Being competitive and being a competitive threat is two different things. He's not lying about wanting to be competitive... However, this team just is not. The last 3 games against historic rivals and to lay 3 eggs as big as they did, while not having and ounce of competitiveness is grounds for big changes.
Now if the games were losses and the team showed any fight at all then yeah, great, we can handle losses with a team that tries, hits, fights, gets a highlight reel save, fun stuff!!
We don't get that, this team hits the ice every night and it's almost like they are surprised it's a game day. Holy shit, it's a game? Who are we playing? What are the lines? They are so massively unprepared to play it's nearing scandalous territory.