The disparity between a successful head coach and his team can be easily defined by how their team reacts when their back is against the wall, and this week, albeit in two very different markets, two coaches responded in drastically different ways after their hockey team's third loss of the playoffs.
Jon Cooper responded with the following:
"if you're not going to believe, you don't have to come,"
when referring to his players and whether he wanted them at the rink if they weren't going to put in the effort required to win a hockey game.
What is apparent and abundantly clear is that Cooper acts like he's been there before but makes no excuses for his hockey team that has won in the past, and although they have struggled at times this season, they still have a winning culture that is shared in large part due to a successful coach. Cooper holds his players accountable, and that in itself makes all the difference.
It feels as if Sheldon Keefe allows the inmates to run the asylum, and he has no control over them. As fans and the like have seen recently and over the last eight years, their is no urgency in how the team plays, and although you can make the argument that players play and coaches coach, Keefe has lost the room and, as such, needs to go.
