I’m not blaming Cronin for all of this, but I am comfortable saying that Eakins was exponentially better at motivating his players to come out ready to play, and to get them to play motivated for much more of a 60 minute game. He was also exponentially better at post-game interviews and analysis. And the team was more fun to watch when the rosters were equally deficient in overall talent.
I do wonder just how much his letting Zegras develop his offensive game and not force him to play in a defensive structure annoyed Verbeek though.
Roster talent is most often the culprit of bad seasons. Last year, the roster was abysmal, especially on the blue line. This year, there's a bump in talent at forward (more GF pre-TDL) and significant bump in talent on the blue line (far fewer GA pre-TDL). Same PP coach for the two years and different PK coach for the two seasons.
As you cited, there was more activity under Eakins last year than there has been under Cronin this year, despite having less talent. Not only do we visually notice this, but we have metric to assess the comparisons as well.
- Ducks team with talent (to start the season), Eakins
- 2021-22 pre TDL: 62 games, Record = 27-25-10 (64 pts), Pts Pct = 51.6%
- 2021-22 at All-Star Break: 48 games, Record: 23-16-9 (55 pts) 3rd in Pacific
- 2021-22 pre TDL: GF = 180, GA = 197, GD = -17
- 2021-22 post TDL: 20 games, Record = 4-12-4 (12 pts), Pts Pct = 30.0%
- 2021-22 post TDL: GF = 52, GA = 74, GD = -22
- 1-goal games, pre TDL: 32 games, Record = 13-9-10 (36 pts), Pts Pct = 56.3%
1-goal games, post TDL: 6 games, Record = 0-2-4 (4 pts), Pts Pct = 33.3%
- Ducks team, Eakins
- 2022-23 pre TDL: 61 games, Record = 20-34-7 (47 pts), Pts Pct = 38.8%
- GF = 156, GA = 252, GD = -96
- 2022-23 post TDL: 21 games, Record = 3-13-5 (11 pts), Pts Pct = 26.2%
- 2022-23 post TDL: GF = 53, GA = 86, GD = -33
- 1-goal games, pre TDL: 23 games, Record = 13-3-7 (33 pts), Pts Pct = 71.7%
1-goal games, post TDL: 11 games, Record = 2-4-5 (9 pts), Pts Pct = 40.9%
- Ducks team, Cronin
- 2023-24 pre TDL: 62 games, Record = 23-36-3 (49 pts), Pts Pct = 39.5%
- GF = 164, GA = 217, GD = -53
- 2023-24 post TDL: 8 games, Record = 0-7-0 (0 pts), Pts Pct = 0.0%
- 2023-24 post TDL: GF = 7 GA = 35, GD = -28
- 1-goal games: 27 games, Record = 13-11-3 (29 pts), Pts Pct = 53.7%
1-goal games, post TDL: 0 games, Record = 0-0-0 (0 pts), Pts Pct = 0.0%
When Eakins had a healthy, talented team to start in 2021-22, he showed he can win a lot of games. If he shortened his bench earlier to start the season, then he could have earned more points or win more games. Imagine if Comtois actually was hungry to play instead of mailing it in once he got paid that season?!
Last year, everyone was hung up on odd things such as Regulation Wins despite winning games to start the season or the high volume SA despite coming away with points and wins, which I identified we were doing on purpose because it did generate points and wins.
I recall how often we meme'd "Are you not entertained?" in GDT's last season. But this year, we kinda fall asleep often because it's been boring on top of losing. We have been shutout nine times this year with a plethora of games left to witness. Last season, we got shut out four times before the TDL and only once after the TDL.
It's the post-game interviews that we notice how Cronin gives out responses that he has no answers and that it's his very young team that needs to figure it out. Does Cronin know he's got a very young team that needs development, guidance, and constant re-teaching if needed? I don't think Cronin's a good development coach at the NHL level, but maybe he can improve over the summer? Or maybe he can contact Getz on how to relate to today's youth?