Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
Itse, I have to disagree. Winning a round is nothing. This core group won a round 3 years ago and it has meant basically nothing to the team. In fact, it is probably the single biggest contributing factor to the team now bottoming out as it provided them with the false belief that they were close to contention. Winning a round or two this year likely has the same effect, pushing off hard decisions because of a mistaken belief that luck = preparation.
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I have two separate comments to this. First, I don't agree they lucked out. They had the right coach for that time, and more importantly they had someone with lots of experience and who was good at playoff hockey. That kind of a coach can push a team further than they should go on paper.
(IMO the first consistent mistake this organization makes is underestimating the importance of the head coach. It's why we're almost never any better than our roster. The second consistent mistake is that the management (and even ownership) is too involved in deciding how the team should play. These are obviously related issues. I feel like head coaches are typically treated like middle management in Calgary.)
Second, I don't think winning a round now would be anything like winning that round was last time, mentally speaking. Winning a round now would show they can actually win a round without needing to be special super underdogs on fire. It would mean the first one was not a fluke.
Btw, I think the team would have been sellers if there hadn't been terribly timed injuries in the back end. It's an example that the best laid most meticulous plans can go to waste in an instant. You have to make do with the cards you're dealt.
Remove an injury from either Välimäki or Hamonic and the whole situation is different.