The core problem?
"I could go on a long, long rant here," Adams said. "I'll keep it short for you. I don't think we've been competitive enough in all areas of the ice. I think we've shown pockets of it. We've shown glimpses at different times but not a consistent hunger and battle and competitiveness through the games.
"To be honest with you -- I think the data would back this up -- we give up too many Grade A scoring chances, which means we're not hard enough in our defensive zone, and we're not creating enough Grade A scoring chances in the offensive zone, which means we're not hungry enough to get to the net and we're not competing enough. I mean, that's battle and will, so we have to be better in those areas."
What about confidence, injuries and COVID-19 disruptions?
"I will never, ever have a team that makes excuses or talks about, 'Oh, my confidence is down,' or, 'I can't …,'" Adams said. "Focus on what you can control. What you can control is going out there and absolutely working as hard as you can every practice, every game, and that's it. And focus on that, and then confidence can build from that.
"So, for me, I am just … will never tolerate excuses. I won't tolerate the fact we've had injuries, COVID adversity. So have other teams. You've got to battle through it, and you've got to find a way, and that's it.
"For me, that's a really important message to the players. Hey, we're in this thing. You show up, and you've got to get after it. That's it. No excuses."
Asked if it was time to start over and rebuild, Adams said he didn't believe in rebuilding with a specific time frame. He wakes up every day looking for solutions and being open to improvement.
"Look, guys," he said. "I can keep saying it. I'm going to keep saying it. It's just flat-out not good enough. I mean, I'm angry, and I would hope that all of you are. I would hope that all our fans are, because that means you care, and that's a good place to start. But what's going on is unacceptable.
"I'm sure we'll have multiple conversations on this on philosophy and how we get there, but let's just start with we need to be better. I've been empowered by [owners] Terry and Kim Pegula to fix this, and that's what I'm going to do."
Adams said he would not be rash, however.
"You're not going to be reactionary," he said. "My job is to take the emotion at times out and figure out solutions to improve. And sometimes that means short term; sometimes that might be for the longer term. And that's what we're working on.
"But am I upset right now? Yeah. Yeah, I am upset, and we're going to have those conversations. But I would never do something because you're upset or because you're emotional on where we're at.
"But let's be honest. It's got to get better."