« Nous avons juste se flétrir en 3ème période. C’est pas bon signe.»
«Nous ne sommes pas mentalement dur assez… »
« Les gars sont ne pas profiter du temps de rondelle.
« En tant qu’entraîneurs, nous devons clairement faire plus pour les aider. Mais ils doivent trouver des moyens de faire ces jeux.»
« Nous ne l’avons pas fait, et nous ne l’avons pas fait pendant une grande partie de la saison.»
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Ce sont évidemment des propos très clairs qu’il faut soit croire, soit lui reprocher. Je sais que le HC est une cible facile, mais qu’est-ce que Keefe (ou n’importe quel entraîneur) est censé faire pour faire bouger autant l’aiguille ? Il n’est pas parfait, mais c’est aussi un entraîneur confirmé, participant aux séries éliminatoires à chaque saison de sa carrière.
Si nous sommes vraiment honnêtes, nous avons vu des lueurs de ce dont il parle exactement ces dernières années. Cela dépend des joueurs et ils devraient constamment performer à un niveau beaucoup plus élevé à ce stade. Mais ce n’est pas le cas.
Selon les propres mots de Fitz : « C’est ma faute. » Faites bouger les choses, virez-le hier et faites venir quelqu’un qui peut prendre les décisions difficiles. Nous sommes essentiellement hors des séries éliminatoires en février et parlons d’un échange avec Nick Bjugstad. Il est temps de procéder à de grands changements au niveau du front office et de l’équipe.
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MatteHatter
3 Comments
They’ve been said by multiple insiders and hockey analysts for years he isn’t wrong . You don’t like hearing it ,but he isn’t wrong about something that has been mumbled about this team and players for years
The blame in situations like this is always fluid. It’s very coach/team/gm dependent but generally all three levels have some degree of culpability.
Sure Fitz should have made more moves sooner but I actually think he’s got the smallest slice of the blame here. We started the year as contenders internally and externally. We won 8 in a row with lights out D. Then we fell apart. That first part of the year is our real potential when everyone shows up, meaning Fitz did an ok enough job to get a good team on the ice, but of course it could have been better. And a lot better at that cough cough Quinn. Still hurts to think about but I digress.
The players are grown ups. They’re not on their ELCs anymore. They know they have to compete and outwork the other side but you can see a distinct lack of effort so consistently. That’s unacceptable, but I do think they’re being asked to play a losing type of game. That’s where I think Keefe is the main culprit.
He has instituted a system that doesn’t work for our player composition and refuses to make adjustments. We have a massive sample size of years worth of good and bad to know where this team excels and where improvements are needed, yet he requires them to give up possession with a dump and chase game to go get the puck back and that’s not how we win. It’s bash your head against the wall mentality until it’s works, getting the puck back and feeding it to the slot. It’s very hard to make that work and it’s the reason we’re such a shit team by offensive metrics. Considering that’s been the case for months now and there’s no play to change our style, our failure is mostly on him. Players are unmotivated because they know the odds of this system working are stacked against them and a comeback is always very difficult.
What kills me is this whole structure was to enact more responsible defense WHICH ITS NOT DOING. We collapse in front of the net and protect the slot which is awesome but that leave the point and edges uncontested. We just surrender free chances and that’s a dumb way to play.
Blast Keefe out, get the Panthers or Canes AGM in here and we’ll be fine.
It’s the coach’s job to motivate players to work harder, having said that it’s been a common theme of this core to give up when the going gets tough. I don’t know the solution, but changing our role players just isn’t going to cut it. We have a culture problem