krutovsdonut
eeyore
- Sep 25, 2016
- 17,656
- 10,380
The tried Podkolzin as an energy guy with better players. His cluelessness defensively limited him to limited minutes. The final straw IMO was Game 82 last year against Winnipeg where he was lost defensively on 3 different goals and turned in maybe the worst performance of his career, after they'd been doing everything possible to get him to sort these issues for 2 years. Again : this player was not tossed away lightly in terms of either effort or time. They badly wanted him to be part of this team going forward. He just didn't do his part.
Tocchet wanted to use Hoglander just fine last year. Hoglander played the best hockey of his career under Tocchet. The organization extended him. Then he regressed to the garbage play that made Green and Boudreau bench him, too. It's so tiresome hearing that Hoglander's problems are Rick Tocchet instead of the bad habits and low IQ that have plagued him for pretty much his entire career. Tocchet was the only one to actually fix these things, albeit temporarily.
the fact a player repeatedly struggles under a coach does not mean it is the player's fault. it also does not mean it is the coach's fault.
many such cases.