Frabopoulos writes – firing the coach isn’t always the answer for non-playoff teams like the Capitals, Canucks, Leafs and Jets

As with every season's end there is the call to want to shake and change things up. Either it is the players, the coach, the general manager or any combination of the above.

Gary Lawless, of the Winnipeg Free Press, writes "Status quo won't do it for Jets".  He suggests that the Jets trade one or some of their current core player right now for other pieces, maybe for a few smaller pieces. Ah yes, trade Player X for Player Y and a couple of draft picks and things magically get better.

Sure there is a time and place to restock the cupboards but to say that trading one player for another lesser player and prospects/picks will make the team immediately better doesn't hold water. You still have to get back a quality player to replace the one that you are giving away.

In his own words, "Draft and develop is the right strategy, but that doesn't mean the Jets can't put a little booster in their fuel and speed the process along." That is the trap however. You cannot speed it up just because you want to speed it up. If there is a trade that makes sense then do it but you cannot force these things to happen.

Some times change for the sake of change starts you down a slippery slope to being out of the playoffs. Ed Willes, of The Province, illustrates this with "Willes: The people in charge of the Canucks should take another close look at the franchise they're trying to emulate".

Willes writes that Mike Gillis was trying to emulate what The Detroit Red Wings were doing but then started to make changes. He rhetorically asks "What was so wrong with the Canucks that needed an extensive overhaul?"

The answer was nothing.

From poor drafting, trading for David Booth, adding Keith Ballard, Cody Hodgson, Derek Roy, to trading away not one but both starting goalies. Forcing change did not help the Canucks and now there is finger pointing between Gillis and John Tortorella.

For this season Tortorella says that the Canucks ran into some bad injury issues, they changed their system to accommodate the injuries and he failed to recognize and readjust when it wasn't working.

The problem is that many other people want blood, either Tortorella's or Gillis'.

In Toronto there have been calls to trade players and to dump coach Randy Carlyle to fix their situation. David Shoalts, of The Globe and Mail, pens "Shoalts: Lack of leadership and hockey smarts signal need for new Leaf captain."

The idea here is that the weight and responsibility of the captaincy is too heavy for Dion Phaneuf to handle.

Regardless of your opinion of Phaneuf, unless they pin the "C" on someone that has the character to lead then it will not matter and will not change things.

Later on in the article he does mention that a scout thought that the loss of David Bolland hurt the Leafs in being able to play both sides of the ice.

Does changing the captaincy solve the two-way play problems? How about trying to find a replacement or re-signing David Bolland?

The largest angst that I have seen recently is without a doubt on the Washington Capitals. Players, the coach and the GM are taken to task.

Barry Svrluga of The Washington Post penned a column called "After Tuesday night loss, the Washington Capitals have some big decisions to make".

In it he outlines that general manager George McPhee has been the architect of the team since 1997 and has failed to build a unit that would take them to the Stanley Cup. Maybe it is because some of the players, like Martin Erat and Dustin Penner, that McPhee brings in do not add to the group. Maybe it is because of the guys he has lost like Alex Semin and Mike Ribiero.

Svrluga also points out that Adam Oates might be given the axe because he won't yell at his players. Seriously?

Matthew Tate, of the F Street Faithful a blog on Kukla's Korner (kuklaskorner.com), writes "A Failure to Change for Oates", where he lists a few things he feels are Oates responsibility and the reasons why he should be relieved of his duties.

Remember that Dale Hunter was the coach for the back end of the 2011-12 season and once it was over he wanted nothing to do with it afterwards, a team that had finished second overall in the 2010-11 season.

Katie Carrera, also of The Washington Post, wrote two articles recently. "Adam Oates: Alex Ovechkin 'quit on the play' that led to Stars' fourth goal" and "Alex Ovechkin: 'I think everybody quit on the play'".

Chuck Gormley, of csnwashington.com, also writes "Oates: Ovi needs to hold himself accountable".

Basically in these three articles they point out the lack of effort Alexander Ovechkin had displayed back checking on one of the Dallas Stars goals. As the captain of the Capitals that does not show well to his teammates and to their fans.

Do you trade him away? Take away the captaincy? Axe the GM and/or coach (this is his fourth coach already)? At what point does it land squarely on the player's shoulders?

Stay patient and let him mature, Ovechkin is only 28 years old. Show him that leadership and responsibility is more than just scoring goals. It is possible that Adam Oates is trying to do this without yelling and screaming at him. Treat him like a human being and the hope is that he will eventually have the message sink in and react to it in a positive fashion.

Many fans of these teams and the others that are looking at missing the playoffs this year are looking for blood.

Getting that blood won't necessarily change things and in fact might keep them as non-playoff zombies for a longer period of time.