Quote:
Originally Posted by JJ1532
Yes. Not the main reason, but definitely a reason. Yes, they should have shown stronger mental strength, but the way they were handled was poor.
Last year, Hiller and Ramo made a reasonable tandem. One gets hot, gets a run of games, cools off, other guy comes in, does well, gets a run of games, cools off, rinse repeat. But having 3 goalies changes the dynamic. I think all 3 must have had, in the back of their minds, the worry that if they had a bad game or run of bad games, they could get demoted to Stockton or possible traded(more in Ramo/Hillers case). Playing with that uncertainty as to which 2 of the 3 would make the roster contributed to their poor form.
Whether you hang that on the coaches, GM or players and how much it was to blame for the poor start, I do think it contributed to the poor start.
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I think that Ramo and Hiller's poor starts are all on them. Ortio being in the press box for a month shouldn't cause professional athletes to disintegrate like that. I honestly think they would've played poorly whether Ortio was on the roster or not.
The key to last year was that they took turns being hot and cold. Just as one would struggle, the other would get hot and Hartley juggled them perfectly. This year they both struggled at the same time so Hartley had nowhere to turn because Ortio was even worse.