With the Devils it would be more like the Blaze days. Players would be settled and not getting gassed every few weeks.
As for Neal Martin running the team. That is incorrect. He ran the team no more than Hotham or Fournier did. Your key players will always be the ones making decisions on the ice, especially your mobile D-Men.
After AC/DC he won plenty more trophies. I think people simply have a view based on his post game interviews after a loss plus being coach of a main rival.
As for his poor last season that was mainly down to goaltending. A coach/team is only as good as the netminder. Jackson Whistle was not an EIHL starter.
As for Budget, that may or may not be true, but factor in that budget to what the Devils/Giants/Panthers were using and it may have been far less. We do not know. Looking at the make up of the 4 teams that season, based on NHL/KHL/AHL experience, you would assume Sheffield had the 4th biggest budget, but we will never know.
Did he get outcoached by Lord? In certain games yes. Not all of them though. His style was usually agressive. Payette/Fitzgerald, Armstrong with net crashing. Devils fans hated it but we loved Matt Miller doing exactly the same thing as Armstrong.
Why would it be more like the Blaze days?? The way has team played in those days had nothing to do with them being settled. He had them coached in a certain method. I don't think that method he employs has worked since 2010... Why? Because the game has changed and he's failed to change with it.
The Neal Martin rumours were that he took most of the coaching sessions - so actually nothing like the way Hotham or Fournier ran the team.
What did he win after AC/DC ? Might be wrong but the last time he won anything was 2009/10.... Both were in that roster. (playoff final aside).
A bit harsh to put his poor last season down to goaltending and place the blame solely on Jackson Whistle... He didn't recruit a balanced defence, he recruited forwards that he couldn't motivate and quite frankly got it spectacularly wrong... ''But it was never his fault''. I'm surprised he had a team left with the number that he threw under the bus night after night.
Ok, I'll play your budget game. He had the 4th biggest budget - finished 7th.... That's an awful return.
I think you can make arguments for any coach outcoaching another coach on a given night, but I didn't ever get the impression that his post 2008 teams were particularly aggressive. Fitzgerald was allowed to make his own decisions imo, much like Bordy initially before Lord put the reins on him.
Agreed about Matt Miller, although I don't think he ever intentionally took out a goalie the way that Armstrong did to Bowns in that playoff final.