Quote:
Originally Posted by flamesfever
I agree with your take on Sven's potential long range importance to the team, however when you've been here long enough to see us lose some of the best players in the league, because we failed to appreciate their long range ability, there's a tendency to relate back to those disastrous moves by management. I hope Burke and Hartley can see his potential, and not write him off because of his relatively smaller size, and somewhat slow start.
Certainly benching him for the odd game shouldn't hurt his development, however that, coupled with Burke's reprimand in the press, is somewhat disturbing for me. He's still a very young player, and I wouldn't want him to fail for lack of confidence.
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Fans and management have built up too high of an expectation for Svend. His great sucess during his emergency call up of a few years back was the worst thing that could have happened. Fans think he is going to be a superstar and look at the coaching staff and management as scapegoats when expectations are not being realised. He shouldn't be benched, he's not getting enough minutes or he's not playing with the right players.
Over the years a lot of highly touted players struggled when they reached the NHL level. A few even fizzled out and never lived up to thier billing and disappeared from the game. In many cases they couldn't elevate thier game to the pro level.
It's my opinion that Svend is having a real hard time adapting to the pro level. It's not like the emergency call up when opposition teams didn't know much about the kid and he could do what he wanted. Things have changed and teams are aware of Svend making it harder for him to produce at the pro level. His size and how easily he is knocked off the puck is hurting him right now. He needs to bulk up more to compensate for his lack of size. He also needs to get tougher mentally so he can better handle the frustrations of his game. Not get down on himself when things are not going well and use that as motivation to work harder. Right now he's too fragile when it comes to his confidence and that needs to change in a hurry.