Jeff O'Neill

They wanted dump and chase.

They wanted to win off the forecheck.

They wanted to win 2-1 and have a defensive style.

Two years ago, they relied a lot on their goaltending.

If you have a new coach, new style, but you build the team to fit that style, it might look like three or four years ago where it was a skill, speed team.

The league is skill and speed now.

It's on display every night.

Watch this Montreal team skate tonight.

Watch Carolina and how hard they are and the details that they have.

So if you do get a new coach and a new style and the manager builds it for that,

Then you're on to something.

That's the only way I would defend that, O, is, again, it has to go hand in hand, the way you build this team, and then the style has to fit the players on that team.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well,

I think by the end of the year, some of that almost felt deliberate because they wanted to get to that.

You know, you got the first overall pick.

I mean, it was a ball dropped your way.

But you don't get that opportunity if you don't fall off a cliff like they did.

And they did.