Cronin is f***ing awful. Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. Continues to be some of the absolute worst hockey I've seen Anaheim play when you factor in the talent on the ice.
I'll add in that the stretches of good play we've seen from this team which will probably save Cronin's job under a "stay the course" mentality is all the proof Verbeek needs to do the opposite.
We know what this roster is capable of when the effort and execution is there. Maybe you can make the argument that the inconsistent effort and execution can be blamed in some part on the players, the locker room culture, and the leadership, but both aspects fall under the coaching staff's responsibilities. As it pertains to execution, proper drilling matters and anyone who puts primary blame on the players simply hasn't played a team sport. I played several and my travel teams always performed better in tourneys when we properly drilled our fundamentals and strategies than when we had practice for the sake of it. You don't lock in execution by drilling well for two weeks in training camp. Drilling needs to be effective over the course of a season. This recent stretch is as good an example as you're going to get. Hazy mentioned on a broadcast that Cronin was emphasizing crisper passing in practice. It sticks out as particularly ridiculous because this team's passing the past four games has been atrocious.
It seemed the team turned a new leaf just prior to and after the 4 Nations after the team held player meetings. There was buy in, there was fight, and there was execution. It seems that the impact of those meetings has entirely worn off and we're back to the same old shit.
He's not the right guy for the job and I'm really scared that the few stretches of good play we saw will translate to "stay the course. With more consistency and experience in the room we can build on those stretches to make that level of play the norm"
The development of young players has largely languished under Cronin. His lineup choices are suboptimal. His deployment is suboptimal (using the fourth line to shut down top lines is beyond stupid). The offense has only somewhat improved lately under the regime of "defense first" while the defense is still f***ing awful. Too often the team looks more tired than teams that should be more tired (e.g. Opponents on the second end of back to backs). Too often the team looks like they struggle with basic fundamentals after other games where they look fine to good in that regard.
The only material reason why we're bottom 8 instead of bottom 3 is how many games our goalies stole. That's it. I don't really see how this team is better than last year in any meaningful respect. He needs to go. Clune needs to go. We need a revamped player development staff. And if Verbeek isn't able to recognize this, he should go too.
