
By A$G
April 6, 2008 1:28 AM | Link to this
WADDELL IS NOT THE PROBLEM…it is the guys that allow him to keep running the show. Would any of you step down from the job of running an NHL franchise? This is a dream job with kicker that you don’t have to be accountable. Tampa scored 7 more goals that we did this year and gave up 5 less. LA scored 15 more and gave up 6 less. So we have the worst team in the league. IF YOU BUY TICKET$ TO BLUELAND YOU ARE SIMPLY VOTING (WITH YOUR DOLLAR$) FOR MORE OF WHAT THEY HAVE BEEN GIVING YOU. If you want Waddell fired your best course of action is to not attend the games. The sooner you fans stay away from blueland the sooner Waddell will stay away.
THE CHOICE IS ALL YOURS!!!!!!!!!
By A$G
April 6, 2008 2:03 AM | Link to this
ps I LOVE HOCKEY JUST AS MUCH AS ANYONE. I also understand economics. When they can’t get fans to show up things will change fast. I look forward to the day when our Thrashers (yes they belong to us. They were ours before the asg showed up and they will be ours after DW is gone) are in the second round of the playoffs. The series is tied at two games each. The players are so consumed with the heat of the series that they have reached the point of hating each other. Every pass is a little crisper. Every shot has a little more zip and determination behind it. But best of all, every hit is delivered like it might be the last hit you make in your life. The hits are not just checks, but statements about who you are and who the hell do they think they are to try to carry that puck into MY zone. Every hit becomes message. A message about what space they can have, what space they can try to take and what space they will never have. A message that makes them think twice when they touch the puck. That is what makes hockey the greatest game. That is what puts fans on the edge of their seats from the start of the battle til the battle is decided. That is why I have forced myself to not attend the games until change takes place.
By Brendan
April 6, 2008 2:05 AM | Link to this
PJ, I believe Kovy was asked what fans can expect to see next years. His answer: “Playoffs! That’s what we for.”
I’m still wondering how #17 expects us to get there.
Yeah … yeah, I heard you. “But Brendan, we’re just a center and two defensemen away, really.” Heavy sigh. Brian Campbell and Wade Redden and Michal Roszival … they’ll all get offers from real contenders. They’re all going to “sniff out” the situation before they AGREE to play anywhere. That’s why they hired agents and paid them GOOD money.
If Atlanta swooped in with some $8 million offer for Campbell, which would be substantively overpaying him, I’m sure he’d consider it, with a suspicious eye. Is there something in life that can’t be done with $7 million, that instead requires $8 million? The point is … top UFAs want to win. They want to play for “commited organizations,” that are dedicated to winning the Cup.
Does that describe the Atlanta Spirit Group? Or is it more correct to assert, “Well, our top UFAs have mostly chosen to leave rather than re-sign, precisely because they don’t feel Atlanta is building a Championship roster and/or is not commited to keeping the major components in place when contracts come due.” With guys like Savard, Kaberle, Hossa, and Belanger all leaving the organization, it is cause for concern. Now, I’d be the first to say that those players had different reasons for leaving. But the fact is, they left, or forced trades.
Once Atlanta is a serious contender, Tier I UFAs will have their agents call the Thrashers GM. That’s the truth. But until then, the GM of this team, whomever it may be, is fighting an uphill battle. There will always be players who will come to Atlanta just because they need a contract, or because Atlanta agreed to OVERPAY them (Holik). Though Holik claims that he “doesn’t play for money anymore.” If there were the case, he said, “I could have quit long ago.” When Holik signed with Atlanta in 2005, the team still owned Heatley, Savard and Kovalchuk’s rights. So, I won’t quibble, even though Holik’s “next best offer” was $3.7 million when Waddell offered $4.25 million, per an article I read online at TSN.ca. In that article, I seem to recall that Waddell said, “I offered $4.25 million because I didn’t want to get into a bidding war and lose the player. Who knows how high it might have gone.”
Bygones.
Ya know, from Holik’s perspective, there were plenty of “danger signs” early on. Kovy was holdout and missed training camp in 2005. Heatley demanded a trade or a release. Marc Savard was in his “contract year” and had not been offered an extension, during the Summer, in anticipation of that contract expiring.
By Thrashy Thrashy
April 6, 2008 2:21 AM | Link to this
I loved Eliot’s comment about the fan support being the only consistent thing about this season. He was smart enough to save that until the end so they couldn’t cut his mic…hahahahahaha. I guess he wasn’t a company man in the end. Kudos to you, Darren Eliot.
By Alan
April 6, 2008 3:28 AM | Link to this
I had fun at the game this evening, it was a blast. Sorry I missed you RStroz, but the girls didn’t want to move down to 216 to visit - they seemed pretty content to just sit there and not move. Since we walked from a parking lot near Clark Atlanta (FREE PARKING! One of the girls is a student there!), we were a little late getting to our seats and honestly, I didn’t really want to move, either. Both of them were Live Hockey virgins, and one of them has followed them on SportSouth all year. The other one? She said I created a new fan of the sport. I feel like I’ve accomplished something tonight.
Thanks, Thrashers, for a wonderful ending to a really crappy season. I’m looking forward to better games and a better team next season.
By LAC
April 6, 2008 8:59 AM | Link to this
Let us review our past six seasons and see what we have…
These will be 6 year totals.
WINS 201 LOSSES 224 PTS 469 GF 1370 GA 1607
So we then have this average…
WINS 33.5 LOSSES 37.3 PTS 78 GF 228 GA 267
We have a below average win total and a middle of the pack on losses.
