Assuming that their coaching acumen has not greatly changed over the course of one season, the only logical conclusion is that the personnel is responsible for a coach's success.
But that isn't the only logical conclusion. Of course the players play a huge part in the success of the team. But what if the talent level improved from year 1 to year 2, and the new players weren't effective within the same system? Isn't it incumbent upon the coach to adjust his system to better fit his personnel?
Last year's team was overall much better at playing within Tort's system. This year's team wasn't as good at it and Torts didn't make the necessary adjustments.
By the time a player gets to the NHL, there isn't all that much you can teach them, except for some defensive responsibility, because most NHL players were so good at lower levels that defensive responsibility may not have been necessary to their game.
What else can a coach give to his players, besides defensive responsibility? They all practice very similar strategies.
That's just not true. Every coach employs their own strategies and those stategies can vary much more than you think.
If you are watching the finals, just watch how boston plays in their own zone. They pressure the points more than we do. They use the middle of the ice much more than we do. They have much better breakouts than we do. We haven't had an effective transition game in years. We generate almost all of our offense off the forecheck. Because we have no transition game, we struggle with our offensive zone entries and have to dump and chase a lot.
How do you determine that one coach is better than another?
Comparing one coach to another is difficult. I don't watch other teams as much, so I don't get a good feel for how those coaches operate. I can't tell you that AV will be a better coach for us than Torts was. When I watch our team, I see where the problems are and I judge the coach based on how he adjusts to those problems.
How many times did we get trapped in our own zone for long stretches this year? Time and time again the puck would go around to the half-boards and the other team would easily beat us to the puck. The points were almost always open. We played very passively in the defensive zone.
Torts did nothing to address this problem. His only solution seemed to be to tell his players to play better. Torey Krug killed us in the boston series. Why didn't we have someone in his face every time he got the puck?
Torts came in with the mantra of "Safe is death", yet for 4 years we played the safest system imaginable in front of one of the best goaltenders in the league. As long as it was working, fine, but it wasn't working this year. It was time for a change and Torts didn't seem like he was willing to change.
My suggestion to you is not be an internet tough guy and at least attempt at having a respectable debate/conversation on this topic.
