Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
I completely agree that players should be held accountable.
So who on the Flames so far this season do you think deserves to be held accountable?
Do you think Baertschi does?
You said yourself that you think his defensive play has improved. Pretty much everyone agrees that his effort has been there. And most agree that his defensive play has been good, or at worst adequate.
So I ask again, do you think he deserves to be held accountable?
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His offence. His defence has improved to adequate at best which is probably "good enough" for one of your more offensive guys, but he hasn't been on the scoresheet often. 4 points in 9 games, 2 straight games with 0 points and no multi-point games this season. Not horrible but definite room for improvement. Not to mention his line-mates have been scoring in bunches so it's not the quality of players he's playing with that's the problem. He could probably use more PP time, but when you're not scoring even strength, your not going to get much PP time.
It's easy to say sit Glencross and give Sven his minutes, but I'm sure Hartley has his reasons. It's not like he woke up and said "How can I start a meltdown on CP today?" Everyone on the team should be held accountable, but I'm not sure you can treat such a diverse group of players in the exact same way to be held accountable. Pure conjecture but maybe having Stajan back tonight, he's hoping for Glencross-Stajan-Stempniak to gain some traction again. Maybe he's already had a 1 on 1 discussion with Glencross about his play, maybe there are other extenuating circumstances that we are not privy to. I'm sure Hartley's not just playing favourites and wins/losses be damned. Same goes for Butler, I'm sure Hartley is aware of some of his poor play but who else gets put in? No one on the farm is exactly knocking on the door and Breen just got back from injury.
Also, it's ONE game, no need to get our panties in a twist yet. At the beginning of the year if someone would've told us that after 9 games we'd be 4-3-2, I'm sure most would be ecstatic.