Alot of time has been wasted on that topic. It's a large topic and huge part of this teams future. Seeing him at OHL CUP sends a strong message to me, changes are not coming. Whether players ask for trades or not come back when we think they are all remains to be seen. That's all part of this new look OHL where teams will be forced to become 4 year teams possibly with 1 or no OAs and having younger players making impacts earlier in careers. The Draft has all of a sudden become so much more important to find Now players like Edward's, This board is informative at times and how things break, someone hears something and then there is a discussion, bunch of opinions agree or disagree. Talk about players and how we see their play etc That's how a FORUM works there is some really good sources and Hockey Minds in the group just wish there were more willing to get a chat going and actually post something.. Sure we all knew there would a Shame poster supporting the coach etc but that's kinda fresh after the direction we have taken last 3 years yes I'm including the loss to London that should have never happened (that still hurts). I'm still holding on to an outside chance new owner comes in and after this draft class is selected,drops a Bomb and cleans house top to bottom. Yes including Letang! I don't hate the guy, think he has some good points, possibly a better Asst coach than a HC, just feel we would be much further along and in better spot with a real HC, Also tired of him blaming everyone else but himself for the last 3 years of underachieving.
Ugh, to read what I wrote and think I’m a letang defender …
Oh no, I’m about to become what I just ranted against and give my opinion of letang
Was astounded by surzycias usage down the stretch… I was sure Nick must’ve been hurt, but he wasnt
I was always angry to see edwards on the wing, but was proven wrong an annoying amount of times (might be more due to edwards being great though)
I always think I know best when to call a timeout and don’t think they’re ever used properly. But with such a young team I feel like he never used them to reset / regroup in moments of panic. Strikes me as a bit of deer in the headlights once the game has started.
The constant line juggling is frustrating but there were a lot of inconsistent efforts with how young the team was. If karimov had just been handed the minutes because of his skill, it would’ve sent a bad message to everyone, and also not help karimov himself develop, finding the balance of what minutes a kid deserves based on skill and effort changes on a week to week basis especially with rookies. I’d argue karimov learned that this year and showed how much better he can be down the stretch. I think karimov might be more of a success story this year than people here acknowledge. Handing out consistent minutes to anyone just because they have skill/potential when their effort isn’t consistent can’t be done on rebuilding teams imo.
Loved the matsos hire based on his resume, honestly thought it was obvious he was going to take over next year. Having said that, our record after he joined…. Ha, not great.
What i despise is when coaches are given their first gig in Sarnia. We should demand better / more experience/ track record unless someone rookie coach blows the brass away in an interview or methodology. I realize the term “rookie” here isn’t the truest sense of the word. I’m referring to the Haley/jeffries/galchenyuk hires (even hatcher tbh but nothing we could do about that)
