Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
Hartley ordered guys with concussion issues who didn’t want to fight to go do it or be demoted to the AHL. Sarich says he’s the worst coach he ever had. Roy destroyed Hartley’s office, he hated him so much. McGratton hated him. Kipper as well. And he is two-faced - Mr. Congeniality with the press, a-hole with the players. At least with Sutter what you saw was who he was. Hartley also played favourites big time, according to some ex-players.
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Not saying any of that isn’t true. But, as Bob would say, “I’m coaching elite athletes, I’m not running a nursing home.”
You want to lead 30 guys for six months to achieve a virtually impossible goal, you’re going to need to play some mind games and push some buttons. You just are.
Nobody had a negative thing to say about Babcock when he was going to the Finals, winning the Cup, or winning back to back Olympic gold medals and a World Cup - he coaches the Leafs to a few middling seasons and all of a sudden it’s “OMG did you hear what he did to Mitch Marner???”
Please.
On the “making guys with concussions fight” point, a couple things.
1: for the entirety of Hartley’s career, concussions were not treated with the seriousness they are now. You can say that’s right or wrong, but if that happened now, it would be handled differently.
2: the dude in question (I have vague memories of this story) was a face-punching type. If he’s not punching faces, he has no place in the NHL - it’s not like Hartley was going to slot him alongside Forsberg and Sakic on the PP.
Hartley is a gigantic #######. That seems pretty inarguable. But I’ll end with a quote from Steve Shutt on Scotty Bowman:
"You hated him 364 days years, and on the 365th day you got your Stanley Cup ring."
If you don’t wanna play that way, don’t play that way. You just won’t get a ring, or your name on that trophy. Hartley has both.