Any hockey team will play better when they have a plan in place, just like what they did under Hunter and his defense first system. I truly believe that had Hunter stayed, he would’ve worked on the offense this year. After all, the Knights aren’t all about defense. People were critical towards Hunter in the same way some are critical towards Oates, but Hunter only had enough time to work on one thing, and defense is critical in any sport to form championship teams. Then Oates went on to bring in a system of his own without a real training camp or half of a season to do it.

All in all, any hockey team that has a system to follow will be better, because it means that players all know their responsibilities, communicate on the ice better, and know the opposing man to cover. It’s only something the Caps have been doing for a year now, because under Boudreau, they had every player basically focus on a one-dimensional aspect of the game where there was little responsibility. It was exciting and brought a lot of regular season success, but never transpired in the playoffs. I guess we’ll leave the final decision in that on how far the Ducks go this year. Like I said before though, Hunter was the best thing to happen, and now Oates is taking them to the next level that Hunter would’ve done.