Quote:
Originally Posted by Heavy Jack
What's bothering me about Gulutzan right now was proven almost to a painful degree last night. That mistake by Johnny was bad and in turn he was punished with 4th line minutes, being put out for the final 5 seconds of the 2nd PP on a 5 on 3 in the third, was basically benched for chunks of the game. Based on 1 mistake. Was Johnny not trying when he made that error?? No, he was trying to create a chance to tie the game.
Bob Hartely preached that these are young players, they are gonna make mistakes and that's ok - as long as they are trying, battling, playing the full 60. Players right now under Gulutzan look afraid to make mistakes, they are playing right now to not make mistakes which in turn is making us turn out games like last night... This is why we are so terrible when we let the first goal in. Alot of that is tied into the structure of GG system but what's annoying is that he was supposed to be a players coach, Hartely was the hardass and to me right now it's appeared as the opposite.
Guess we have to wait and see with the guy ... At times we appear to be so dominant - last night was our season incapsulated into a single game IMO - but when we are bad we look fragile which is a worrisome trait that I've started noticing this year more and more.
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Johnny wasn't demoted for one mistake. It was a culmination of shift length, multiple turnovers, generally being mediocre over the last 20 games. Here's hoping this lights a fire under him. He's still a young player, but he's now getting paid as a go to guy. He is expected to produce.