Quote:
Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan
Why did Makarov quit on the team?!?!?
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He had signed an offer sheet with the Sharks the summer before (which the Flames matched); he didn't really want to be in Calgary anymore anyway. Infamously didn't get along with any of the coaching staff (was infamously quoted telling Terry Crisp, "Tikhonov bad guy, good coach; you good guy, bad coach"), and it finally came to a head with Dave King in '93 (coach #3 in four seasons). Previous coaches Crisp and Doug Risebrough were accused of not really "understanding the Russian game" but the same accusations could not be levied against Dave King. King coached the national team for years, knew "the Russian game" very well, and was actually quite vocal about how badly Flames management had whiffed on picking up any of the elite young talent from the former Soviet Union in the early '90s.
Makarov, by the end of his time in Calgary, was just like Reichel: disinterested and lazy. A liability to the team when he didn't have the puck. Didn't even bother trying to play defence anymore, didn't listen to the coaching staff, left his linemates out to dry. He was "the Russian Gretzky": he wanted to play the game his way, and it was his way or the highway. The Sharks only got a couple useful seasons out of him before they encouraged him to retire. He couldn't hack it anymore, and he didn't listen to anything Kevin Constantine told him anyway. And when he signed with Dallas in a comeback attempt in '96 he was such an ass to Ken Hitchcock they let him go after only a handful of games.