Yes – he wins so many game 7s because he plays down to his competition in every playoff series and that lack of closing ability burns him against actual elite teams in the conference finals. He’s got a great system in the regular season that focuses on puck possession, gaining the zone with possession and numbers, and relying on responsible forwards and good Dmen to track back to breakup counter-attacks. In the playoffs he inexplicably switches to dump and chase, relying on defensive hockey rather than leveraging his strengths as an aggressive coach. That works for the Stars when playing against less deep/ talented teams like Colorado, Vegas, Minnesota, Winnipeg etc, but kills them against skilled teams.

Winning coaches don’t change to “playoff style hockey” because it’s the playoffs – they dictate the style of play in their series’. Knoblauch and Maurice are back in the finals because they impose their systems on the series, they don’t let the series impose its style on them. Pete can’t or refuses to do that.