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Originally Posted by Textcritic
And this in itself is a huge part of the problem.
The Flames leadership was cultivated from within over the last decade. Giordano, Backlund, and Brodie were developed by the team, and they drew their cues from the former regime of Iginla and Regehr, who were also developed by the Flames. You cannot just insert a leader and expect to see change. Change needs to come from McDavid, Draisaitl, and Klefbom, but these guys are all super young and have no one competent to show them the way.
The Oilers are entitled and arrogant. It's who they are, and it's why the team is impossible to fix.
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It's the culture. There is no accountability
https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/and...155913084.html
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“You had a group of players that talked about how they wanted to make the playoffs, and talked about how sick they were of losing, and then by Game No. 3 after losing 6-1, they’re straight out to the bar to three in the morning, lighting up the night life scene in Edmonton,” Ference said.
“Like, come on, give me a break. It was to the point where it was ridiculous where the lifestyle was way more important than actually playing the game and making the playoffs.”
He later added: “You could have had any kind of defence or any kind of system, if you go on a Western swing and your guys are out every single night until 5 a.m., you’re not going to win too many games.”
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“You’re going at each other, like game intensity — and that is how you get better. That is how you be a playoff contender. That is how you be a champion. And you try to instil some of those values. We had some other guys who had been on the playoff teams and they had the same frustration. They’d come and practice hard and there was a group of guys there that had like, it was too cool to try hard.
“Derogatory terms for trying too hard in practice. That’s the culture, right. So how do you break that?
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“You come in as an older guy but far from being one of the better players on the team. So you can be a leader with experience but I’m not a game changer. I’m like a No. four or five defenceman. So your voice only goes so far with people that only respect how good your toe drag is and whether or not you’re out partying. So your voice doesn’t carry much weight with people that don’t put value on those aspects that I was bringing from Boston.”
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It's also pretty clear by now that McDavid is too timid and has no one for him to look up to for leadership, yet is in charge of leading this sad sack of Oilers water soaked garbage. The Flames had Iginla leading Giordano and in turn had guys like Backlund. Crosby was living with Mario Lemieux, and was the opposite of a party animal. Crosby had Lemieux, Recchi and Leclair to look up to for leadership and learn.
Ovechkin did not have any leadership available at first, until the Capitals brought in Sergei Fedorov and Kozlov to help him adapt and learn the ropes. It was a long journey for Ovechkin. Marchand and Bergeron had Chara and Recchi.
Where is McDavid's Lemieux, Leclair, Recchi or Federov? They only had Ference, and no one would listen to him as he was not elite. The Oilers forced Ference out of the league, the oldest player was Matt Hendricks in 2016-17, how is McDavid learning leadership from a part time 4th liner?
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/l...000412017.html