I don’t see coaching as an issue, but leave it to Flames fans to try to run a coach into the ground after the second best regular season we’ve ever had (and doing it without a bonafide #1 goaltender).
To me, it’s about commitment. The guys who did really well were Bennett, Ryan, Mangiapane, Hathaway, Valimaki, Andersson. Everyone else in the playoffs were alright or worse. What do they have in common? They’re self motivators who still have it fresh in their mind how hard you have to work to do anything in this league.
You can tell coach a player on how to beat another team, you can motivate him to do it, but the actual “doing” is 100% on the player at that point. Guys like Lindholm, Tkachuk, Backlund, and Gio did it here and there, but not often enough. When the rest of the team was playing like the 4th line, we were getting chances and making things happen.
Gaudreau backchecked... sometimes, Backlund closed gaps... sometimes, there were a lot of players doing good things “sometimes” and sometimes doesn’t win you rounds.
No problem with Peters for me. Another year in the belt, and a good lesson for a few players on the team about what it actually takes to win.
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