When your coach is claiming he has overcome critics after 2 wins against two teams playing poorly, that's plain arrogance. From management to coaching they are behaving as if they had won anything at their current position, they have not. MSL was a great player but great players don't always make great coaches.
0 playoff appearances
0 playoff series wins
0 regular season pt records above .500%
"overcome critics" my ass
By the way -- anyone else tired of "intangibles" and "leadership" talk?
Not blaming anything on Suzuki, not a single thing, but we see how fleeting it is, don't we? It's all BS. 100% BS.
Team Culture is a thing, spirit is a thing, but individual "leadership" and keeping players "for their intangibles" and "to mentor the young ones" is 100000% bullshit. It was bullshit when it was meant to prop up a second-class Saku Koivu and it was bullshit when it was used to fluff up a declining Shea Weber and it's bullshit today. 10000000000% bullshit. Suzuki cannot make his teammates come ready and play with focus, that is the job of nobody but the players themselves.
Every individual player is responsible for his effort and the coach is responsible for setting the tone and expectations of the roster. Team Culture. The Habs had a country club where losses didn't matter and now they're trying, and failing, to implement accountability. Tankophiles thought it was a flip of a switch, so we'll see if by the end of the season this team understands how precious and important it is to show up to play. I doubt it. Low-effort low-impact players need to be shifted out and high-effort players need to replace them (low-effort high-impact players like snipers and danglers are fine; team culture is made up in aggregate).
Games are more fun when you win, they're 100x more fun when you win playoff games... these losers, as a squad, have no idea what it's like to win. That's called a Losing Culture. Ask Buffalo fans what it's like.