Yeah I came into the Division at the tail end of the tough times, I looked at the history of what it was like after I arrived, and it looked grueling, a lot of great teams / managers did hard time in ol' 3.12, it has a very tough heritage.
It is always sad to see someone you spent the whole time competing against fall by the wayside, but your right, there seems to be some good and interested managers amongst the new crop.