Because everyone loves post-season lists...
5) Jocelyn Thibault
He seems like a delightful person, but we saw a lot of this from TBO this year:
I'm not going to give you the hindsight-aided "should have kept Ty Conklin" argument because that's dumb, but you have to think Darcy could have done better in the UFA goaltender category. Let's hope he improves this summer.
4) Trading Brian Campbell
Actually, it's what didn't happen following shipping Soup to San Jose. Something I wrote about the deadline on 3/3:
I think this year’s deadline will once again show Darcy’s inability to make a distinct decision. Weakening the team with Campbell’s deal but not completely retooling is not advantageous in the long run. We would have been better off if Darcy decided to make another move, one that shows either this season is a lost cause or that we are going to make a playoff push. Doing neither is not doing both.
I think the results of the season don't change my thoughts much.
3) Andrew Peters
Do I really need to talk this one out? Peters was an embarrassment this year, especially when you consider who he kept out of the lineup.
Pat Kaleta is the future of "goon hockey", let's throw Peters under the bus and get it over with.
2) Not Eating at Caliente Corner
I went to over a dozen games this year and not once did I stop by the Mexican eatery on the 100 level. I've been eying that place all year and somehow didn't make a stop there when I was hungry. It just doesn't make sense. I love overpriced nachos, why not pay a few more bucks to get overpriced nachos with even more stuff on them? Totally dropped the ball here.
1) Captain by Committee
Say what you want about the alleged emergence of Jason Pominville(!?!) as captain, but this novel experiment, like Prohibition, failed miserably. No consistent leadership led to, get this, inconsistency in play. One captain, Mr. December, was traded to San Jose in the middle of the playoff push. Even Pominville, the player who supposedly took the biggest step with this system, was at the helm for the worst two losses of the year (Montreal and Ottawa in the same week!), completely killing their playoff push. My how the expectations of leadership has fallen.
If you have any other ideas I'm open to suggestions. I know I have to live my mistake down all summer...
Posts
Not sure this cracks the top five, but the faith management and coaching had (and still have) in Tim Connolly.
ReplyDeleteSure he may have given them all he had this year, but I don't see how playing only one game in a back-to-back situation really helped the team. Instead we saw Connolly one night and Peters the next. That did more harm than good, in my opinion. And that's just when he was actually healthy.