I'll go so far as to say I DON'T trust this player group and I'm starting to question our (player) leadership group.
Going back to the Babcock debacle, our "leadership" group gives the appearance of being passive, out of touch with many of the players and generally LACKING leadership in keeping everybody in line and focused on the primary team goal.
We "kind of know" who the "leadership" group is - but do we truly know who the leaders are, and who the committed followers are as well?
Part of the problem I see is that none of the CBJs supposed most-talented players are, at least from the outside, seen as strong leaders. Fantilli hopefully brings both skill and leadership, but that is still percolating for several years. From 50,000 feet, JG and PL provide little leadership - and it would be hard for PL to provide much leadership when oft-injured and/or in the PAP with no contact with the team. I don't know what Werenski provides - not as a criticism, we just don't know.
Boone receives both praise and criticism for what appears to be leadership more by example than by relationships/words (you need both, with example being first in my book). Is Boone truly "the" or at least "one of the" leaders as viewed by the entirety of the room, or is he quiet enough that some of the the room, and especially the talented vets, tend to do their own thing rather than support/help lead/etc...? Sometimes being a good leader means following the best leader - whomever that might be for this group.
I am not suggesting that PV should have been kept - under the circumstances, PV needed to be replaced imo. But I am starting to lean into the notion that not all is right within the room - not nefarious, just not the cohesive team that we think we have with only a few exceptions (Elvis and PL being the obvious exceptions). Maybe it's not enough leaders, maybe it's not enough committed followers? That could also explain Elvis' issues in part. There very well may be some PTSD issues for him, but a cohesive room knows how to deal with a not-quite-right goalie, Whether it is PTSD or just flaky, conceited, whatever, goalies are weird on every team. But if things aren't cohesive generally in the room and no true leader or leadership group that EVERYONE accepts, and no committed cohesive group of followers, then a personality like Elvis drives wedges between Elvis and the team and also among all the factions (no matter how subtle the factions) within the room. Liking one another isn't what I am referring to - it's the ability to influence a teammate and their performance. It's the ability to permit a teammate to influence yourself and your performance. That doesn't absolve Elvis (or anyone else) from fault, but it could explain in part why Elvis appears to not be part of the room and is not trusted (or whatever word you want to use) by the room.
All of the above is nothing but conjecture. Like NotWendell (and others), I am starting to doubt the room and think that coaching moves are just the beginning. I don't have reason to think that any one player or group of players is the poison pill - more like it is a rudderless ship. My read between the lines of the recent statements from GM/PHO Waddell, and statements from players (Werenski, Gudy, even JG) in the past months is that that Waddell may be finding that the room needs to be reconstructed not just from a talent/positional view but from a leadership/follower view. Managing that leadership/following issue is the most difficult job a coach has. IMO, PV as a rookie last-minute add coach did not have the built up trust/cache with the room to effectively handle that issue - hell, it may have been beyond any coach's ability given the construction of the roster. The need may not be for a complete housecleaning, but some very targeted moves, both in and out of the roster. If that means moving on from Elvis, that doesn't mean Elvis is a bad guy or bad teammate, just the wrong fit for the current roster. Same goes for any other player on the roster, from JG/PL down to the #7D - the pieces have to fit completely, not just talent or just positional or just contract amount or just leadership/following skills. Yes, CBJ needs more talent, but just as, if not more, importantly, they need all factors to fit to have a decent chance to succeed, let alone win a SC. I am starting to wonder how many truly fitting pieces CBJ has - not as a criticism of any player, but as an observation about the entire roster as a whole. I have read many others write the past few years about how poorly the roster is constructed, and I generally perceived that in terms of positional strengths/weaknesses. I think some of the Board's comments were going beyond that and hitting on the issues outlined above long before me. Sometimes the vitriol about a certain player clouded the arguments - instead of focusing on just a bad fit, the bad fit had to be a bad player/person/teammate.
I have no aversion to keeping Elvis or PL or JG or any one player (except Jeff Carter) - they may be part of the answer, for all I know. It's possible someone like Boone could be one of the ill-fitting pieces - I personally don't think that about Boone -- but what do I know about how this team functions at practice, in the room, outside the room and on the ice? What I do know is that the current roster DOES NOT WORK. I suppose the old adage "In Jarmo we trust" now becomes "In DW we trust." It's a long road back to 2019; it's an even longer road to conference and SC finals.
EDIT: JUST SAW/READ VT's post (I was typing my thesis). I have my personal opinions but none of those opinions are informed with fact - just 50,000 foot perceptions. VT may be right, or VT may be wrong, as the particular individuals. But t I would agree with VT that some structural/philosophical changes are needed to the room.
