Quote:
Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache
A lot of the time Huberdeau’s success looks to be exploiting seams before the D can get their structure.
It’s not a knock on every other player, it’s a knock on the coaching to be quite honest for not creating the situations where they can leverage his strengths
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This is the result you get when you bump your defense associate coach to the head coaching position.
His expertise is with one side of the game, and his brilliant systems adjustment hasn't yet bore fruit, as they look more lost than ever in the d-zone.
So he's relying on Savard almost entirely for an offensive rejuvenation for struggling players, and his coaching experience is in the OHL..
Maybe both guys will make their marks in a positive way when all is said and done, but a frankenstein project of inexperienced staff not panning out so far is hardly a shock.
The problem last season was getting an extra goal per game out of this offense, and more consistency out of the goaltending.
IMO, I'd say defense was third on the list of needs, and I'm not sure why we thought defensive adjustments would fix the other two.
One has (at least somewhat) fixed itself on its own in Markstrom, but they really needed an experienced guy who understood the workings of an effective NHL offense (and PP) and would have the first idea of what assignments to give Huberdeau's line mates to leverage his strengths.
Conroy got wooed by familiarity when he had a vast pool of talent to choose from. If a bounce back was the goal, then he failed at that HC hire.
But if this hire gets them a couple top talents in the next few years, then it will do the organization more good overall than a good coach whipping these guys into a wildcard team would, so I digress.