Well Carlyle has made his fair share of mistakes. It would be hard not to with this Leaf team. I had more of a problem with his system last year than anything else which he will be expected to change. I actually think he manages young players better than you would expect. The way he managed Kadri during the shortened season as well as the way he's managed Gardiner by giving him chance after chance to play large minutes for our club even when he makes mistakes. The way he gave Rielly plenty of PP opportunity in his first NHL season.. I don't see anything wrong with the way he manages young Talent.
Oh, and Getzlaf and Perry were both 21 when they won that cup. Without talent any coach would be lost.
First I partially agree with you about Carlyle.
His system, always failing, never saw any change. Either with line shuffling OR the system itself.
2nd, Kadri excelled at the cost of Grabovski. Leafs would have been much better if Carlyle had run the lines with:
Grabo
Kadri
Bozo
McClement
Let the offensive players play the offensive roles. As far as Gardiner is concerened if it wasn't for ****ing Kostka injuring his hand (can't recall the injury at the moment) Gards would have never seen the playoffs. And Gards was the BEST D we had in that playoffs.
2nd, Gards only got more opportunity because Franson kept screwing up. Recall that Gards got more opportunity towards the end of the season not beginning or middle of the season.
As for Reilly, Carlyle didn't wanna play Liles. Liles was in the minors and then later traded to Canes. So on the 2nd PP the only offensive option was Gards and Rielly.
Other options being Gunnar and Gleason. So IMO Carlyle didn't give Rielly an opportunity on 2nd PP, he played Morgs on 2nd PP because Randy "The Moron" didn't have any other options!