ITM
Out on the front line, don't worry I'll be fine...
- Jan 26, 2012
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Making the playoffs and succeeding in the playoffs are two different things.
I think the idea that our regular seasons totals are a hedge against continued failure might have been timely (and I argued as much) a season or two ago.
But the problems aren't numbers. We have absolutely jumped the shark there. Consecutive Rocket winner, team records, etc...Great.
Our calculations have to shift towards other indicators in order to worry differently. And what I mean by that is (using your word "worried") there's a peripheral eye-test not being met. All valid problems and concerns that you've pointed out as others have. It's not the anomalous stuff that's worrisome.
It's the affect of a team that appears over and over again to be listless, confused and apathetic. Maybe that speaks to the quality of our bottom six and lack of menace on the blueline. Or maybe there's a problem with discipline. Because the team character doesn't convey a sense of industry.
My personal call to move Keefe, to trade Kerfoot on principal -- even and especially when we're winning, and in light of Borje Salming not being able to move the inspirational dial -- is an observation against the numbers and entirely about character and resiliency.
I think it's unlikely that our club finally finds itself under Keefe..."this time." by way of demonstration these past 20 or so games. I think our opportunity to come out of the gate hungry was collectively shelved in favour of acclimation and comfort. And sure, some our talent is elite and they can turn it on...in the regular season.
This idea of "turning it on" only works in the regular season.
I think on top of a championship acumen, what a coach like Barry Trotz might convey is the golden rule of work ethic in a way Keefe can't.
Boston's ahead perhaps in small part because irrespective of who is coaching, there's a cohesion of learned experience in the room that is not allowed to be compromised.
What about our group speaks to an identity that regards compromise as something detestable?
Shanahan once imposed a January deadline on Randy Carlisle. I think it might be here for Keefe. If it's April/May, do we run the risk of losing out on Trotz or Quenneville? Is that the type of managerial decision we want to engage in, all allowances known, with this group, two years from a historic franchise piece deciding his future?
For a player that just won the Rocket twice, upped his physical game, declared he just wants to win, aaaannd, is on record as saying he wants another goal song...I hope management is considering all possible outcomes with a dispassionate eye to the near and distant future.
