So coaching doesn’t matter? We have had a incompetent coaching staff for far too long.
This is a flawed team. I have said it numerous times. But coaching matters.
Have Hakstol and Gordons system of teaching guys how to play been fine?
Again, this roster has issues. But lets not ignore that this organization has had well below average coaching and management for far too long.
Why are so many posters unable to see things except as binary? My believing that too many excuses have been made for the players over the span of multiple scapegoated coaches is NOT equivalent to arguing that "coaching doesn't matter."
It's simply recognizing that:
Ken Hitchcock, a Stanley Cup winning head coach with one of the all-time best NHL winning percentages, was blamed and fired after starting a season 1-6-1.
Peter Laviolette, a Stanley Cup winning head coach who is top 20 all-time in wins, was blamed and fired after starting a season 0-3.
Craig Berube, who just took over a St. Louis team that was in last place in the entire NHL and led them to the missing the division title by 1 point & to 4th in the conference in points, was blamed and fired after taking the Flyers to the playoffs one season and missing the next.
Dave Hakstol, with a .560 career points percentage and playoffs in 2/4 seasons despite awful goaltending in 3 seasons, gets blamed and fired after a 12-15-4 start.
Scott Gordon, who takes over midseason and gets them to within 3 points of a playoff spot after his first 2 months taking over a team that was in the bottom 3 in the NHL, following 2 successful AHL seasons, and goes 25-22-4, is blamed and fired.
At some point, maybe it's not all on the coaching and more responsibility lay with the players and roster.