Nice to know he can rest on the laurels of his success from 1997-2008 to excuse him from any criticism.
I get the more recent term argument but really interesting to see 2009 wiped from his record where they had the best team in the league and lost in the finals.
In the next two years they had a team that was ultimately outcoached by a former assistant but had contender status. Even the Nashville loss was a team that was viewed as a serious contender until injuries completely derailed them after the trade deadline.
In the past three seasons they have been weaker as the rebuild on the fly hasn't allowed them to be quite as good. However I completely disagree with putting this back to whenever the last cup was, in my opinion that comes far short of evaluating the team enough.
We will see what he does this off-season, Holland didn't become an idiot over night and he hasn't destroyed our future just yet. For those interested he is still following the comments he suggested coming out of the big lockout that already brought us a championship once and a finals appearance. Curious to see what his tweaks are, they have been slower than any of us want, but he hasn't driven this thing off a cliff yet as many seem to suggest. Not following that and it certainly doesn't date as far back in terms of this team not icing a team with serious championship caliber and aspirations seem to indicate. Winning a Stanley cup is a little tougher than I think many give it credit for.
I understand frustration, but there really is still a lot to be excited about with this team and their future. Some disagree and I accept that, others like me simply don't have the sky is falling mentality. I also don't agree with the timeline when this all went sour being bandied about a lot in this thread.
Expectations are high with this team so they have disappointed for a variety of reasons. But they really can be quite good and return to the area we expect with a couple of tweaks through the trade deadline of next year. Important year for Holland.