On the Fan 960 this morning they were interviewing Giordano and they asked him directly about this and to paraphrase, he said that there is a different feel with McGrattan in the lineup and that he is an important part of the team. Other teams are taking less liberties with the Flames.
In fact, he said he got popped in the LA game and McGrattan skated over to the Kings bench and said a few words and the Kings calmed down and were less physical for the rest of the game.
Now I expect to hear some posters disregard this because Giordano is a player and he is being biased; however, I am going to take his word on this because of how he answered some of the other questions in the interview. To paraphrase again he more or less said that the veterans that were traded from the team (we can assume Iginla, Tanguay, Bouwmeester) refused to play Hartley's system and the reason that the team has success this year and is exciting to watch is because they are able to buy in without these players around. That is pretty candid and unbiased.
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