Quote:
Originally Posted by united
That's scary talent evaluation...Backlund has been an excellent two-way centre since the moment he stepped into the Flames lineup full-time, before Burke even arrived. Thankfully Burke didn't jettison Backlund back then, or during the gross misuse of Backlund during Hartley's coaching tenure. It's no surprise Backlund has excelled under proper usage.
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I won't bother touching on what other posters already mentioned, but the bolded is completely false as well.
Hartley was not pleased with Backlund's play and called him TOO defensive. Sutter really did a good job at getting Backlund to buy in to the defensive side of the puck - and that is always a good thing - but Hartley felt that Backlund was always too worried about that aspect. He wanted more balance out of Backlund in all zones.
Some of the stuff that gets talked about with regards to Hartley is really convenient narratives. I didn't agree with the firing, gave Gulutzan a shot, started to get really worried it wasn't the right hire, but it is looking like a slam dunk now. It doesn't mean it is cool to piss in Hartley's cornflakes either and absolutely make stuff up.
Hartley gave it to Backlund and Monahan for not making a bad play defensively. However, he was also careful not to make them overly worried about the defensive side of the game. There was a tonne of talk about Monahan being 'too defensive' when he went ice cold in his 2nd year for too long, when he was put up as the 1st line center because almost every other center was injured. Hartley sat him down, and told him that he needs to produce as well as be strong defensively.
That was Hartley. People still talk about him like it was some run-and-gun river hockey system bereft of any semblance of structure. Nonsense. Hartley would chew out his players on the bench when they made a bad play defensively. There were defensive assignments and expectations.
Didn't want to take this thread off-topic, but it is something that I noticed a lot of posters writing about lately.
This is also coming from someone who really thinks Gulutzan has finally got to know this team, and has his finger firmly on the pulse. He has turned this team around, and if I continue seeing what I am seeing on the ice - both on team results AND on the development of the young core of this team - there is no way I would want him let go for any coach made available in the league - Darryl Sutter or Mike Babcock included.
/off-topic rant over