Quote:
Originally Posted by dissentowner
Ok, so what was his excuse the year before that? I am sure defenders of Huska can come up with something. You are also arguing that young and inexperienced talent means those players suck? So how does any rookie ever break 20 points then? The Flames had a very young but very talented and skilled group last year and they most certainly should have been better than what their record was. The organization also thinks a lot of Sigalet as well but it does not mean I have to agree with it.
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The idea that young-and-unrefined means you 'suck' is flawed. I'll use Kylington as an example even though I think he takes a lot of unfair heat. You could "win" more games by breaking his game down and effectively "destroying" the parts that look ugly to you. Bench him every time he fails to go glass and out. Instruct him to stop pinching. These are things you could do that would probably make him a better, safer AHLer as soon as tomorrow.
But that is not what you want.
You want him to learn by experience the difference between a good pinch and a bad one. The difference between when to carry the puck and when to settle for a safe clear. You want to put him in situations he may not be ready for, like #1 Penalty Kill, and let him become ready for that situation instead of weening him in.
You do trade off some winning for development. Encouraging creativity and high-end skill to translate into effective NHL play means accepting growing pains and living with them. It even meant telling Tyler Wotherspoon to take chances he never used to, or telling Mark Jankowski to make plays instead of dump and chase (he noted yesterday on the fan that this was the biggest difference from College to Pro). Who'da thunk.... telling a player to make the "safe" play LESS instead of MORE!
Remember this PT article by Larionov?
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/mi...hockey-russia/
Well you don't accomplish that without positive reinforcement of letting kids make mistakes - at the minor league level.