Were they better this year than last year? End of discussion
I’ll take sure signs of progress over what happened last year. They are clearly back on the right track
Stop. Now. The improvement in play has almost nothing to do with Tallon and his moves.
They played better than last year because compared to last season, this year...
- Huberdeau played 51 more games
- Barkov played 18 more games
- Ekblad played 14 more games and without 2 lingering concussions
- Matheson wasn't a rookie
- Bjugstad played 28 more games and wasn't liquid trash hurting the team every single play
- Dadonov was brought in
- They had an an actual coach who the players actually respected who ran an actual system
- They brought in a proven asst coach to help organize the defensive corps
Tallon gets credit for brining in Dadonov, and I guess he gets credit for the coaches. But I feel like assembling a coaching that doesn't actively hurt your team's morale and waste their skill is a pretty low bar to set.
But anyone who tries to pretend like it was shipping off Demers, Smith, and Marchessault and replacing them with Dadonov, McGinn and Michael Haley that led to the jump in the standings (not the cataclysmic injuries) is just plugging a false narrative. Seriously. I shouldn't even have to say any of this