I see no sign that Oates is realizing his system has failed.
He blames an icing. During his era, icing was used by all teams to relieve pressure. The limiting of line changes aside, its still better to ice it instead of turn it over for a odd man against.
His system has players so confused that we cannot even execute a faceoff, and he blames an icing. 4 failures off the draw. How can the team expect to get better when the problem with those 4, was the icing?
We eek out our wins on the PP and shootout. Should we be gifted in, we are going to get smoked in the playoffs.
He's always talking about "the mistake". Like there's one or two THINGS he can isolate and then fix with his convoluted methods. The problem isn't the system or motivation or anything else, it's A MISTAKE made by the players, who he will name in the press before even engaging in his method of consulting with his coaches to determine the best way to gently approach the player about it.
Yet at the same time he blows off talk about mistakes and claims he doesn't want to dwell on that stuff, and that he'd rather build players up with positives and encouragement because that's what he wanted as a player.
It's a pattern with Oates. He wants it both ways in all things and he talks out of both sides of his mouth: It's a rookie mistake, but vets make it. Stats are meaningless, but Beagle was on the wrong side for a faceoff because of percentages. He's not engaging in amateur psychology, but then describes a litany of amateur shrink moves and theories. He doesn't yell, but claims he's raised his voice.
Oates is a narcissistic ******** artist who pays lip service to the concept of treating players like he wanted to be treated while he cherrypicks the aspects of coaching and leadership he feels comfortable with.
