The beat writers who are at post-game scrums - Lee, Knoll, Cavanaugh - definitely don't attempt to poke the bear even after streaks of bad performance. I just don't think there's any incentive for them to do that, it's not a market where fans demand accountability or anything.
Although most beat writers haven't been overly critical at any point - Stephens would have hints of criticism in his writing over the years but in a market like Toronto, Montreal or NY, he'd be seen as a loyalist. I wonder if there is some unspoken rule/rhetoric from the Ducks press team towards the media that criticism generally is not welcome.
The last unequivocally pointed comment from external media that i can think of came from Lisa Dillman - interestingly she probably knew she was going to quit when she asked it - to Verbeek after 2023 when she asked him how he'd evaluate his performance so far and it wasn't met well.
Although most beat writers haven't been overly critical at any point - Stephens would have hints of criticism in his writing over the years but in a market like Toronto, Montreal or NY, he'd be seen as a loyalist. I wonder if there is some unspoken rule/rhetoric from the Ducks press team towards the media that criticism generally is not welcome.
The last unequivocally pointed comment from external media that i can think of came from Lisa Dillman - interestingly she probably knew she was going to quit when she asked it - to Verbeek after 2023 when she asked him how he'd evaluate his performance so far and it wasn't met well.