I got my doubts about that.
Shanahan was the guy in charge with the Horachek-Give-A-Crap-Meter debacle.
Shanahan was the guy in charge when the organization was in chaos.
That changed when Babcock, Hunter, Lamereillo were brought into the organization.
Since then, those experienced hockey people gone, the organization is sliding again into embarrassment.
Shanahan is still the guy in charge, who handed the job to Dubas.
Shanahan cannot fire Dubas, because if he fires Dubas, he should hand in his resignation at the same time.
This seems like a complete mess, that only a complete housing cleaning can be an adequate starting point from which to address the shortcomings of the team.
As fans, we have seen enough to know we cannot trust Shanahan to do anything right. But the level of management above him, may not feel the same way.
Mmm...Not so:
It was Shanahan who provided the much necessary drop by firing Carlyle and knowingly stop-gapped him with Horacek. Horacek wasn't viewed as a replacement for success, he was inserted as a warm body.
Remember, the month preceding Carlyle's firing, the club went on a heater. In an interview after a barn-burner in which a reporter sang the team's praises CARLYLE rang the alarm bell and pointed to a systemic problem that would shortly thereafter prove him correct and fired.
Salutegate and it's culture was allowed to rot before it was moved. Then:
Shanahan selected Babcock and LL. Those were right moves. So was Hunter and so was...Dubas. So was Matthews obviously. So was Anderson...should've taken Carter Hart in the 2nd but, draft picks aside, we all know, Shanahan was making the right moves, over and over again. Until:
Lou Lamoriello was allowed to walk and Dubas was promoted when Lamoriello was allowed to walk. Outside of LL walking, the Dubas promotion wasn't an uninformed one. He won an AHL championship. The same logic holds that Jon Cooper's success in the AHL might translate to the NHL, and ever the same has been held in recent memory that graduation is the intention behind the farm system design.
The fork in the road is signing John Tavares and it's horrific crossroads cascading to our foundational future. Don Cherry amongst others was the first to note the misstep. Not from an unforeseen financial impediment brought on by a cap restricted by an unforeseen global pandemic, but by now discarded hockey axioms like alpha dogs and dressing room culture.
When the capology of Dubas' braintrust crumbled, it crumbled under unforeseen events. That doesn't matter because those that have been paid are paid irrespective of the politics of the world and as such have the same playing field like AHL Pittsburgh teams running roughshod 7-1. And what matters now is an informed perspective that says: New information brings new conclusions.
I'd like to see what Shanahan does to right a ship he had so smoothly charted a course for in the beginning. His approach was perfect. We were right
there. And we got there because of Shanahan, not in spite of him. Now we're in a place because of Shanahan's decisions made in a different environment and now in an environment in which he did not make those decisions.
I think he deserves the opportunity to resume his first course. I noted a couple of names in another post: Dean Lombardi and John Tortorella. That might be a good start in short order. And if that new start excludes Shanahan, then that's fine as well.
But the last thing we as fans need to do is manipulate memory to reform our present confusion. I believe nobody is as angry as Brendan Shanahan. And I think the right person at the right time is a pissed off Brendan Shanahan to lead the way back in order to go forward again.
