Talking about whether Huska is a good coach or not is a bit confusing to me.
Do we have a good team here? Do we believe that Sutter was really a terrible coach (ignoring his coaching record) and think that Huska was somehow going to turn this team into a well-oiled machine?
This is what I more or less expected. I absolutely did vote: "Win the cup this year" since that's what I always pick in such polls, but I have wanted a rebuild for a couple of years now because I don't think this team has 'got it'. This is what it looks like when a team doesn't have it - they don't look like a really good functional group.
They are a mish-mash of parts. That's what it is. Gaudreau-Monahan-Tkachuk-Bennett-Brodie-Giordano-Backlund ---- That was a good core that needed MORE pieces and a bit more time. Hartley had a tonne of warts, but he was a great development coach. Didn't like him, that's fine. The priority should have been to find an experienced coach to guide that team up the hill and make sure all the pieces are being properly developed, and continue drafting a core. The work was incomplete. It stayed incomplete.
Now you have a mish-mash of parts. Huberdeau is on his second bad season. Most of the lines don't show chemistry. The PP is terrible even though Marc Savard is in charge of it. The breakout is bad. Defending is bad. Goaltending is often spotty (but better than last season!!). The offensive game is lacking.
This is a small, soft, and complete mish-mash of pieces that don't fit, but we are going to point the finger at Huska? I don't get it. I think if you brought Scotty Bowman in his prime to coach this team, or Al Arbour, or anyone you want past or present, they would probably get more out of this roster, but it still wouldn't be a great team. It would continue being a bubble team - maybe they squeak in, maybe they just miss like last season, but this team on paper is not a good team.
This collection of players that they have just doesn't work. It doesn't mean that this collection of players all suck. It just doesn't work and will never work. I don't blame Huska one bit. I don't blame Conroy either. I blame Treliving for assembling this, and I blame the players themselves the most for being more concerned about their paydays than they are about winning hockey games.
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