I actually agreed with Brown's article quite strongly. I know the easy answer from the disgruntled crowd is always "fire everyone," but I am taking a more measured look at things. Is it reasonable to expect coaches and GMs to never make mistakes? I think most teams see a range of quality in the moves their team makes and in the way they're coached. It's a thankless job.
I definitely have issues with some of the things McKee does in terms of the same repetitive deployment and under-utilization of the young players. But by and large, the team works hard consistently and has a fantastic PP, which points directly at the coaching. They've fixed many of the PK issues of last year and his comments are usually rational and intelligent. I'd like a little more jam from him at times, but I'm okay with how he and the staff are working. Same for the GM level. He has made mistakes like the Lipanov deal, but with a thin forward group and being early in the season, I can see why he wanted to add help. For the most part he has made strong, level-headed decisions. His biggest failing in my mind has been the utter lack of attention to size and grit. No one needs or wants a goon show in this era, but I hope he's learning that a small team full of passive personalities will get pushed around. I give the GM time to prove he learned that lesson. (And losing Hall didn't help).
For me, there are two major issues: Scouting and goaltending. And how those issues are resolved will determine the success of this franchise. Brown identified both of those as key areas. The scouting has been very poor in my opinion. Some unforgivably bad picks, focused on a few underwhelming Midget programs when far higher end talent was available. And a perceived lack of aggression on working the networks to find American and import gems. Those one or two finds can shift a franchise's fortunes in a hurry. But you can't keep blowing high picks on middling, talent-lacking mid-lineup guys when pure talent beckons.
And the goaltending (with all due respect to our current tandem) has been a big failure of the organization. It's the backbone of any winning team and my biggest concern is that we just haven't developed anyone in that regard. Culina had a good late season run as an OA, but when have we really seen a goalie come in and improve a lot year over year? That is a major gap in the success plan that needs to be addressed.
Most of my disgruntlement comes from wanting to be entertained and be ultra competitive. If you're going to rebuild, fine, but do so with talented kids, not plugs. But the realist in me knows things could be far worse and it's not time to throw out the baby with the bath water. But the bath water badly needs to go.