Foppa2118
Registered User
- Oct 3, 2003
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I was very much not a fan of Roy as a coach. He was a one-trick pony and it worked until Yeo wrote the book on him and the entire league read it. He was a great motivator but bad at strategy, and his assistants only magnified his flaws rather than covered them.
But the real problem with the Avs before Roy left was neither Sakic nor Roy. It was the two of them together. Roy had too much power/respect in the org, and he and Sakic were clearly not on the same page. Two competing visions for the team pulling in opposite directions led to a franchise without an identity, and that's what led to the meltdown. It was like two different teams had been thrown together the day before the game and had no idea what to do with each other. One fast and skilled, one slow and heavy. I strongly believe that one or the other alone could have done better than that because at least the team would have known what it wanted to be. Instead, we got the pile of spare parts with no cap space that dropped a giant deuce in 16-17.
Roy actually tried many different tactics, but none of them worked well enough to make up for the deficiencies on those teams, specifically the weak blueline.
Honestly, look at these teams and tell me if they deserved to be more than bubble teams?
2014-15 Colorado Avalanche Roster and Statistics | Hockey-Reference.com
2015-16 Colorado Avalanche Roster and Statistics | Hockey-Reference.com
Of the 38 players used in 2014-15, only 10 are still NHLers. And that includes McGinn, McLeod, and Holden who are barely holding down NHL jobs. So they had seven legit NHLers that year.
In 2015-16, 14 of the 36 used were in the NHL last year. With Holden, McLeod, and Matthias barely holding down NHL jobs.
Compare that to Minnesota, who were at a similar point in their rebuild, and basically had the kind of success the Avs were hoping to have in that time. A Wild Card team that didn't go far in the playoffs.
In 2014-15, they had 22 players out of 35 that are still regular NHLers. In 2015-16, they had 20 of 33.
2014-15 Minnesota Wild Roster and Statistics | Hockey-Reference.com
2015-16 Minnesota Wild Roster and Statistics | Hockey-Reference.com
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