Quote:
Originally Posted by Drury18
I think Baertschi's situation is unique as it's not just his play against him but his work ethic and attitude. Like I said, there is a bit of a pattern emerging which the Flames do need to keep an eye on in case he does turn into a lost cause and we are unable to move him for something beneficial for us.
You can take a "lesser" player like Hanowski for example who was told his skating was poor last season and so he stayed in Calgary and worked hard and made it his mission to improve it and drop weight to make an effort. While he might not be the same skill level as Baertschi, he's putting in a ton of effort to try to improve himself. If coaches criticize or bench him, he takes it personally enough to signal he needs to change things, but not to the point it crushes his spirit.
Baertschi, he took the criticism from the previous season and didn't seem to change anything or anything very noticeable. No extra work in Calgary with the Flames staff, was pretty adamant he was sticking to his game and just didn't seem to show that "I'm a sponge, give me all the info you can to make me better" attitude that a number of the other prospects have. When benched, he still doesn't seem to say "I need to change something" he still sticks with his game. He's stubborn and unfortunately he hasn't shown enough that he's good enough to be that stubborn. He needs to change that to have a better chance of success.
I still think most of this is because he's young and acting like any other 21/22 year old, however I recall at 22 this excuse starting to wear out and my employers/professors didn't care I was young. I could see the Flames starting to get to that point after this season.
|
See this is all very interesting because I see him often painted with this brush now. One of the big things we learned about him when the Flames drafted him is that he LOVES playing hockey and works his tail off to improve his skills, staying after practice often. There was all the talk that in junior he would sometimes stay so late after practice that they had to kick him out of the arena. I went to development camp his first year here and he was on the ice for a long time after the other players.
I just don't see him as being one of those malcontents. He has had confidence issues but I don't think it is necessarily an inability to be coached or a character flaw but more a natural progression that some players at his age go through.
Look at Backlund. I always had a belief that he would turn into a player but it was starting to look an awful lot like he just couldn't get his confidence to the point where he could be an effective NHLer. Then bam, he turned the corner last season.
It took Backlund just over 6 years from when he was drafted to begin ascending to his potential.
It has been just over 3 years since Baertschi was drafted.
Sven will get there.