Yeah...Kärpät needs to fire their HC Mikko Manner.
- players playing out of their position, can't create a balance between d and o
they are a mess ATM
With that roster, only 5 regulation wins in 10 games
and 1,7 points per game... (3 points from W)
Not a Oulun Kärpät fan but...they really need to fire him, ASAP.
I don't know if Kärpät have that good team. Obviously the 1st line is one of the best lines in the league if not the best but the forward group behind them isn't that impressive. Kristof, Koblizek, Jokinen are fine but inconsistent and Jokinen is regressing with age and Koblizek hasn't developed as well as some might have hoped. Kuokkanen has been disappointing considering his experience and Räty hasn't done much although he hasn't been given a big opportunity to excel. Metsävainio, Sailio, Mustonen, Hermonen etc. are basic fodder. Their defence is quite good with Heshka, Niemeläs, Byström, Sulak, but losing Kukkonen and Krejcik hurt them defensively a lot. Rybar and Annunen are both elite goalies.
Kärpät roster is good and certainly good enough to make the playoffs but when that 1st line isn't scoring, they have tough time winning games. Defence and goaltending will help them keep the games close though. Lukko and Ilves have better teams for sure and I think even Tappara has more depth at forward but they are struggling at the moment for some reason. They don't have any loan players though, which is good considering that most top teams do.
Keep in mind that Kärpät had to take a coronabreak for 12 days between their 5th and 6th games and have struggled to find their gametouch ever since. They haven't had Heshka or Sulak in the lineup since the break so they have been missing their top pairing for half of their games. That would hurt any team. Now they are playing Teppo and Ronkainen on their 2nd pairing, which isn't great and only Byström is able to provide offence from the backend.
Also, Kärpät have 6 wins this season one of which was an overtime win. So 6-4 isn't that terrible considering the circumstances. Out of those losses they lost 3 games by one goal. At the moment they are still 6th in the league in points and actually 4th based on points per game so that 1,7 PPG is not terrible at all.
Firing Manner would be an overreaction at this point. I think you are not seeing the big picture and twisting facts.