I blame for Muller for trying to run a breakout system that relies on a player in the neutral zone tipping a breakout pass from the defensive zone into the offensive zone. It very rarely works, and most often only stymies our breakout as the attacking forwards lose all speed in gaining the offensive zone because the pass/tip did not work.
That said, this a personnel problem. If we had defensemen beyond John Michael Liles that are capable of such passes with routine consistency, it would actually be a very effective system. Oh well.
I also think special teams is an issue that can be laid with him. I get the sense that Muller is trying to recreate ES on the PP, and that is killing the flow because we try to gain the zone as if it were ES. And while our breakout plan works much better on the PP, it is still ineffective in the long run.
When we are actually able to get set up, then it's not too bad. And again, how much of this is a personnel problem rather than a Muller problem?
I don't blame JR. After the playoff loss in 2009 to the Pens, JR tried to add some veteran support and some depth. He judged that this core had at least one more good run in them and needed some veteran support to get them over the hump.
He was wrong, and the disaster that was the 2009-2010 season occurred.
After that, JR went into retool mode. IIRC, he basically said this at the deadline of 2010, where he traded pretty much everyone he could. I think if he had said we were going into retool mode and had neglected to name Chad as one of his "untouchables"
facepalm
, then the current situation would be much better accepted.
Since then, we have replaced nearly everyone of that core. The only players left from the 2009 playoff run are E. Staal, Ward and Ruutu, with the 'Canes in the process of trying to dump Ruutu on anyone that will take him. We did a fairly effective retool IMO, and have gathered a good nucleus of talent- the Staal's, Semin, Skinner, Faulk, Sekera and Ward/Khudobin, with Murphy and Lindholm waiting in the wings. That is generally accepted as a core of a team that should, at least, be competing for a playoff spot- and they are.
But my question to JR is: Is the retool finished? If the answer is "yes", then he should be fired. This core is good- but this team is not. We need depth. The Hurricanes may have some of the best upfront talent in the League, but they also have one of the worst bottom-9's in the League. Outside of Skinner and J. Staal, we get next to no production from that group. If our top line/Skinner/J. Staal is not scoring 3 goals a game or more, we aren't going to consistently win beyond when those players go on hot streaks. Much like we saw in January and December.
The good news is that getting depth scorers is much easier then getting high class players that JR has acquired since 2010, as in Skinner, Semin, Faulk and J. Staal. On the other hand, you could argue that this lack of depth is JR's fault. Signing Ruutu to a contract and watching him decline. Signing Ward to that contract and watching him decline- though I'm much more forgiving of the Ward signing, since he had 3 excellent seasons after that signing. In 2010-2011, he had an elite season, which many people forget. Our drafting and development; if Boychuk and Dalpe had developed to their full potential, this would not be an issue. The only players we have gotten out of the AHL recently are Bellemore and Bowman, both of whom provide adequate for their roles at best for this team.
JR must go into this offseason with the intention of bolstering out bottom lines. I'm not comfortable until we can have games where Staal's and Co. don't show up and we still win because our bottom lines picked up the slack. This is almost contingent on getting rid of Ruutu, but if we have to package assets to get someone to take him, so be it.
If he doesn't do that, then I will jump on the "Fire JR" bandwagon.
