I really, really hope you don't have people that work for you. It would take me forever before I ever blamed by troops for them not being able to accomplish a task I set for them. I'm the one in charge, it's my job to set them up for success, if they fail, the onus is on me. Either I didn't supervise them, or I didn't provide the right tools to enable them.
McDavid and Draisaitl are being asked to do the equivalent of changing a tire with an adjustable wrench from a kids plastic tool set.
I'll continue to blame management until they have an actual NHL team here. If that happens and they're both still cheating and not back checking hard, then, and only then, will I start blaming them.
That's your prerogative. I choose to hold them to a higher standards. They've long enough and had way too many times where they said "we have to learn from these mistakes" over and over and over again with the same issues. At some point in time you HAVE to make real, consistent and tangible improvements. They're young but they've been in the league long enough and played a lot of games already. These aren't 23 or 24 year olds that have only played 100-200 games.
I'm just not sure how you can excuse the Captain and the assistant captain and Leaders of the team from cheating and and not playing hard and doing the right things on the ice. It's insane! They set the table and culture for the team on the ice. You can never have this and have consistent success. Your team will always be a losing team if these are your standards. I can guarantee you 31 out of 31 coaching staff would agree with me about this. What coach would excuse any player from playing the right way because "wah wah the roster isn't perfectly ideal"? Too much of a millennial mindset. Suck it up! Work hard, lead by example. So sick of the complete over-exaggeration of the roster situation to give them excuse to not work hard.
Here's a decent article and in the video around the 9 min mark they lambaste Connor for the 3rd and 4th goals vs the Sharks (and these guys were fairly big Connor/Leon apologists). Zero effort on the backcheck and fly by on the rebound on the third goal. In the right spot for the 4th but did f*** all standing there allowing an easy goal for the Sharks AHL player. You think it's ok for Tyler Benson to play his first NHL game and watch his captain play the wrong way for most of the game? Doing the wrong things when the game is still tied 2-2? An important game in a playoff race and THAT'S the effort you get? They're setting the standard for these up and coming players.... it's perpetual cr** standards that gets passed down over and over again.
"I'm going all in": Edmonton Oilers will definitely make playoffs, says ex-NHLer
Some quotes too:
"But McDavid was also the main culprit on the third and fourth San Jose goals, getting caught out on an odd-man rush then flying-by the slot on the third goal, and failing to cover his man in the slot on the fourth."
"In the last two seasons, no NHL forward has been on the ice for more even strength goals for than McDavid, 157, but no forward has been on the ice for more goals against, 152."
"If we express this same stat as a rate, McDavid has been on the ice for the seventh highest rate of goals against at even strength for any NHL forward in 2018-20. That is seventh highest out of 398 regular NHL forwards. Draisaitl ranks sixth out of 398."
"When it comes to being on the ice for high danger scoring chances against, Draisaitl ranks 22 highest out of 398, McDavid 23 out of 398, reports Natural Stat Trick."