A big difference so far that I'm seeing this year is Hartley's willingness to play a player like TJ Brodie over guys like Sarich and Butler. I think Sutter would have still had Butler eating up Top 4 minutes with Brodie doing 8-9 minutes a night or in the minors by now.
Even tonight, Brodie was burned a few times with bad plays, but those are things you need to let young players work through and learn from vs. sitting their butt to the bench and moving them to the press box for an extended stay. Instead, Hartley continues to play Brodie (over 20 minutes tonight) and we're seeing the gains when a coach is willing to work through a young player's faults and keep him on the ice and show him he has confidence in him.
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