Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Goaltending somewhat leveled off from the highs and lows earlier and depth players like Ryan stepped up their game helping offset some of the decline of the first line. More importantly team defense was still very solid. This season team defense has dropped off a lot over last season as Gio isn't a Norris quality defender and the 2nd pairing has fallen off a cliff.
|
This is, in my opinion, the most glaring problem with this season, and it is predominantly a coaching issue. I think Peters was a good coach who got excellent results for a time, but then fairly quickly lost the ear of his players amid a poor playoff performance. Geoff Ward seems pretty clearly to be ill suited for the job, and I think the fact that he still retains the "interim" moniker is an indication of this. I expect a new coach will be added in the summer, as while there are a couple of currently unemployed quality NHL coaches out there, I don't think they are necessarily available today.