Green has them playing well. It's awesome but let’s unpack a few things
When Green arrived people pointed to his record and screamed. But if you listened to insiders, they were saying that Vancouver players were ready to listen to Tocchet after not being successful
You look at Smith. He came from a successful program. He's currently coaching in a successful program. So what was it about our program that was a problem? Several players, including Tkachuk the other day, have talked about being tired of losing and committing to playing hockey in a way that helps you win.
My takeaway from listening to various players is that they weren't really ready to win. Ever hear the expression "you have to coach the junior out of them" ?? On our end, we weren't breaking young players into a winning culture
Look at Boston. They seem to be on the edge of imploding. They had Bergeron and Chara. This is how we do it. This is how we play. And we take less on contract to be a Bruin. They're gone. McAvoy never bought into the taking less. Swayman held out for what he wanted. They even had the advantage of two leaders being able to assess players and go to the GM to say "ya that guy isn't buying into the Bruins program"
Back to us. Ya Green has us going well. But you can clearly see a commitment to playing hockey a certain way because it leads to winning. That's on the players. It's also on their past.
