Quote:
Originally Posted by MacFlame
...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.
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It looked to me like the leash for Baertschi was short because he didn't often do a very good job of establishing his presence in a game by the end of the first period. Coach Hartley tends to use the first twenty mins. to set the line up for the rest of the game—players that are "on" get more ice time in the second period. If they continue to produce good returns (not just on the scoreboard, but all over the ice), then he gives them more ice time in the third. I think almost every time I watched Baertchi play this season he didn't look any better than average. He was often not bad, but he was never great—he never took a shift in the first period that commanded my attention and made me go, "wow." Other rookies have done that this season. It's the same leash, and several of them managed to yank it out of Hartley's grip. Baertschi didn't.