Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
One minute of analysis is all it takes to see how to fix that team.
With McDavid and Draisaitl, they are elite on the PP, and they have a good chance of winning the special teams battle, most nights. So all they have to do is make 5 on 5 a non-event. Just play low event, low scoring hockey, 5 on 5, and they are in good shape. Those 2 aren't putting up many points 5 on 5 anyway, and they are getting scored on too much because they coast, in order to save their energy for offensive chances. So reduce their ice-time, convince them to back-check (LOL), utilize (and engage) the bench more, and they would be better 5 on 5. Then let them do their thing on the PP.
This is all obvious to a 10 year old. And yet here we are, in McDavid's 8th season, and they haven't made one inch of progress on how to manage the team.
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You just know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there is some agreement, written or otherwise, between McDavid and the organization (probably all the way up to Katz) that Conna dictates how he operates and therefore how the team operates and how it is coached. He gets all the ice time he wants, 100% of pps and 100% of empty net time. He chooses his line mates. He plays almost exclusively on the offensive side of the puck. No reasonable coach would run a team this way.
He and his dad want a legacy of art ross, hart trophy victories and to be #2 in all time points. I think they just assumed that he would get cups along the way, but it is this entitled attitude that sinks him and his team over and over again.