Is it a case that the team isn't talented enough or is it that the coaches aren't doing a good enough job at reigning them in and not allowing for the wild skates with the puck? I think that Foudy would be less inclined to go for a useless skate if the coaching staff were more direct
It's both.
The team has talent but it's middle six talent or middle pairing talent for the most part. Good, solid depth contributors that every team needs but lacking a true top line/top pairing that can be relied on to consistently contribute.
As someone said much earlier in the season and I've repeated often, this team has three second lines. What I've said all year, they were five players away from being a contender, a better and more consistent goaltender, a number one D and another D, two top line forwards that can bring consistent offence that would make others around them better. The cost was prohibitive which is why I said to sell some pieces and still finish the same as it appears they will.
In terms of coaching's contributions to this there's a number of issues.
First they went from too rigid to letting the team be too free flowing, they don't know how to find that balance. They needed systems that provided options and players need to understand when they can be creative. Certain systems are still too rigid such as the drop pass breakout on the PP. You can see this whenever opponents are able to prevent the breakout instead of continuing to push the puck up ice they will try to regroup three or four times to get everyone back in place before the puck carrier starts to move back up ice. Too rigid, no options and no creativity.
On the other hand when Foudy and/or Angle start holding the puck too long in the offensive zone there appears to be no plan what to do. Just let them hang on and hope something opens up so a set play can fall into place which is why I think too often players are standing around waiting. A mix of letting one player be creative while others are asked to follow a system with no idea of how the too come together.
The other issue is with coaching. The first half of the season they played to win, the second they play to not lose. That shows no faith in the players and what got them there. Certainly as everyone around you got better they need to be aware of that but if the belief is supposed to be they believed in this team then you have to show it in how plan out your game.
The last problem that's not on the coaches or players is everything went right for them before the break and up until the deadline. Every team in the West went on multiple or very long losing streaks before the deadline except Windsor and Guelph. Combine that with no major time lost by key players and you can't ask for much better circumstances. When everybody else that had better high end talent adds, team is asked to play not to lose instead of playing not to win and you start to get normal issues come into play such as injuries, effects of the season wearing players down etc and the team losing confidence in themselves when they struggle you get to where we're at.
A good but not top team that exceeded expectations when everything went as right as it could that fell back to earth when the season played out in a more expected way.
