The players get some of the blame, that missed goal by Leo was brutal, thought he scored. However, I put most of it on the coaching and system. Zegras is a prime example of that. You just don’t go from having two 60 point seasons to this unless there is some outside force changing things. Cronin preaches defense and getting on pucks, yet they still give up the most SOG, nothing has changed, getting good goaltending to keep them in games but even they are starting to get worn out.
The dump and chase does not fit this team’s skilled players. I get it if the 4th line is doing that, but not your Top 6.
They are dead last in GF, and 3rd to last on the PP. Have only one player on pace for like just over 60 points (Even that is low), and then the next guy is on pace for like 40 something. Pathetic.
When your PP is this bad, it severely hurts the teams production.
You're not entirely wrong or right, at least imo. I blame Cronin and the majority of the coaching staff (goalie coaches exempt) for a lot of the problems you mentioned. And I think the organization's player development personnel have, as a whole, not proven themselves.
But I don't even count the missed goal by Leo as lending to a bad night. The kid either got so excited by a gaping opportunity for a goal and overdid the shot at the moment of truth or it bounced on him or both. Either way, it happens. The fact that he missed isn't some sign of trouble. We know he can shoot the puck.
What I noticed was that his first three or so shifts Leo was playing well. He was getting to good areas and got a few pucks on net. Even if they didn't go in, he had a good start to the game against a strong Vegas defense. It felt like his game started spiraling around the half way point of the first when he was carrying the puck on a counter rush and tried to make a short lead pass to Killorn, assuming Killorn would easily handle it but who, instead, in tunnel vision kept looking forward, didn't see a pass was being attempted and kept skating so the pass went behind him and ended up in Vegas' possession. After that I noticed that as long as his line was on the rush, he was going to try to carry it to the net himself and he had at least four attempts where he basically skated into a Vegas defender and lost it, one attempt trying to bull past an umbrella of three Vegas players draping him to no success. After that point he kind of adjusted and tried to be more of a distributor but he either missed passes to his linemates or they connected and his linemates would cough it up, but there was a really egregious moment while Anaheim was chasing the lead and he recovered a loose puck in the right defensive zone corner. There was a Vegas defender maybe ten feet away covering the right wall so instead of try to carry it up and find a seam on the rush, he tried to go crosscrease to throw it to one of our blueliners while a Vegas forechecker was still in the area. Leo ended it up passing it basically right on that Vegas players tape giving them a high danger chance for free that Dostal luckily stopped.
I'm not concerned with Leo's IQ the way I am with Mac. We've seen Leo's IQ and vision on display plenty of times and it seems it's more of a timing adjustment to the speed and size of the NHL generally and a need to get physically stronger. That will come in time. And I really get the feeling that while he'd never admit it publicly, I think a lot of Leo's frustration comes from being a playmaker who is stuck playing with a veteran who, more often than not, kills play with his puck fumbles and low footspeed. I've seen Leo visibly frustrated over Killorn's mistakes on more than a few occasions. So yes, there's a problem with the systems, there's a problem with the chemistry and Cronin sticking Leo with Killorn cause muh veteran experience by osmosis, and there's likely a problem with this coaching staff being unable to help Leo overcome his issues with adapting to the speed and size of the NHL game. But on an individual level he just needs to do more to learn from the shifts that don't go well and make do with the situation he's in. If it can't be helped that he's not being put in a position to succeed I'd like to see better individual adjustments from the kid.
I'm loathe to make the comparison because Cutter is a year older and has a lot more experience playing the NA game, but Cutter has been drastically improving his own effectiveness in the past few weeks while playing with a chaotic and inconsistent McTavish. So it's possible even in unideal conditions. I don't think it's unreasonable to conclude that a lot of Leo's problems right now come down to frustration and things could improve with better linemates, a better system, and better coaches/mentors. But Leo could be doing more to cut down on his own individual mistakes and I don't think you can blame everything holding him back on the coaches. Some of it has to come from him and I really hope it does soon. I want him to succeed. We all do.