Guest Writer: Hold the Lead

There will be Russian Collusion tonight.... between Kucherov, Vasilevskiy, and Sergachev.

Domingue again does a pretty good Vasilevski impersonation against FL, while Reimer was the cringeworthy version of himself seen too often earlier this season.

How is it that the Lightning can be so successful and the Panthers continually mire in this perpetual losing cycle? They've both had good draft positions; is it the management, the location, the owner's, what's the biggest difference?

How is it that the Lightning can be so successful and the Panthers continually mire in this perpetual losing cycle? They've both had good draft positions; is it the management, the location, the owner's, what's the biggest difference?
- LeftCoaster

I feel like the Cats keep changing direction within their franchise "No, forget about THAT plan... THIS... THIS is the longterm plan".

The Bolts, since Yzerman took over, have been on a straight line. No deviation. Even after that weird injury-fueled playoff miss a couple of seasons ago, the process remained. No panic buttons pressed, no change of direction... trust the process.

I feel like the Cats keep changing direction within their franchise "No, forget about THAT plan... THIS... THIS is the longterm plan".

The Bolts, since Yzerman took over, have been on a straight line. No deviation. Even after that weird injury-fueled playoff miss a couple of seasons ago, the process remained. No panic buttons pressed, no change of direction... trust the process.
- OzBolts

I think there's a lot of truth to this statement.

I still believe one of the biggest blunders they made was firing Gallant and replacing him with an analytics 'yes man' of sorts - a guy who would do whatever the front office wanted him to do.

Gallant had those guys believing they could win. Seemed like things were clicking. I know he was well respected by the players and would often go to bat/bump heads with the front office for what he believed was best for the team.

They had poor results with the analytics-driven idea and now they're sort of trying to flip back to a more balanced approach of the old 'gut feeling' and numbers when it comes to coaching/running a team.

That's just my interpretation from different things I've read.