The thing about how long it takes for our players to "adapt to the system" is what irks me the most about the GG era. You look at a team like Vegas, with players that essentially had no history of playing together, and how fast they took off. Is it the coach? Are their core players more driven? Both?
Why does it take ~40 games for our team to wake up and "play to the system"? Why does adding a small wrinkle to the fold like Smith and Hamonic disrupt everything from the end of last season for so long? There's just not enough accountability on the part of GG and the players. And this team will never take a step forward until it deviates from this tedious pattern they always seem to follow by cutting out the same mistakes they're always making.
In my opinion, while our skaters have been putting up better stats on paper, their overall play has regressed. We've been completely propped up by Gaudreau and Smith (and Gio defensively). You put Elliott and Johnson in net with last season's Gaudreau and we'd be around where the Oilers are in the standings.
It irked me as well, but based on my understanding:
Vegas GG's system is a somewhat simple and established system like Hartley's system. It's fluid, easy to learn and moreso requires effort to execute. You know what you're getting so it's a somewhat reliable outcome night to night. It may in the long run have issues due to a somewhat limited play book and high risk of injury, but it works well enough and is at least an entertaining style for a rebuild team.
IMO Calgary GG's system is a new concept hybrid system. It's not a basic "small wrinkle". The difference between Gully 1.0 and Gully 2.0 Smith edition is nearly 15-20ft difference in positioning. This is why we saw the lunacy where up to 3 players would end up bumping into one another early in the system.
Gully's system has facets of several different systems. We see elements of trap, cycle and rush, but this system isn't as fluid as any of the currently established systems. It is expected that this system is more versatile long term though. There are facets of the system which change based on the situation. Dmen for instance no longer default to collapsing in front of the net. They hold the blue line, keep players out at the perimeter, let opposing team shoot muffins at Smith... etc.
This system's also designed an element for player durability. This in theory be important in playoffs where many teams struggle with man games lost. However, the inconsistencies of this system bleed through. When the system works, it works quite well, but when it's not clicking, it really doesn't click.
