OldTimeHockey said:
It's certainly not Wilson's style that contributed to that. I mean, that would smack right in the faces of everyone that screams that Carlyle's system is at fault for an average team being 12-7-1 to start the season.
Despite what everyone is screaming about and as painful as it is to watch this team, if you were to open this team up and play Wilson's style, with their 3 top C's out, this team would be 7-12-1 at best.
They simply don't have the defensive skill to play the wide open hockey that Wilson implemented and demanded. The goaltending may lead to a slightly better result than Wilson's, but not much. Not in my opinion anyways.
I'll completely agree with everyone that dressing two fighters a game is a move that doesn't make sense. Other than that, I don't have any real issue with Carlyle's "system"...I mean the team is 5 games over .500 playing without key players all year.
Without any stats or anything, you can't honestly watch the games and tell me this Leafs team gives up less high quality scoring chances than the teams under Wilson. It's a nice narrative and all, but every time I watch a Leafs game this year other teams are hemming the Leafs in and constantly getting great chances that Bernier or Reimer have to bail the team out on.
Everyone forgets that Reimer had a similar stretch under Wilson in a similar number of games as he did last season under Carlyle. Reimer struggled when he was injured. His ability to perform just as well under Wilson suggests (along with the link I posted above) that the goalies are what the goalies are.
Given even a league average goaltending tandem they should have made the playoffs: http://theleafsnation.com/2012/4/3/with-average-goaltending-the-leafs-would-have-made-the-playoffs
I don't even care so much about the goaltending - I think from the eyesight test that the team as a whole played better under Wilson than it has under Carlyle. And I'm sorry, I don't see a coach being able to coach a 12% shooting percentage out of team that he got last season and which contributed greatly to their success in a short season.