Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
The problems started the first season with Gulutzan.
The duos should have been Gaudreau-Monahan, Tkachuk-Bennett, Backlund-Frolik. That’s where it should have been, always.
Instead they did what they did, and we are where we are. We allowed Monahan to develop into the liability he is through years of bad coaches that allowed bad-habits to form, we crushed Bennett’s confidence, and relied on Backlund to fill a role he just doesn’t have the offensive skill to fill. These decisions delivered the results that we’ve gotten and that we’ve deserved.
Really it’s all in the past, but I just don’t buy arguments that he shouldn’t have played ahead of Backlund, or at the very least have gotten Tkachuk on his wing. This team did not have the amount of success to justify not investing in Bennett as a top-6 centre. They rushed Bennett to the NHL and then refused to develop him at the NHL level competently.
To Bennett’s credit, he did a decent job finding ways to contribute while getting kicked around the lineup. He’d always stand up for his teammates, and he was great in the playoffs.
Florida will benefit from the Flames’ incompetence.
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Yeah, you won't see me defending Gulutzan for a second, but again...maybe.
Maybe what you're saying is correct and Sam would have popped for us. But also, maybe it wouldn't have made a difference and he needed to mature and have a change of scenery before popping.
Hindsight is 20/20, but rarely is it 100% accurate either. There's a lot of speculation in what went wrong, but it's just speculation.
I will say definitively that he was mishandled. I do believe he deserved more of a chance in the top 6 to prove himself. I also believe he needed better coaches. but I also am unsure of what Sam would have looked like with all those things in place. Better? Sure. Fantastic? Unsure. That's where I stand.
It just seemed to me that Sam took a long time to adjust to NHL style of play. Just a couple years ago he was still doing toe drags every time he got the puck and took offensive zone penalties because he was behind a guy and lazily reached for him trying to get the puck. To me, that's partly on coaching and partly on the player for not adapting quickly.
I just think Sam is one of those guys who needed to go through all that stuff to learn the hard way how to be successful in the NHL. Unfortunately, the Flames don't benefit from that, which sucks, but I don't think a full scale organizational indictment is in order either. Lots of young players have come up and played for the Flames, been given opportunities, and had success. I think Bennett is the outlier, not the norm.