I don't know how defending and providing information behind the improvements to their Goal Differential is biased when you continue to point out how poor their defense still is?
The trends show its improved since Mann.
I think people here feel the same way about your views on Kingston / Ottawa to be honest.
You referred to the their bad goal differential / goals against but there were several blowouts under caputi before a few key pieces were brought in that were a major factor in that.
What is you're research based off on this theory that it takes a whole season for a structure change to work when there's a coaching change? No offense but this is something you just talked yourself into thinking is true,
I have been involved in hockey for 20+ years and never heard this lol.
Do you remember the 2018 St Louis Blues who fired Mike Yeo the end of November and won a Stanley cup under Craig Berube the same season? -That was far from a great team on paper too.
Do i think Kingston have a chance at winning the East? -No not really but stranger things have happened and their chance is just as good as Ottawa from what I see.
With respect to culture/structural changes, you need:
1> Players that buy into those changes
2> Players with skill attributes that can support the structural change
3> Internal leadership that can champion the change even when the initial results are poor
This is basic Change Management principles That also apply to sport.
If you bring in a coach that requires a puck pursuit/puck possession type structure from a dump and chase/cycle structure, you need players with skill sets that can accommodate it. Teams that may be more of a dump and chase style may have bigger bodies that are less mobile and aren’t capable of playing an aggressive puck pursuit and puck possession style of game. They work the puck heavy down low and clog the neutral zone and let the opposition carry the puck and come at them while trying to keep the puck to the outside. Think of the traditional Stan Butler style of play. Can you imagine if a Stan Butler style team build to handle his style of play were to adopt a puck pursuit and heavy possession style of play? It wouldn’t work. That is what I am talking about.
In Kingston’s case, they went from a very individual way of playing to a more structured way of playing. Teams usually get 6 weeks to work on it in training camp and the pre-season. They get an offseason prior to that to draft and trade for players that suit their style of play. they then get a full season to continue to fine tune it. That is one fo the main reasons why we see teams make tremendous improvement over the course of the season and scoring goals becomes more difficult in the second half of the season. Kingston didn’t have the benefit of drafting and trading int he offseason, nor did they have training camp or the preseason, nor did they have the first 4-6 weeks of the season to continue to develop. They lost all of that. Mann comes in and has to start from scratch with the players he has. They are well behind the development curve compared to other teams.
IMO, it would have been better for Kingston to approach the deadline as if they were trying to set up for their new system early. It was an opportunity to delete a few players that are questionable in that system and maybe bring in younger players that suit that system and then focus on next year. Get a head start.
What I am talking about is not some sort of foreign made up theory. You can have a team with players that don’t suit the type of style being played and then bring in a coach that does implement a system that suits the style of the players already on the team. There are many examples of that. But in Kingston’s case, I don’t see it that way. I feel they have a poor key skill/talent distribution with varying attributes that don’t fit together. It is making it difficult to to get everyone working as a single unit with a common goal. One of the main positives of the system Mann has implemented is when it finally is embraced and the players within the system are the right players, goal suppression increases dramatically. Offence then comes gradually. But, the goal suppression hasn’t gotten anywhere near where it should be. that suggests the team either needs more time, needs a few different players or both.
You would never get full value out of smaller skill players on Stan Butler team. You’d never get full value out of big and slow players on a Kilrea team. If you dropped Kilrea into a Butler dressing room, half of those players would be gone Almost immediately. Same with Butler dropped into a Kilrea dressing room. This is an extreme example for the purposes of demonstration but the message holds true. Kingston needs time to pick up what Mann is throwing down. It is not all that difficult to see.
Since Mann came in, their win% hasn’t really changed in any meaningful way. They are something like 20-18-1? Somewhere around there. Improvement is marginal. My point is after they have an offseason and a full training camp and pre-season etc, the changes will be far more noticeable on the ice and in the standings.
