Quote:
Originally Posted by mrdonkey
Was there really nothing Treliving could’ve done to work with Peters and put Neal in more of a position to succeed? A little foresight when things were starting to go sideways for him may have gone a long way. And who knows, maybe that did happen behind closed doors. But the results speak for themselves.
We never saw this version of Neal last year. And I’m not sure saddling him with marginal players like Bennett and Jankowski was the right way to get his confidence back.
I’m not convinced Treliving and the coaching staff did all they could to prevent this before it got so bad he was only tradeable for the worst contract in the league. Sure, you don’t want to capitulate to sulkers all the time, but you also don’t want to sit back and let the situation between coach and player fester so bad you can only fix it by taking on an objectively worse player and shooting yourself in the foot. Which is exactly how it was handled.
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Neal's ice time stats ...
Five on Five time
With at least one of Calgary's top five forwards 41%
If you add in Derek Ryan (tied for fourth in Oilers forward scoring last year) 58%
If you add in Michael Frolik (would have been 5th in Oilers forward scoring last year) 61%
James Neal had lots of opportunity, don't let his recollection set the narrative.