Sullivan takes top blame in my book. Great coach. Hard to say anything bad about him actually. But I feel he made some crucial errors this year.
He refused to adjust to what the Caps were doing. How many 2 on 1's against does he have to see before he tells the D not to pinch?
He refused to give Sprong a serious look all year. Now, unlike most around here, I don't think Sprong's the 2nd coming of Eric Tangradi. But the kid could have helped.
He didn't force Phil to sit at the end of the year, for fear of breaking up Phil's precious streak. Then worse, he wouldn't take him off the PP when it was obvious he couldn't even handle the puck.
He also didn't play the team JR assembled for him (Reaves, Cole). Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but when JR talked about the Reaves trade, and how he wouldn't be played anyway, it seemed he was a little peeved about it?
Like I said, great coach. Hard to find fault with anything he does. But these things went a long way to us losing IMO.