[browna]

Players are a different breed now but do you really think a guy like Sutter or Peters would ask, seriously, where Sam wants to play? It’s why Ward is popular with the players but there’s a fine line between being a players coach and letting the players run the asylum and eventually start to marginalize the coach’s authority.

The fact that Ward got that out in the public, not sure the motivation either. To be transparent? To take a shot at Bennett? To show he’s willing to bend over backwards for Bennett?

Anyways, Peters got more out of this core and more out of less talent, consistently over 82 games. No one said they loved him, but if players see a system that works the way the coach tells them it will work, and there is success on the ice, they’ll respect continue the buy in. If it’s a lot of hot air and the coach isn’t strong in his conviction, and or there is no consequences to not buying in, you get a Gulutzen train wreck again. Ward is trending that way too.