Quote:
Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan
I guess that's the question then, does Hartley give a player like Sven more ice time to give him a chance and hope he breaks out, or do you wait for him to show you something and then move him up?
I'm a fan of the latter, because I think if you give a player prime ice time when he doesn't really deserve it then other players take notice and you can lose the respect of your players. A guy like Jooris clearly forced Hartley's hand, Sven didn't. I don't think that's a coaching issue, I think that a player's responsibility. So many young players getting chances with this team over the past year or two, Sven had all the opportunities in the world to force the team to keep him and give him decent ice time, he just never got to the point where he played well enough to keep him over other younger players. He was just 'meh' for me most of the time, it's too bad. With a young rebuilding team this was probably the perfect opportunity for Sven to stick in the NHL full time, he just couldn't get it done. Maybe he will in Vancouver.
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I think that's over-generalizing the situation somewhat. I think there are specific instances and situations in which you can give a rookie an opportunity. I think that if you miss that opportunity on a consistent basis, it sends a poor message to the player. Clearly, in this case, that's the message that Sven received.
In my opinion, Sven's leash was short for reasons I haven't figured out or am aware of. The leash was short for Backlund too under previous coaching regimes. Given an appropriate opportunity, Backlund was finally able to rise to the occasion....we'll never know if Sven would be able to do the same.
It's too bad, but the Flames and Sven will move on and other players will receive opportunities down the road.