Reader's Digest version (somewhat
):
Neely was hired, Chia and Clode not "his guys", but they are winning, so he let's them do their thing. Think he was tasked with more of the business side of things than hockey side to begin with. Lots of hockey people in organization, Benning, Bradley, etc., so no need for Neely to be super hands on.
Fast Forward to after the Cup. B's haven't drafted well, they have made some bad deals, signed some bad contracts, cracks starting to show, team starting to age. Chia and Sweeney supposedly not on same page, not getting along. Benning leaves for VAN, and Neely not liking the product, starts to get more involved. Sees what's going on last year and overrules Chia at the deadline. If the rumored deal with ARI was true (1st, Spooner, Krug, other stuff for Vermette, Yandle, stuff), it would have been a disaster and Neely was absolutely right to veto it. Bruins miss playoffs, and Chia gets the axe. Neely's first "real" move as Prez and he promotes a guy he trusts and is more comfortable with in Sweeney.
They see what the issues are and have some choices. Full-blown overhaul, stay the course, or rebuild on the fly. They choose the latter (which was probably the hardest path) and Sweeney begins by shipping out two starters that were going to be demanding big money and one apparently didn't want to be here. He does some other deals, creates some Cap space and re-stocks the prospect pool by drafting a bunch of kids and signing some good FA prospects. He and Neely had to know that the D was going to be rough and hoping that Chara and Sides could regain some of their lost form. He supposedly tried to deal up in the draft to get Hanifan (poss Werenski), so they knew they needed some impact D in short order. You see this again at the deadline when they try to acquire Shattenkirk.
I may be in the minority, but I don't have any major issues with what Sweeney or Neely have done in the last year (3rd for Rinaldo was high, wished they had dealt Loui at deadline). I didn't think that the B's were a playoff team at the beginning of the season and totally had this pegged as a transition year. The team over-performed for much of the year (until the last 10), and I thought they had a shot to make the playoffs, but didn't have them going further than the 2nd round. This was a bonus in my mind, given the transition year.
Back to Neely. He has had "his guy" in place for less than a year, so I think it's kind of premature to judge him on this. I think that Chia and Co were on autopilot when he got here. So, I don't give him much credit for the Cup, but I also don't bash him for a lot of the stuff that came after. To me, he will be judged by what his GM and the team do moving forward. If they fail, he should be held responsible, but it's way too early to judge that.
As far as Clode goes, think he has done a good job getting the team to the cusp of the playoffs, given what he's had to work with. At the same time, I completely disagree with the way he has utilized and developed the young d-men this year. I don't blame him for not going more up-tempo and aggressive given the makeup of his D, but I also question if he is capable of playing that style, even with a better D corps on the roster. He plays it very conservatively and appears (to me anyway) to be a poor "in-game adjustment" coach for the most part. If Neely and Sweeney want to play a more aggressive, attacking style of game, I am not sure Clode is the best choice. However, I don't see much out there that's better (and proven). So, I'm on the fence with Clode. I would not be surprised if he was fired, given the collapse down the stretch two years in a row and Neely's public frustration with his conservative coaching style. On the other hand, I wouldn't be shocked if Neely and Sweeney said, "Clode, our bad, we didn't give you the ammo you needed this year to me more aggressive, and we want you back".
Not sure this helps anybody with their thought process on this and I could be 180 degrees off (but I doubt it
).
