Quote:
Originally Posted by Canmoore
Maurice is an incredible coach.. he is extremely "hockey smart", it is unfortunate that the team has become disenfranchised with him.
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It is indeed the coach's fault the team is doing so poorly. The coach is the one that needs to motivate the team to follow his lead and that means finding what it is that motivates the players. Maurice isn't doing that, it dosn't matter how successfull he's been in the past. Coaches like players need to produce results, if you look at the player stats you'll see Leafs players are out producing Ottawa players in reguards to points.
So that means its overall team strategy thats failing not the players and the coach is in charge of creating that overall strategy and convincing the players to follow it via whatever motivation that works. If tough talk isn't working in the dressing room something else needs to be applied. Even Quinn when he was in vancouver lost his influence over the players, partly due to too many duties as coach and manager of the team. He followed that up by hiring inadequate coaches to replace him.
As for McCabe coughing the puck up, thats a risk you take with an offensive minded defenceman. The other players are just as responcible for the loss as McCabe, they need to back each other up and play as a team.
There was talk a while back about the Leafs seeking the services of Scotty Bowman, unfortunately it seems to be just that, talk. Thats unfortunate because his record alone convinces players in reguards to his Philosophy.