Quote:
Originally Posted by mrdonkey
Hartley caught lightning in a bottle that one time, which for sure was fun as a fan. But it has to come with the caveat that the following season the book was out. His strategy looked really limited and unable to adapt. Watching players go for the stretch pass over and over and over in a losing effort was miserable.
|
Even if the next season couldn't repeat, he found a strategy for that team that took them way beyond expectations that year. Just lightning in a bottle, or a smart guy getting the most possible out of his players? The next year also had the whole goalie debacle that got things off to a terrible start which wasn't his fault.
Hartley is also a cup winner. That success could be downplayed because of how stacked the Avs were that year, but they weren't really more stacked than the Flames were when Crisp won the cup with them.