Is it Finally Time to Fire the Coach?

Bob Murray made it very clear that he will not be firing Carlyle any time soon.
He has faith in the head coach becuse he brought us a cup. He went on to say
that a major change to the line up would come before Carlyle loses his job if
the Ducks continue to lose games. Meaning he might potentially break up the top
line of Ryan, Getzlaf, and perry.

He went on to say that putting blame on the coach is an excuse for the players
not to play well. These are dangerous comments from the general manager of the
Ducks. The RPG line is widely regarded as one of the top trios in the nhl. Their
play in the 09 playoffs was among the only reasons the ducks defeated the Sharks
and took Detroit to game 7. And Ryan has yet to fully develop into a 40 goal
man.

Breaking up this line is not the answer.

Yes, Carlyle brought us a cup. And his system brought us regular season success
the two seasons after the cup victory. But the game has changed since then, and
Carlyle has refused to change with it. His system is now outdated and beatable.

Ever wonder why some players play much better when they leave Anaheim?
Wisniewski's play in Anaheim the season before he was traded was shaky at best.
This season in New York, he has been wonderful and is considered to be in the
running for the Norris if his play continues. Here he was a second pairing guy.
Now he's in the top 30 among all skaters in points. And that's just one example.

The players obviously aren't responding to him as a coach anymore. They take
dumb penalties. They are inconsistent in odd man situations. The defense, as
bad as it is could be better and has been bad for the last 2 years. How many
games can you remember that we surrendered fewer than 30 shots on goal? Our
coach is a former Norris winner. Explain that.

When you watch other teams play you can find glaring differences in the way
successful teams play and the way the Ducks play. Teams that do well in this
league give 100% every night, they fight for possesion, they make smart passes
that are well thought out, they almost never stop moving their feet, they all
get involved and have a job to do on the ice, and more than anything they fight
hard every minute they play to make sure they win. Watching the Ducks you don't
see that. And it's been like that the last two years, getting gradually worse as
time has progressed.

And a big question has to be, how is Carlyle's behavior as a coach? Last year as
the season was ending he told the media something that has bothered me to this
day. He told them that he didn't know what to do or say anymore to make the team
win. First of all that shows signs of weakness and lack of dedication on the
part of the coach. There should always be things to say, new plays to run,
something. Secondly, coaches are supposed to watch what they say when speaking
to the media. If he was careless enough to let that one slip, what kind of
things is he saying in the locker room?

Going back to having nothing left to say or do, Carlyle never seems to learn
from his mistakes. He continues doing the same things even when they obviously
fail. The line juggling, constant dump and chase, and this addiction of playing
the puck along the boards are among a myriad of things that don't work but never
seem to change. A good coach is a coach who realizes change is necessary and
learns from his mistakes. Carlyle makes changes in all the wrong places and
doesn't seem to notice when the same old thing fails again and again and again.
Maybe he can't advance his game style. Why would we want someone like that to
stick around?

And maybe his game style is better suited for another team. But it clearly isn't
working here.

Murray can seek ways to turn things around. There may be little things that
could help, but think (amazing I just realized this is the second time I'm
making this argument) about all of the teams that were under performing and
turned things around with a new coach. We all know how great a team Washington
was but does anyone remember how bad they were before Bodreau was made coach?
They weren't in playoff position. The Penguins weren't a Stanley Cup winning
force until their coaching change. The coyotes wouldn't have made the playoffs
last year if Gretzky had not been replaced with Tippett who had been fired by
his last team. The ducks need something fresh and new to turn things around. But
the first step is ditching Carlyle. And Murray shouldn't feel bad for Carlyle.
It wouldn't take him long to find work.

And Murray is not exempt from blame either. Sure, Burke left and we'll never
know how he'd do in Murray's place. I'll have another blog on why Murray
deserves to go.

But as a preview I can give you the newest one. He'd break up our strongest
offensive weapon before he ditches Carlyle. The RPG line is more valuable than
Carlyle. They are our future. And Murray thinks desperately latching onto a cup
winning coach who refuses to evolve will bring him success. This is nothing
short of insanity. He is disagreeing with an entire fan base (and I'm sure some
members of the front office) on this.

This blog is more of an attack on Murray then Carlyle. He is threatening to do
some serious damage to our line up in order to protect a losing coach in the
hope that he restores his status as a cup winning coach. If I were the owners, I
would be greatly disturbed and would replace both Carlyle and Murray. And this
is coming from someone who vehemently stood up for both men.

This team is broken, let's fix it already.