Quote:
Originally Posted by Draft Dodger
Whispers then were that he was let go because he'd lost the team...
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Honestly DD, I don't know that I ever had a feeling he really had this team in the first place. Not in the beginning, not now, not even during the stretch run last year.
He tried, I'm pretty convinced of that. One of the problems (in my mind at least) was that there wasn't much success from the players brought in that apepared meant to be "his guys". DeVries & Holik come to mind off the top of my head. Not stars, but guys that were on board with his system. Fans were ready to give DeVries away for a bag of pucks, and I'm not sure that we wouldn't throw in some pucks & a couple of powder blue jerseys just to rid ourselves of Holik.
His handling of goalies was downright bizarre at times and although I'm to the point where I think Kari Let-one-in is going to be ultimately be a flop (being too fragile physically & mentally), Hartley found nothing that ever seemed to help him either. Maybe that's not the coach's fault, but it is perceived at being part of his job nonetheless.
Throughout the off-season, we kept hearing how this year's team would be smaller but quicker. Instead, the only thing that appears quick about them is how fast they tanked.