Quote:
Originally Posted by Hustle
The mental issues of this team over the last 3 years have been no secret. Wild inconsistency and just a crazy, intense environment. I really think that it came down to an issue of confidence and these guys would lose it so quickly when something went wrong. It's only been 8 games but the entire atmosphere around the team right now is so much different than that Sutter era - these guys actually seem to be having fun.
Just from a 'technical' standpoint I think there was one statement from Hartley's Presser last night that summed it up. He said that he's philosophy was to create a system that supported the strengths of his players and that would put his guys in a position to win. Maybe my memory is terrible, but I don't think we ever heard anything like that from Sutter. We saw the exact same thing for 3 straight years regardless of roster makeup and it was all about 'hard work' and 'doing things the right way' (aka his way). I get that the players should be listening to the coach but everything about Sutter seemed so restrictive.
Who knows if this team makes the show come April but I see some positives that we haven't seen in years (hopefully they get the PK and some of the in-zone issues cleaned up though).
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This, compared to Sutter's system of trying to put square pegs into round holes....and not changing his approach when his system failed and never produced results.