Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Too much success too soon. It happens to lots of professional athletes. They have success (points, money, acclaim) playing the way they enjoy. When a coach comes along and tries to show them that their way of playing will not translate to success in the playoffs, they can either get onboard or tune out the coach. IMHO, Gaudreau and Monahan did the latter. They were getting points. Getting paid. Why change?
Now, is that on Treliving? I guess it is to some extent. He could have told his star players to knuckle down and do what their coach told them. Scotty Bowman famously had that kind of talk with Steve Yzerman back before the Wings had won anything. Buckle down and change the way you play or you're out of here. And Yzerman listened. Today, that's less common. Players have more power than coaches - and often GMs - and they know it. This team had much the same problem with latter-day Iginla.
The fortunes of pro sports franchises often ride on whether they can acquire star players, and whether those star players are the kind who will do whatever the coach asks them to do to win. If that happens, everything else follows. If it doesn't, you spend years treading water until the stars retire or get moved.
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Scotty says that story isn't true, and that even if he'd wanted to trade Yzerman he wouldn't have been able to because Illitch treated Stevey like a son.
One thing Bowman DID do though was trade Paul Coffey off the wings after two playoff disappointments with bowman reportedly telling Coffey it was because bowman was 'tired of being vilified' by 'selfish players'.
This was the second time Bowman had Coffey traded, Bowman went on to win the cup both times following the trade.
I think maybe the Flames/Treliving may have reached that threshold.