Woody is a great guy, but his coaching is sub par (regardless of his record)
no accountability, poor training camps and slow starts sunk him
wish him the best
Poor training camps is legitimate.
I personally don't see slow starts as a negative like Todd Nelson was the same slow starts, but gradual improvement during the season and then you peak at the right time; I've seen coaches who just push and push for the best out of their guys and flame out down the stretch or in the playoffs cause they burned too much gas getting there and pushed all the players buttons to illicit that top performance, until players stop responding to those buttons being pressed. For a team that believes they are strong enough to survive a slow start and gradual build up, peaking at the right time is the way to go IMO, also if you are executing everything to the best of your ability straight out the gate it gives teams time to adjust and coach there way to beating your best gameplan (I think BOS had this issue last season).
Obviously this season was more than a typical slow start, more of a stall at the starting gate to a severe enough extent to jeopardize our ability to make the playoffs, which we can't have.
With respect to accountability and by that most people mean benching players for poor performances, I think a lot of fans are quite frankly brain dead in how they perceive that, so it should never be as simple as you played bad this game so you are getting benched, it should be done when you think the act of benching is going to illicit the proper positive response afterwards.
So first off the coaching staff did bench or reduce minutes for players, both Kane and Bouchard received this treatment and both played better afterwards. Who else deserved a benching and didn't get one?
The injured or recently recovered guys trying to get their game/timing back? Ekholm? McDavid? Kulak? McLeod? Brown?
The hard working guys, who even if they aren't playing their best never cheat you on effort? Like D. Ryan or Desharnais?
Draisaitl who even when he struggles is still far better than any replacement level forward we could ice and who has shown the ability to brute force his way through rough patches before?
Perhaps Darnell Nurse who I predicted would struggle to adjust early cause zone style defense isn't is his forte, he thrives more in man to man coverage and as a leader on the team I don't think he'd take the benching well and I'm doubtful it would help adjust to the new system any quicker.
I certainly don't think Woodcroft resume is long enough to say whether or not he has it in him to be a great coach or a Stanley Cup winning coach, but I think he showed enough and we improved enough under him to atleast acknowledge him as a good coach.
So many good coaches are the bubble guys that had to grind and grind in every zone and figure out how to be noticed and have any impact on games.
