Agreed, and I feel a whole lot better about that side of things since Hexy hired Knoblauch to join the staff, because it is some tangible evidence that he isn't stuck in an old boys mindset when it comes to coaches. The Hakstol hire proved that too, for sure, but having Gordon and Cote clinging on, and not launching Lappy to the Moon with Vandevelde, muddled the picture.
You can't change everything overnight (and when you try, it usually goes south).
I think Hextall wanted to keep coaches who knew the players with a rookie HC out of college. Now that Hakstol has two years under his belt, there's no need to keep organization guys around. If Hextall keeps Gordon in Lehigh, he must like the job he's doing developing players, and it may well be many of Gordon's PT decisions are worked out with Hextall. Players are being developed (Laughton, Hagg, Morin, Sanheim all showed improvement by all accounts, as did Weal) and that's what matters, not Calder cups.
Same with aggressive play, Hakstol tried that with defensemen who simply couldn't pull it off, Ghost was hobbled, Manning lacks offensive skills and sense, Streit couldn't skate, MDZ couldn't think, Schultz couldn't play - the Farmer was the tallest midget. So they went back into a shell and tried to steal gams.
I think we're going to be shocked how different this team looks this season, if you go back to the lineup at the beginning of last season, quite a change!
By TOI:
F: Couts, Simmonds, G, V, Raffl, PEB, Weise, Cousins, Konency, Read, VdV, Gordon
D: Streit, Provorov, Ghost, MacDonald, Manning, Schultz
