How can people blame the defense? The defense is the most in need of a system for any team and Habscheid has implementing nothing of the kind.
What we're seeing is mostly coaching. This defensive corps under a competent coach could be the best in the world -- young, strong, mobile, offensive, physical. Plenty of experience there, even for a relatively young group. This is the FUTURE of Canada's defense, the Niedermayers, Blakes and Prongers are at the end of their careers -- these are the guys that still be representing us for 10+ years.
Even Jovanovski can be effective with the right coach. But this team is playing at the whim of momentum -- no method, just madness. They play lost, confused, disorganized hockey for a couple periods, then a couple guys start to find eachother (usually involving Nash) and in the third they put together some offense. So basically what we have is 40 minutes of a game the team is just trying to figure out what kind of game they're supposed to be playing. It is *not* the players' responsibility to come up with a system on their own, and that's what's happening. Not trying to make Habscheid into a scapegoat, but the buck stops with him and he's done nothing.