[TOfan]

Originally Posted by JTech780

Ward wouldn't be my first, second or third choice, but he does do somethings well that other coaches have failed to do with this team. He has also made some bizarre head scratching moves, that make wonder if he is head coach material.

The good, he communicates extremely well. The players really like him and like to play for him, this is a big one as I haven't got that feeling from this group with other coaches. There are times where I saw the mentality of this team change and they were able to overcome pressure and were able to bounce back when things didn't go according to plan. In the past this team would, to borrow a quote from Gulutzan, "crumple" when things got hard. Now they did revert back to this mentality in game 6, where Ward also buckled under the pressure.

The bad, he is slow in making in game adjustments, when Dallas was shutting down the zone entries and exits, there wasn't any change in the system, they kept trying the samr things over and over. You have to be able to adapt to what your opponent is doing to defend you. Giving the top line mostly defensive zone starts in the playoffs was puzzling and head scratching. Pulling Talbot in game 6 was a terrible move, add in the fact that his plan was to put him right back in but not telling anyone that plan and when he wanted Talbot to go back in he was in locker room not ready to go in, so he had to leave a rusty Rittich in while he was getting shelled. Playing Rinaldo at all in the playoffs is baffling. All this leaves me questioning his decision making as a coach.

For me the bad outweighs the good, I think there are better coaches out there.

To play devils advocate, who should have been in the lineup over Rinaldo? Jankowski?....we’re splitting hairs here. If he wanted a physical presence in the lineup, then yes, Rinaldo was the right call.