Quote:
Originally Posted by $ven27
I'll just cover the bolded. Before this season the Avs very much had a similar situation to Edmonton with Pierre and Eric LeCroix, they were their version of Kevin Lowe. And a lot of their fans were surprised to see Pierre dismissed as they thought for sure he was there until he died, literally. Eric and Sacco were good friends and him not willing to fire him was ultimately what got him fired iirc. Also, Colorado has been after Roy for years, they first tried to get him in 2009 and he rejected their offer, pretty much he was #1 in the race for their new head coach and nobody else was even close. And considering Roy was the coach and GM of the Remparts he couldn't exactly leave in the middle of their season.
Again, the old management (Pierre LaCroix) was set in the old ways and was a hard negotiator and didn't take any BS from young players (eg. Drury). So it wasn't really surprising that he refused to come down on his ridiculous demands (wanted ROR to sign for 3M or something?). Which is what ultimately got him fired. They had Denvers' version of Kevin Lowe, wasn't really tanking, just incompetent management.
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You still haven't provided any evidence that they tried their hardest to ice a competitive team. Playing hardball with an RFA while your team struggles isn't IMO trying to ice the best team possible. If the Eric and Sacco were such good friends why the lame duck status? Holding on to a coach that lost 22 more games than it won the season before with whispers the coach lost the locker room doesn't sound to me like they had expectations of improving especially given the ROR fiasco.
Doesn't sound like a recipe for success to me in fact it looks like the organization just decided they were going to ride the strike shortened season out hell or high water and hope for a good draft pick.