Master Tank

Bye bye Dallas Eakins! My biggest fear was that they'd keep him around. Seemed like an all around super dude, but man, easily the worst coach in the NHL.

I don't think he really had a lot to work with. Came in with the team already in decline, he wasn't going to turn the ship around with what O'l Slurring Murray did to the team. Verbeeks additions this offseason didn't help things either.

Made some very strange calls from the outside, but when the usual things aren't working, you try anything to get the team going. He was definitely set up to be the fall guy, but he never lost the room.

@Riley-chester I love this roster, though I think Bertuzzi is looking for a lot more, maybe this season makes it so he doesn't achieve that massive deal he wants, i'm told he is a difficult player to negotiate with.

I also assume that the defensive pairings might have gotten a bit jumbled, I think Forbort was meant for 2LD, Fowler for 1LD, and Dumba for 1RD.

Only other minor thing might be to leave Nestrenko down in the AHL and play McGinn on 4.

I don't know about the whole "Never lost the room" part. If you're going to run the same defensive system for 3 years in a row, and it never works, it's either because A) It's a really bad system, or B) Nobody is buying in to the system, thus creating utter chaos in your own zone. Yes, he was likeable, but he was also unable to ever put in a system that brought any degree of success.

And I get that the roster was certainly not good, but the absolute trash lineup decisions were beyond comprehension. Derek Grant getting 1st line minutes on a regular basis? McTavish having his best games and then immediately lining up on the 4th line the next night out?

I don't know. I'm just glad there'll be a new, fresh system in place next fall.

He was trying to spread the offense out to get the stars better matchups to see if some offense could get generated. Grant also provided some cover for Z when he was playing up there. There was no Jones that season to perform that role, though I think we all believe Comtois should have been given it, but Grant can take faceoffs pretty damn well, and that was Z's rookie season, he needed the help in the dot that Comtois couldn't provide. I get what he was attempting to do, and the reasoning was somewhat sound, but there wasn't enough depth to make it work, it probably would have been better to keep a super line together and let the chemistry develop, but again, trying to make sure everyone can play with everyone, seeing what he has in his players, etc. I still don't agree with a lot of his moves, but I have come to understand what he was trying to do.

Edmonton isn't a cap dump destination. And you need to PAY to dump cap in this league.