Quote:
Originally Posted by sa226
Randomly putting pieces together with the other podcast with Jon Stevens talking about Sutter.
Sutter is all about the team, if you're not helping the team, then what are you doing. If you make it about you, then you're going to have a bad time.
Rewind to the Muzzin incident. Perhaps in the eyes of the rest of the team, Tkachuk was being selfish in making the situation about him. In the eyes of Tkachuk he was in the guts of the game and not a single member of the group stood up for him.
Maybe that's a bit of a peek into the dynamics of the locker room, past and present. Tkachuks antics, while effective can also be selfish. Maybe the coach and team were getting a bit tired of it. Or maybe they just wanted him to be better at picking his spots.
I would argue that his career season was a direct result on him just focusing on playing hockey rather than being an antagonist, and also his return to his antics played a part in the loss to the Oilers. He didn't need to break his hand fighting Klingberg.
Don't get me wrong, loved Tkachuk during his time here, but maybe he thought he was a bit bigger than the team. Maybe under Sutter, that was a non negotiable item.
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Sutter had a lot of praise for Tkachuk as an elite talent in terms of his hands and his skills in front of the net, but I don't recall him ever talking up Tkachuk for his abilities to get under opposition skin or stir things up. It seems quite plausible to me that Tkachuk’s idea of how he should play the game and Sutter's idea of how he should play the game weren't fully aligned.