TL;DR - I'm getting frustrated. But I'm beating the "Let Gully's system mature" drum even though I'm angry and it would be easy to join the we need a coaching change bandwagon. I think our roster is fine. IMO it's a improperly deployed system and square peg/round hole sort of thing going on that's making our team do this Jekyll and Hyde thing.
I honestly think it's a combination of system and bad mix of players. For Gulutzan, he has been with us 1.5 seasons and we are literally on a 3rd iteration of his system.
Prior season
1.0. Overly complicated, had issues with buy in. Most of it was shrugged off as growing pains for a coach.
2.0 Simplified system. What our team was playing last season when they started surging. However, I believe it's a rush styled system, not a cycle styled system that 1.0 and 3.0 are based upon.
--------------------------
Current season
3.0 Smith system designed to use the goalie as a puck mover. I have never EVER seen so many players crashing into each other during the pre season and beginning of season. It was ridiculous. The players at first would bunch up together in groups of nearly 3 players. Whatever the heck it is, it's a modified complicated system 1.0. Rittich can somewhat survive in front of this system. Sometimes it seems to work. Other times, it's an abomination.
1.5 Whatever the crap was in front of Lack. It was 1.0 complications all over again, but different. D felt passive and sluggish. Somewhere in between a swarm and Hartley collapse the front.
Then the corps
Gio - Good D, good offense. Sacrificing offense to be defensively responsible for his partner.
Hamilton - Meh D, great offense. Unsure if offense is good and just relying on Gio to cover for him.
Hamonic - Good D, crap offense, horrible understanding of the system in d zone and o zone. Hamonic is attacking, but I don't think he should. I bet they told him to be offensive minded because we know even guys like Russell and Engelland attacked under Gully's system.
Brodie - No d, meh offense. He is way too aggressive and with Hamonic being new, it's a really confusing style to play with. This isn't a LD/RD thing. He played fine on LD with Engelland. He's essentially hanging his partner out to dry. IMO he needs to be told to play shut down D to build chemistry with Hamonic.
Personally I think it's a combination of things.
1. System is forcing players to play in ways not necessarily flattering to their style. I'm guessing Gully wanted the team to quickly transition from a run/gun style to a new theory cycle/puck moving game. It's way too different a system. I don't know whether to blame Gully for not bridging and simplifying the system, or say that the team needs to learn the system and we need to wait through the growing pains.
2. The system relies heavily on puck movement, but is designed too passively. The amount of time I see players waiting for the puck to come to them is ridiculous. Sure, it helps greatly to reduce injuries of players, but there are serious flaws IMO in terms of zone entry and positioning. We can scare teams at the blue line using Hartley's zone entry system (Edmonton game p3). Gully's is not remotely close to menacing which allows teams to hold their ground at the blue line (most other games). The system also has a flaw which causes our players to run into one another.
3. The system is not fluid. Watch how often players are standing around waiting then accelerating from a stand still. This makes our players look slower than they really are, and puts them at a disadvantage IMO. This is why our players (especially dmen) look several steps behind. Because the system expects them to plant. They are always several steps behind on acceleration IMO when the puck bobbles.
4. Glender mix. Other than 3M, the chemistry for players elsewhere is a mess.
5. I am wondering if the physicality of some of our players was removed in the name of "discipline".
Overall, I honestly feel that what Gully has on hand for a roster is better suited for a trap style rushing game, perhaps somewhat similar to what Ottawa employs. This team is fully of players great for rushing, not cycling as Gully seems to like doing. The greatest flaws in Gully's system were strengths of the Hartley system so I'm leaning towards misuse of the roster/bad match in system. This IMO was most evident in period 3 vs Edmonton. As insane as this sounds, we have a roster that IMO would flourish under a defense first style system. As long as the team is defensively responsible, the group as a whole can game break due to the complete randomness of which players can suddenly rush and be dangerous. Sutter and Tippett might not be bad coaches to whip them into shape. I also think the play style is giving the team less space to play with.
However points for Gully
- He's got a winning ratio. He's not as bad as Eakins at the NHL level.
- The system is designed for player health. This might begin to shine more later in the season in comparison to Vegas' GG whose team is fizzing out now due to injuries. We probably would have lost just as much of the roster to injuries under a Hartley styled system. However, I would have liked to see our roster limping off the ice after that series rather than healthy.
- His system has more structure than Hartley. However, as I mentioned, I think he's on iteration 3.0 in 1.5 seasons. The system might be too complex.
- His system broke the Honda Centre Curse.
- He's been with us 1.5 seasons and made it to the playoffs. He is not doing a Jack Adams level of flop worthy of a firing.
- He's been scarily average, but also holds a system that is arguably not even properly deployed yet.