[djsFlames]

They had an opportunity to shake up the core after the bubble.

They didn't opt for it.

PLD became available. They bowed out of the bidding.

They brought back the same group with some fringe tinkering. The greatest positive of those has been the bottom pairing.

Otherwise it is more of what we've become accustomed to, and why should treliving or any one be surprised.

For the first 8 games however, it looked like Gaudreay and Monahan had elevated their games, which made up for the lack of depth scoring. It made a difference in some key games. Then after Gaudreau's great game and SO winner they disappeared again rather than continuing to pour it on. That just knocks us back down to mediocrity and an anemic offense.

The bright side is we don't allow a lot thanks to this vezina caliber goalie. But so long as no more than one or two guys up front steps up on any given night, we're just fighting to eke out a low scoring win.

We need more than half the forwards to put their best effort on the ice every night. No ####ing around. Driving the net. Trying to score like their jobs depend on it. Playing with intensity and passion.

We've seen each and every guy bring that at some point. Problem is they rarely all are firing at the same time.

Does that fall on coaching?

In a sense. On one hand it shouldn't be Wards job to tell these guys to play with passion. That should be a given, but alas they need motivating to stay on their toes. Management decided to go with a solid pro but one that didn't have any tricks in his bag or hardness to him.

End of the day, this falls on management for knowing the inconsistencies of this group and believing that a nice, inexperienced coach that wouldn't make their lives hard would bring out the best in them.

Or ownership if they refuse to allocate the needed money to fill that position adequately.

Either way you can only shake your head. Its not a bad team, but there is no one there to crack the whip or push the buttons.

Why limit the potential of your maxed cap group by going cheap with the leadership?

I don't know how to understand the logic there.

Then add that they had three cracks at it after Hartley and took more or less the same route each time - unproven at the NHL level.

Just hard to fathom considering how thoughtful and detail oriented Brad appears to be at every position except coaching, where he sets the bar befuddlingly low and I just can't wrap my mind around it.

It will ultimately be his downfall unless the players turn it around themselves, because they will not be pushed to do so.

If Treliving gets another chance at picking a coach, which he probably shouldn't, you damn well hope he learned something by now, cause holy ####.