Lessons learned? I’m not sure that is part of the playbook in Ottawa.
Oshawa dominated Ottawa mostly because their top end talent was better and they concentrated that top end talent on two lines. They stuck their next best three on the 3rd line. Meanwhile, Ottawa spread its top 9 over four lines and took a balanced approach which allowed Oshawa’s top two lines to expose the weak link on each line. It was like playing their top two lines with 2.5 lines over and over again.
The assessment now needs to be on DC. Plain and simple. Is he the right guy? I know Tourigny is a high bar to match but I don’t think DC is even playing on the same playing field as Tourigny. As some have mentioned, the younger players didn’t develop this year (seemingly), they underperformed down the stretch, and players wanted out to start the season. He doesn’t’ seem to inspire a lot of loyalty. He was recently signed so he isn’t going anywhere but I am not sure of he is a rebuild kinda coach.
Roster next year? Korbler isn’t going anywhere. With DC’s seeming love affair with him on the ice, CLEARLY he is viewed as a key component of next year’s club. So, you can plug him into the #1 or #2 RW position on the depth chart. Rumours are Uronen will be back as well so he’s likely the other #1 or #2 RW. Don’t look at Ottawa to make an Import pick this coming draft. I think we will see Gerrior and MacK back as the two key OA’s that stick the entire season. I’m not sure who will be the other one.
They will enter the season leaning toward a sell-off. First, they have some housecleaning to do with the extra OA’s. The rest will happen at the deadline when they are a bit back in the pack. They will need to make a decision on Pinelli IMO. They align behind Brantford, Brampton, Oshawa, and potentially Barrie and Kingston going into the season. Each of those top three have all publicly stated next year is their push year. Each of them will likely be aggressive. Akey returns to Barrie after missing the year with injury. Mann will likely make some personnel changes in Kingston through the offseason and mould his team. If it works as planned, Kingston will be solid. Sudbury is a wildcard. They look to return a lot of their scoring up front, but they could end up as a seller depending on what returns around them. I see Ottawa (with no additions) as a 7th place team with a ceiling around 5th if a couple of the teams come out flat. North bay will sell and the Petes still need another year. I put them outside the playoffs as an early prediction.
Time for Ottawa to do a measured selloff of the extra OA’s to start the season and Pinelli at the deadline. I think that’s is all they need to do. No need to cut deeper. Bottoming out isn’t necessary, nor advisable. They will make the playoffs, maybe win a game and kee the train moving.
Cameron certainly got outcoached in this series, but even if he had done what Oshawa had done and stacked the top 2 lines, I feel like we would still come up short as the quality of size + talent doesn't nearly measure up to what Oshawa has.
Ritchie - late 1st round pick
Sennecke - likely pick in the top half of 1st round
Roobroeck - undrafted, but we all know the quality of player he is
Average size of Oshawa's 1st line is likely 6'4", ~215 lbs.
Kumpulainen - 2nd round pick; 6'2", ~200 lbs.
Lockhart - unsigned OA with championship pedigree
Rolofs - undrafted/unsigned OA
For argument's sake if Cameron put Pinelli and, say, Foster on Kressler's wing, the skill level would be closer but the size mismatch would remain. Oshawa's 2nd line would also have a skill/size/experience mismatch against, say, Maillet between Stonehouse and Gerrior.
In my view the issue is 67% skill/size, 33% coaching. The skill/size issue that has been prevalent for several years now is on Boyd.
In terms of coaching, others have pointed out the lack of development which I agree with, and not finding the right line combo's or d pairings. Key players like Stonehouse and Gardiner (Mews to a certain extent) underperformed for much of the year. Obviously not having Mayich for games 1 + 2 was hugely detrimental, but imo that is part of discipline and leads back to coaching. As do the 7 consecutive penalties in game 3 (some of which were completely unnecessary). I agree that an assessment needs to be done of Cameron and whether he is the "right" coach to lead this team forward,
but I don't think he was really given a lot to work with here. The 67s were significantly outmatched by a bigger and better team. Oshawa had an import contributing highly productive and impactful minutes as a #2 centre that fit the mold of the team (big and skilled). One of ours was injured (bad break), the other an undersized winger that didn't really find a way to contribute despite being given ample opportunity to do so.
Would Boyd do the Lawrence (+ picks) for Maillet "swap" again? I sure wouldn't. Our imports didn't really contribute. Oshawa got Punnett and Lockhart for a song, while we paid up for our OAs but left issues (scoring from the wing and depth on D) un-addressed. The management of this team just simply needs to be better.
Pinelli - Gardiner - Korbler
Gerrior(OA) - Dever - Uronen
Foster - Whitehead - Horner
Barlas - Amidovski - Kelly
Extra LW’s - Hilton, Houben, Yanni
Mayich/Sirman (OA) - Mews
Marrelli - Brady
Dietsch - Eshkawkogan
Mack (OA)
Nelson
That is a lot of 3rd and 4th line calibre players on the forward group. Three relative rookies on defence.
Looks like we need to make room for Yanni (definitely) and Houben and/or Hilton. I tell you what, Hilton got filled in by Roobroeck but you have to give the kid props for immediately stepping in there against a good fighter. I'd be happy to have him skate on our 4th line in a heartbeat.
Those current 4th line wingers (9 and 28) certainly look expendable at this point.
