Quote:
Originally Posted by JurassicTunga12
Ward needs to stop rewarding Lucic with ice time when his play has been poor this season. I like the guy, but come the f on. Just one of quite a few issues surfacing with Ward this season so far.
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Ward isn’t a top end NHL quality coach IMO.
He was out coached by Dallas in the playoffs and should have never been extended.
Treliving had a decent offseason bringing in Markstrom and Tanev who look good so far (even though I wasn’t a huge fan of either move at the time) but he needed to bring in a coach that was going to play to this rosters strengths.
Instead he stuck with Ward. The frustrating part is he was given a mulligan after what happened with Peters and had the opportunity to go get a proven coach in Gallant or Boudreau but instead stuck with Ward.
And it’s clear that this is coaching to me at this point. Before the break the team looked confident, was playing more aggressive, and was trying to dictate play.
Come out if the break and they are playing the boring, low risk, passive hockey that they started to play coming out of the break in 18-19. They play slow because the coach wants them to play slow. Don’t take a risk, make the safe pass, circle back in your own zone to let the other team get into their defensive structure.