Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
This has gone around and around, but I'll say it again: they aren't sloooooow, they play slow.
They weren't slow under Hartley's transitional style.
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Which Hartley team? The one that had the never say die plucky attitude from 2013 to 2015, or the one that got him fired in 2015/16?
When Hartley took over, he had Cammalleri, Glencross, Stajan, Stempniak, Tanguay, Hudler and Iginla in the top 9. He had players like Byron, Galiardi, Bouma and Comeau in the bottom 3. That is a lot faster than the team now. The defense was decently quick as well (I think we are missing Brodie more than I thought we would).
When he left in his last season, the current core pieces were in place. It's also fair to say players often slow down when they get older. I would wager that 28-31 Giordano, 18-21 year old Monahan, and 23-26 year old Backlund were faster than their current version of themselves.
We now have Lucic slowing things down. Tkachuk, who is great at a lot of things, but speed isn't one of them. Lindholm, Monahan, and Gaudreau aren't slow, but they don't have the speed that most of the other teams in this division have on their top lines.