Let me preface by saying that by the end I really didn’t like AV. But! At least AV got us to the SCF and ECF his first two seasons here so when he made completely bullshit stupid ass decisions at least you could understand why he was so sure his way was right. I disagreed at times but at least he could point to recent quantifiable success.
Plus he was here as the win-now coach which brings more pressure and a different mindset going in. David Quinn was specifically touted as a rebuild and kid friendly coach. There’s no excuse for his handling of the young talent to be a major blind spot of his. Plus compare the young talent that Quinn has to what AV had. We were losing our minds over Glass playing over Lindberg and a Buchnevich that was a shadow of what the current Buchy is. Still egregious but he didn’t have anyone close to the levels of Lafreniere or Kakko.
And at least we could quantify what AV hockey was. Quick strike counter attack, make the extra pass in the offensive zone, man to man in the d zone to try and force turnovers and quick strike the other way. That’s what he preached and you could see it on the ice, whether you liked it or not, it’s undeniable that there actually was a system. Under Quinn it’s hard to even define what his system is.
Does anyone remember "The stat"? 179-1-22 or something to that extend, when leading after 2 periods. That stat was amazing, and gave this fanbase a reason to sit back and feel confident going into the 3rd with a lead.
This team I wouldn't trust to defend a 3-goal lead going into the 3rd.
My biggest gripe, and you touched on this, is that David Quinn was supposed to be a development coach. they hired a coach with experience working with young players. To then look at this team prioritizing winning at all cost over developing their prospects the right way is frustrating and to me it just feels like this organization will never be in the right state of mind to go through a rebuild successfully. Back in October I told my girlfriend, jokingly, if there is 1 team I put money on to ruin a talent like Lafrenière, it would be the Rangers.
When Lias Andersson was struggling, we all blamed the player, and our drafting.
When Vitaly Kravtsov was struggling, we all blamed the player and our drafting.
Late last season Kakko mentioned in a Finnish podcast that he has trouble understanding Quinn's decisions and that he feels singled out whenever he makes a small mistake. We have Kakko starting on the 2nd line for 1 game. A game where EVERYONE was absolute dogshit. And Kakko is taken off the powerplay, and demoted to the 4th line.
And Lafrenière seems relatively unharmed by Quinn's shenanigans (so far at least). But for how long? How long are we going to wait before Quinn does the same thing to Lafrenière?
This is not to defend Lias for quitting on the team, or Kravtsov pouting and not understanding his demotion, but when it happens to three top-10 picks in a row, it is becoming really difficult to not look at Quinn. If it happens to a 4th, then all bets are off and he should just pack his bags.
