No Bridge for This Road
BM owed it to Carlyle to begin the season as head coach. Once it was clear he wasn’t the answer, it became a matter of who the next guy would be.
After Joe Quenneville was fired in early November, he became the ideal candidate in the minds of Ducks fans. Unfortunately, he was not eager to continue coaching this season and is awaiting the offseason to mull over his options.
Besides Coach Q, fans wanted to see Dallas Eakins get promoted. With Anaheim not being serious contenders and the number of talented prospects in San Diego, it would be a mistake to disrupt their development.
With little practice time remaining, any interim-coach would find it difficult to make major changes to the systems in place and would likely come from the current staff. If fans don’t like Carlyle, I highly doubt you want guys employing his techniques taking over. RC’s contract is up at the end of the year, so GMBM is already engaging in a search for his eventual successor and I prefer he spends his time there.
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The Players Aren’t Helping
My next point is the easiest to see, but the hardest for fans to comprehend. While RC systems aren’t helping his players, the entire roster (outside of Gibson) has lacked emotional engagement from the moment puck dropped on opening night.
Not to their own fault, Anaheim’s players have had a lot to deal with the past couple seasons. Kesler’s career effectively ending two years ago, the game 7 collapses, the embarrassing sweep at the hands of the Sharks, the injuries, and the list goes on. It’s almost as if the Ducks have been dealing with what appears to be a “locker room depression.”
Whatever the reasoning, the players have not done what’s necessary to win. For perspective, here’s the list of areas the players have done well in this season; Gibson stopping the puck, end of the list. Subsequently, the following is a list of areas the players have not done well in: fighting for loose pucks, making outlet passes, looking where they pass to, not passing to the other team, leaving guys open in the slot, having a power play that creates more opportunities than the opposing team’s penalty kill, hitting, taking a shot on net…
As Eric Stephens reported via the Athletic, Ryan Getzlaf recently commented, “When you’re in a locker room, if you always have one or two guys taking, the message gets old… delivering the same message all the time, eventually the guys tune it out.”
If fans believe the team has given up on Carlyle, it definitely appears they also gave up on the team’s leadership. In actuality, neither is singularly responsible, but a combination of both created the current turmoil.
Bob Murray has continually stated he is waiting for the leaders on the team to show themselves. On Sirius radio, Mike Rupp echoed the sentiment, “This is character check time. We’re not winning the Stanley Cup. Let’s see which guys we wanna be a part of this moving forward. The right leaders who aren’t going to quit on this team. I wouldn’t really do anything.”
Elite Talent via the Draft
At the heart of Mike Rupp’s comment to remain status quo, as well as many others, is the Ducks can potentially be picking an elite talent like Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko via the draft. After last years playoff debacle, Murray stated, “But in making the playoffs, did we screw up some other things? That’s where I’m trying to get my head around.”
The Ducks have several high-end prospects, like Troy Terry, in their pipeline, but are in dire need of elite talent. Eventually, the Anaheim Ducks will have to replace Getzlaf and a prospect of that caliber has yet to enter the system.
With only 27 games remaining with Carlyle. It’s time for fans to accept the losing streak as a positive and embrace the tank.
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