Edited Dec. 1, 2022 at 6:38 p.m.
Quoting: dannibalcorpse
How much of this do you think is on the coaching staff? I know the "on paper" caveat always applies, but man...the Senators looked markedly improved this offseason, and I can't believe that a bad 3rd D pair is what sunk them this far. You can shelter a bad/young pair, you can play a mediocre 4th line 7 minutes a night, but a team with this top 6 (and a pretty good 3rd line too!) can't be this bad, can it??
This coaching staff just can't play 2-way hockey to save their life. Either they're good offensively and really bad defensively, or they sacrifice offense to not be horrible defensively. There is no structure, they can't implement efficient defensive hockey systems
The top-6 is much better than last year but Norris injury hurt a lot. With Pinto replacing him in the top-6, the bottom-6 becomes really awful :
Motte-Brassard-Joseph
Kelly-Kastelic-Watson
Kelly and Watson should be 13th forwards (same with Gambrell)
Brassard and Motte should be 4th liners
Only Joseph and Kastelic are slotted properly (and they're not more than average at their position)
This is Dorion's work
We could have had Paul-Pinto-Brown but they decided to not pay Paul (but finally paid Joseph who is faster but not nearly as good)
Brown didn't like to see Paul traded, learned that they wouldn't give him the money he wants so wanted to be traded too
So Dorion traded Brown for a 2nd this summer AFTER we learned about the TC scandal and possible Formenton's involvement. The right play would have been to keep Brown...
The defense is much improved vs last year.
Chabot is Chabot, Zub is Zub
Sanderson is a MAJOR add, he looks fantastic already
Brannstrom keeps pogressing, he's turning into quality
Hamonic is ok-ish, Sanderson carries him into respectability
Holden is not as good as last season but he doesn't have a role as big as last season
Zaitsev is even worse
There is no reason for the defense to struggle, outside of overall team defense and structure (that's on coaching staff)