Two games left before the All-Star break, and two chances left to end on a good note (although the majority of the forum chooses to see it as two more dropped games).
Coach Carbo has tried all his "bad cop" tactics to try and shake this team out of its slump (after 13 games, perhaps we should refer to it as a crash). He has now returned to the old line-ups and gave a day off in an attempt to cuddle and embrace the team out of the "The Great Crash of January 07".
The team has had motivation problems since day one and there is more than an off chance that the downfall of this team has been the coaching staff's pre-occupation with trying to fix it. This issue would have been Carbo's #1 priority, say up until a month ago, but currently it may be harming the team.
Perhaps it is time to focus on other issues, such as the system. Not to say his system doesn't work! After all it did bring us within a stones throw away from the Conference top spot. But maybe the players don't play with the same passion as the beginning of the season, because they have lost faith in the system.
Maybe they are tired of knowing their actions are predictable to the “T” (there is no free flow in Carbo's system, except for a Russian rifle who's out of bullets when it counts). Maybe the defensemen are tired of getting crunched behind the net and in the corners by the fore-checkers in order to play the same transition play along the boards. Needless to say this “break-out/transition” play is better known by our opposition, who is always better synchronized at countering it, than our boys who end up taking a hard hit for nothing, than giving a turn-over in a perfect spot right below the blue-line.
I know it’s the players job and duty to buy in to the coaches system and play it with passion. However desperate times call for desperate measures and patience has far run out in the locker-room. Perhaps it would be beneficial for all parties if the coaching staff changed their preach from "work harder" to "work in order to beat the team". Giving them a different plan of attack might motivate a team who enters the skating rink with the same allure a POW would have stepping in front of a firing squad.
I say give them a new plan of attack, something to excite them and make them believe “Hey we can shut these guys down”, and they might be tempted to drop their "last cigarette" and work to win the game.
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