no name wrote:We were riding a high having Sid and Geno back in place, we were poised to take over the top seed in the Eastern conference. We blew a tire and never recovered befor the playoffs. Pretty simple, then all parts of the team were not working insync. Actually when the ship is going down its the coach who has to find a way to right the ship. And he didn't seem to do that. But the players were out of control trying to send messages when you are down in a series is not going to get you anywhere.
Any team with Crosby and Malkin are going to always have a shot at being good. They are game changer type players.
But what we saw go down last year against Philly was a system-wide, team-wide breakdown.
Sure, the players appeared out of control flailing about at bad times trying to send messages that were wrongheaded and pointless.
In my experience watching sports, when you see an entire team fall apart, it's more the coaching staff's fault than the players. Let's remember, these weren't games that the Pens *just* got edged out, or lost on a bad bounce late in a tight game. It looked like an NHL team playing Peewee leaguers.
HCDB had no answers for what the Flyers were doing. When he had no answers, the players were left to find their own. And we saw how that turned out. A bunch of guys seemingly never on the same page as a unified Flyers team ran them silly and kept lighting the lamp.
I think HCDB is on the hotseat this year. While I don't see a midseason firing in the works, even if the Pens have a middling record (since it's a strike-shortened year that will be cover), I think that what we see from the Pens through the season is going to show us whether or not HCDB has gotten a handle on his and the team's deficiencies and straightens this thing out. I'm hoping that happens, since the Pirates and Steelers have left a bad taste in our collective yinzer mouths this year.