He’s a good coach. In a very tough position right now.
Ottawa wants to implement a Bruins style of play - DJ said this - and when you’re losing the fans want to see goals and flash and as a coach you have to decide between a player who might not compete hard or play the style you want (Galchenyuk, White) vs someone who will - Mike Haley. So do you lose trying to build the culture you want and have faith that eventually your investment in the “system” works and you start to win? Or do you stick with flash and goals and hockey you don’t want ESPECIALLY if you’re losing, because you end up with Mike Hoffman glaring at you on the bench because he’s been allowed to be a princess all season.
lose of your shield as Don Cherry would say - no it’s not. It’s building a system and culture so when it’s there everyone knows what it is and what’s expected. When you play for Torts, Barry Trotz, Claude Julien you have to play a certain style of hockey. It’s winning hockey but not every player can do it.
Why it looks bad right now is to implement the system you’ve gotten your toughness and grit and the elements you want to add up to winning from fringe players - Cobourn, Gudbranson, Anisimov. To win with a Bruins system you need the studs like Chara/Bergeron/Marchant who play in top situations with that grit and compete because your culture has to come from your top players.
Brady Tkachuk is 1, Sanderson is 2, Stutzle is 3 - Chabot hasn’t gotten his game to a Doughty/Keith level yet. Norris and Batherson help but aren’t there yet. Connor Brown and Nick Paul helps.
but overall, we don’t have the pillars to win yet. So do you let Galchenyuk and Logan Brown skate around playing loose easy hockey and not building your culture, or do you throw Mike Hailey in there to send a message that we are going to stick with it, and we are going to break through.
Once the coach sacrifices the system he’s done. I have faith DJ will break through. Winnipeg will be shook today, we’ll win with Hogberg and hopefully it’s the start of something.