We are in the lower relm in points, and about average in goals for.
Goals against, forget it we $UCK !
Ok… Where is the progress ?
Why do we have our better players wanting to LEAVE, just think if we has Savard/Belanger/Kaberle/Hossa Kuntz and so on… We could be a good team… But we have a GM who has NO clue as to what he is doing, cheap, cheap, cheap and old, old, old DOES NOT WORK, that has been a constant since we started, waddell picks BAD UFA’s like todd white.
We need to buyout several players, DO NOT resign holik or recchi for any amount of $$$, dump klee/zit/white/slater/larsen…
To bring them back would really prove this team does NOT want to win !
Lastly… Look at Washington, their fans wanted change like we do, their OWNER… That is right OWNER made the change, and WON the SE with Young draft picks and OV… and what did WE do… more losing and as long as The Master of Disaster is in control expect NOTHING less !
By Alan
April 6, 2008 10:13 AM | Link to this
Lastly… Look at Washington, their fans wanted change
Yes. They wanted change. So they attended games and asked for Hanlon to be fired.
Praytell, how many games did people get LOUD (meaning: could be heard on TV) “FIRE WADDELL” chants going? I’ll tell you: 0. No games.
Their fans are proactive. You guys ranting and raving here? You are passive. And most of you are passive-aggressive, choosing to shout down those opinions you don’t like while propping up crappy blogs and a petition. Yeah, I signed the petition. I even participated in fire waddell chants whenever I could.
If you’re not willing to get out there and start something (take a proactive approach), you’re just bloviating on the AJC.
It’s too late to be truly proactive now. All you have left to do is sit here and hope the ASG fires him. And if that doesn’t happen, you can either bloviate next season, or go start something.
Ball is in your court now, guys.
By ToF
April 6, 2008 10:44 AM | Link to this
Rawhide I can’t help but agree with you that th team would have had a better record under Hartley. The important question is, “Would Hartley have put us in the Playoffs?” Not a snowballs chance there. However, a real coach could have probably gotten this team to stay around .500 till the end of the season; which, inevitably, would have killed our draft position and the only viable option to pick up another top flight player to replace Heatley/Compliment Kovy. Forgive me for saying this, but finishing 14th is better in the grand scheme of things for this team than sitting in perpetual mediocrity with TML. So yeah, keeping Hartley would have probably made this season better, buy it also probably would have hurt us in the long run.
On the other hand, maybe Hartley overcomes the first 6 games and we win 92 straight games and get our name on the cup.. Somehow, I find the first scenario to be far more likely.
By Nikita
April 6, 2008 11:52 AM | Link to this
Disagreeing here, Brendan. I don’t think our problem is (mostly) talent — it’s heart. If we get the right pieces, come back actually wanting to win, and train as though we are going to win, our chances are quite good. (We do need 2-3 top D-Men, though — that’s not negotiable. And I would hope that by the beginning of next season the forwards will have demonstrated diversity. And we need to identify the enforcer — if we don’t keep Valabik, we’ll need to find one.)
Now, on Kovy…I still don’t think he should be captain. Marian Hossa’s issues weren’t just with management — they were with Kovy. On the ice he plays pretty much like the champ we want him to be, but off the ice he’s usually a spoiled brat. So why would we give him the C? Maybe to see what he would do with it — but if what he plans to do with it is hog the puck (a strategy that failed from the midpoint on) and alienate players he doesn’t mesh with, then hell no.
Maybe we should pretend this is junior hockey, and let the team elect their captain. How’s that for crazy talk? But at least we’d have some numerical representation of who the tea, finds motivating.
I thought the whole fan thing last night was pretty interesting. Zhit looked happy to be there, and it was good to see Moose again. I’m still not sure what Moose’s deal for next year should be. But in any case Kari’s durability needs to be addressed.
Goodish game last night. I was very nervous late in the 2nd/early in the 3rd when Tampa spent all its time in our defensive zone, but luckily they couldn’t seal the deal. I was shocked in general by the way that game was played, given that it was basically a race for the basement.
By A$G
April 6, 2008 12:25 PM | Link to this
Alan…I agree with you but with on exception. If you chant fire Waddell you have still handed money to the A$G. THE QUICKEST WAY TO EFFECT CHANGE IS THRU THE POCKET BOOK. If the building is empty the A$G now has to be accountable to the NHL. This is the golden age yet gold is the reason for the wars we wage.
Why should the A$G make changes when the ticket sales are good and payroll is very low??
By Brendan
April 6, 2008 12:41 PM | Link to this
And what would make this bunch want to win, Nikita? What will be the source of this “heart?”
By Nikita
April 7, 2008 2:33 PM | Link to this
Brendan…
Sorry to respond so late.
Personal pride — I would suspect we can figure out who embodies that most easily by looking at this season’s stats. Only a handful of players weren’t pulled substantially down. Those people deserve recognition and status, since they’re better players and better professionals than 75% of their teammates.
Leadership — which we’ll gain by putting the people in #1 in Cs and As. And which we’ll gain by hiring a coach, if not a full complement of coaching staff.
I think we need to send some people packing, too. As much for their good as for ours — we have too many forwards of similar ability, and too many mediocre defensemen. If we can change the general makeup from those who aren’t interested in anything but picking up a paycheck to those who aren’t interested in anything but putting in a game at a high standard of play, then we’ll see radical improvement.