I have a real hard time putting ANY of the blame on Hartley for last season when you consider the goaltender debacle he was presented with. So in that scenario this is a really bad decision optically.
Looking deeper however, the whole teams defensive effort for the majority of the season was abysmal. Add on the super bowl fiasco and it starts to add up to a group of players who tuned their leader out to a degree. How big that group is no one knows. Hartley was a well liked guy in general so this screams of players running the ship to some degree as well.
Hope Treliving has a pulse on this thing and is aware of what kind of guy can succeed with the group moving forward. Whether or not it's Boudreau.
Fascinating decision though.
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