Loooong time ago....
Out of university, I went to work in the manufacturing division of a well known very large multinational. We had a lot of quality problems so my mirror told me I was the smartest guy in the room and going to solve the problem.
Spend 3 months and wrote quality procedure manual. My best work. Well, my only work till then. Put it on the field, implemented it, explained it. Re-explained it, dammit, nothing was changing. It turns out my mirror lied to me. It needed a 150 IQ and an engineering degree to implement. People could not follow the multisteps. i failed.
Marty is running into the same problem.
According to my eye test and then confirmed by podcasts, Marty is trying to implement a hybrid of man-to-man just below and above our blue line while also implementing a tight zone defense if we lose possession in our zone. Without going into an entire page why it's failing, suffice to say that to work, it needs 5 Guhles defensively and 5 Josi to break out. It's just too complicated and it doesn't take into account the skill level of our players. So we get trapped for long periods and we don't have Jesus Price in nets.
Hello mounting losses. Marty failed.
So now Marty has to go back to basics and focus on what's doable given the abilities of our players, X needs a forward on the wall to pass to, Hutson needs support on the low cycle and he'll never be a crease cleaner, Savard is not carrying the puck out, Hutson is not deking 3 forwards...and the limitations go on. He has put a less restrictive zone defense or a limited man-to-man were forwards play man-to-man and defenseman keep their position. Basically a 2-1-2 all the way to the net were the center supports his wingers while one or the other winger, depending where the puck is, goes to the slot.
Regardless, whatever system Marty comes up with has to be a hell of a lot simpler or we will have a disaster of a season.
Is Marty smart enough to see his mistakes and find a solution?
Stay tuned....