Randy Carlyle, head coach of the Toronto Maple Leaf hockey team holds a media scrum after training camp at the MasterCard Centre on Sept 12 2013.The Globe and Mail
To hear Randy Carlyle tell it, he read something of a riot act to his team in the off-season.
What happened last year, the Toronto Maple Leafs coach told his players in a sternly worded letter, wasn't acceptable.
This year, he noted, will have to be different.
"We've asked a lot from everybody," Carlyle said on Monday, as the Leafs reconvened for their annual charity golf tournament. "We sent out basically a memorandum at the end of the season that [stated] the way things were was not going to be good enough for our group.
"There will be more emphasis put on certain things, and we will follow through on our promise."
Asked specifically what those "certain things" were, Carlyle said he was "going to leave it as vague as" he possibly could.
The implication, however, was that players should be prepared to deal with the type of no-nonsense coach that Carlyle had a reputation for being in Anaheim, where he won a Stanley Cup in 2007 during happier times.
The 148 regular season games he has coached in Toronto have been – to put it charitably – a much bumpier road, as save for a few stretches of stringing wins together, the Leafs have been a defensive mess.
Since Carlyle was hired late in the 2011-12 season, Toronto has fewer points (156) than 21 other NHL teams, has been outshot by 1,078 shots (more than seven per game) and owns the league's worst possession rating at 42.8 per cent.
The latter two numbers, in particular, were part of what prompted the hiring of assistant GM Kyle Dubas this summer.
As a result, one of the main storylines entering next week's training camp will be how Carlyle adapts as the franchise brings in a new school approach in the front office, especially given many of Toronto's central failings appear to trace back to his system and player usage.
On Monday, Carlyle attempted to briefly outline a few ways he will do things differently. For one, he would like the Leafs to have three balanced scoring lines instead of relying on the "top six, bottom six" philosophy that came in under former GM Brian Burke and was part of what hindered the team's offence last season.
Carlyle is also hoping for increased competition for jobs in training camp and beyond, which shouldn't be a problem up front given he has more NHL-ready bodies than openings.
And he wanted it known that he would be open to whatever analytical findings Dubas and his team of statisticians comes up with as a cure for what ails them, possession-wise.
"They're a tool," Carlyle said of the analytics. "And we'd be foolish to come here and say that we're going to ignore the tools that are made available to us. Simple as that."
So he has new assistant coaches. New players. New ideas and new analytics.
The important part, however, is what comes next, and if Carlyle can produce some new results – and do so with his job likely on the line.