Sweeney’s clear plan has been to re-tool and create a new core on the fly. Very very difficult to do. This is what they’ve landed with, so far:
Inner core: Pasta, McAvoy, H Lindholm, E Lindholm, Swayman
Outer core: Coyle, Zacha, Carlo, Zadorov
Guys they hope will become core: Poitras, Lohrei, Lysell (??)
Veteran: Marchand
Can argue whether the Lindholms are inner or outer, but otherwise I think this is more or less right.
So, with things where they are now, three difficult questions – is this core actually good enough to build a Cup-contending team around? If it is not, can one or two changes move the needle enough to make it so, and if so, what and who? If the answer to both is no, does that mean you have to properly blow it up and, in a sense, start again? Subsidiary to that, what does that look like? What are the risks? How long might it take?
The first step though, before you answer even the first question, and which is becoming almost certain now, is you have to bring in a new coach and see if that can be the difference maker in itself. Unlikely perhaps, but you probably have to try. Beyond that, it’s going to be tough. Ownership have resisted a full rebuild and its associated costs and perils with all their might. But if they are dragged kicking and screaming to it, what will they do? It’s happened before, and last time the Bruins won a Cup out of it. But it’s harder than ever to come up from the bottom and build a serious contender in the modern NHL.
What we’ll probably get is a sequence. Try a new coach, try a big trade/signing or two, and go the more nuclear option only as a last resort. That sort of cautious approach may well work, or it may simply drag out the misery and delay the inevitable. A rough road ahead.
First up, though, thanks and bye Monty. May well be that he wasn’t a major part of the problem, but only one way to find out. Sucks for him, but that’s the life of a coach. Is it right? No idea. Is it happening? You really have to think so. And then management can only pray that the new guy can work some magic, and stave off all the rest of the above.
Inner core: Pasta, McAvoy, H Lindholm, E Lindholm, Swayman
Outer core: Coyle, Zacha, Carlo, Zadorov
Guys they hope will become core: Poitras, Lohrei, Lysell (??)
Veteran: Marchand
Can argue whether the Lindholms are inner or outer, but otherwise I think this is more or less right.
So, with things where they are now, three difficult questions – is this core actually good enough to build a Cup-contending team around? If it is not, can one or two changes move the needle enough to make it so, and if so, what and who? If the answer to both is no, does that mean you have to properly blow it up and, in a sense, start again? Subsidiary to that, what does that look like? What are the risks? How long might it take?
The first step though, before you answer even the first question, and which is becoming almost certain now, is you have to bring in a new coach and see if that can be the difference maker in itself. Unlikely perhaps, but you probably have to try. Beyond that, it’s going to be tough. Ownership have resisted a full rebuild and its associated costs and perils with all their might. But if they are dragged kicking and screaming to it, what will they do? It’s happened before, and last time the Bruins won a Cup out of it. But it’s harder than ever to come up from the bottom and build a serious contender in the modern NHL.
What we’ll probably get is a sequence. Try a new coach, try a big trade/signing or two, and go the more nuclear option only as a last resort. That sort of cautious approach may well work, or it may simply drag out the misery and delay the inevitable. A rough road ahead.
First up, though, thanks and bye Monty. May well be that he wasn’t a major part of the problem, but only one way to find out. Sucks for him, but that’s the life of a coach. Is it right? No idea. Is it happening? You really have to think so. And then management can only pray that the new guy can work some magic, and stave off all the rest of the above.
