I’ve seen a couple of comments on other threads suggesting that they’d heard there was more to Skalde’s sacking than has been said. They might have better sources than me but I’ve not heard anything like that.
All I’ve heard is that Todd decided that continuing with Skalde would not be the way forward that he wanted the club to go.
I think KingMo asked earlier what ‘IT’ was that Todd referred to. My guess was that it was the style of hockey.
Under Lord it was possession hockey with experienced players. Gain the zone, cycle the puck and wear the opposition down. If you’re the better team you win the majority of these games. Not all. But most. It’s why for 3 or 4 years we won most of the trophies.
Under Skalde though, we were a younger, less experienced team. We played a quick-counter attack style. Soak up the pressure, and as soon as you won the puck back you were attacking quickly. Similar to how Guildford have played the last couple of seasons.
It worked well against Sheffield and Belfast but we struggled against the ‘lesser’ teams who tried to play a similar style. And even against Belfast we lived dangerously in most games. It relied on Carruth keeping us in games and the D restricting the number of good chances. Once we dropped to 4 D that become tougher and tougher. And I think it’s also why we struggled with Kozun in nets.
So in my opinion, Todd decided that he wanted a change in style. Which meant a change in coach.
And although initially I found the timing bizarre, the more I think about it the more sense it makes.
A change in style also means a change in players. Contract discussions will already be taking place (as we’ve seen with Carruth) and so Todd couldn’t allow Skalde to do them. Which meant telling him he would not be here next season next year. And once that happens, it’s best for all parties that they go in their separate directions there and then.