Quote:
Originally Posted by Phanuthier
As much as people like to brush it off like its nothing, the Flames not giving young players a chance (or ones that eventually do, flame out and die) is a huge problem. Things like filling 13th forward positions with Byron Ritchie time and time again, or even (IMO) Backlund being held back "until he is ready" really hurts the image of your organization. I know a lot of people liked to plug their ears and pretend like all is fine and all the cards are held by one side, but sooner or later, this type of organizational behavior will hurt you... like now.
|
I completely agree. When you have guys like Backlund playing 3/4 line duties there's issues. Im not saying Backlund is better than our other centers, but do we really know? Guys like Skinner, Myers and O'Reilly are not accidents. They were put into positions to succeed and did so. As was Phaneuf when he first came here. They didn't try to make him a player he wasn't and until they did Phaneuf was a hell of a player.
3/4 line duties or bottom pairing defensemen are not what these fearly rounders are used to being. Most of them have been the cream of the crop their entire hockey careers. And all of a sudden they're taken from top dogs getting a shift every 2 min, to someone whos lucky if they get a total of 10 minutes and are forced to grind it out. We need to start letting young players be the player they are.