What is missing? Burning it all down actually makes sense, but not because this is a fix. It is just a necessity, The empirical evidence is in.
Many writers have commented on the fact that "something is missing" on this team. I would say, quoting Nirvana "something is in the way". Although it sounds radical, sometimes what you subtract from a team can solve problems faster than what you add. We think too much about what to add.
Changing the GM and the coach has to happen, because they have not achieved what they should, but on its own, that does not solve the problem. It really is about the players in the end.
This thought IS radical, but I believe that their main strength is the their main weakness: Matthews and Marner. I sometimes wonder about "the room" and how it works. I imagine M and M off on their own, certainly acting superior to all of the foot soldiers, acting functionally as a separate clique, checking what the are going to wear to the rink and making it sure it is a different colour, M and M are the poison on this team. They are well-intentioned, but their own contracts are the cause of the inability of the support troops to take the pressure off them. I also think there is a character issue, and you can laugh at how irrelevant it is, but.. it is not. I just think arrogance and attitude comes through, and I assume this is a split room, a two-class system, the lords and the serfs.
They need to move both Matthews and Marner now, and get back four 5 million dollar and young players, and think about distributing the talent, but most of all, make sure they care about winning in the end, more than partying in Muskoka.
Sorry, but we have to face it. Its over.
