CarltonTheBear said:
cw said:
The following year, they went 7 games against the Habs, losing by a goal in the 7th game, after outscoring the Habs and outshooting them by over 100 shots in the series. Halak stole it with a .938 save% for the series against a ferocious attack.
I think that's where things went wrong for Boudreau. He took that as a sign that his team needed to dramatically change the way that they were playing, when in reality they were just beat by a goalie who was playing like a man-possessed. Put any other goalie in the league in net for the Habs that year and they could have won the Cup.
I think you're at the very least a heck of a lot closer to right than wrong. That was a +85 powerhouse of a hockey club. No they weren't great defensively, in part because of the style they played. But there was an awful lot more right than wrong with that team.
So he shaves half a goal off their defence to shore it up but takes a goal per game off their offence doing so and they're that much less potent last year.
Wilson made a similar mistake in my opinion with his roster last year. Obviously, they weren't nearly as talented but their skill set was not suited to the defensive style he tried to implement to get optimum results. So they played pretty well defensively in the first month or two but so much was dedicated to that effort, they couldn't score. By the end of November, they're out of it. By January, Wilson gets some help and starts to show signs that he figured it out earning him a reprieve.
The difference maybe today is that Ron still has a job in the wake of three lousy seasons because he finally figured it out while Bruce is out of a job in the wake of three decent seasons followed by one underachieving season where his adjustment screwed up. It's a tough job to keep for a long period of time.
