Ha, I was just going with anecdotal remembrances from 4 years ago. I didn't realize how serious this business was. But now I'm in it to win it!!!!
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=3741341
JR says Lavi is fired because the system that worked in '06 had been adjusted to by other teams, yet Lavi didn't make any adjustments.
What I remembered anecdotally is the team continuing to play the wide open hockey they had been playing, but scoring 1 or 2 goals most night while the other teams continued to score a lot more.
Year GA/G Rank G/G Rank
05-06-3.15-20-3.49-3
06-07-3.02-20-2.94-13
07-08-3.00-25-3.05-5
08-09-2.92-19-2.56-24 (through 25 games)
(unrelated, but this shows the defense was actually got worse from 05-06 to 07-08 despite the dropping GA/G stat)
So what I see here, is a team that plays fast and loose, and scores a lot of goals with pretty limited talent offensively on defense, as you pointed out for 3 years. Declining results, but lets be honest, it was declining talent and injuries too.
Then we put Corvo/Babchuk/Pitkanen/Seidenberg in the lineup, and we become a bad defensive team that is also a bad offensive team.
Perhaps my recollections were skewed more on the bajillion goals we gave up, because it seems like more when the Canes are 24th in the league in scoring instead of top 5? But, to be honest, I'm not sure Bajillion is even a real number.
But it's pretty evident that things went completely to hell offensively at the start of the 08-09 season, despite dmen who could play offense joining the club. Does Lavi get fired if we were in the playoffs both years before? Not likely. But this wasn't about it being a continuation of the past 3 years, it was a new much more horrible abomination (as evidenced by the statistics) that Peter didn't want to change (according to JR).