I was so excited to see how the young guys like Baertschi, Monahan, Backlund, Brodie, Ramo, Berra and others play and develop this season being the first year of the rebuilding. I am kind of dissappointed that both Baertschi and Backlund have been scratched already. I am not sure the coaching staff and management's reasoning for benching those guys. I think saying they can't play 3 sides or whatever is absolutely BS.
I think starting the season well made the coaching staff and management to think they have a great chance to make the playoff or something. Just for the record, twice Hartley benched Baertschi, the team did not respond.. they won the game passionately before the benching then the whole team just wasn't in it. The same thing with Backlund, I thought he was playing well pretty much like a sponge, playing defense, skating and even hitting. The next game he got benched Flames lost. Not sure if it's only a coincidence.
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