Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
And they tried him on the wing in Vancouver to see if he could slide into a top nine winger role.
I think they had hope for Ruzicka specifically but he just didn't get it done.
Other than that Matt ... I can't disagree.
I have trouble with the expected evolution in the NHL camps (Flames not the only team dealing with this). You have NHLers go one night, then prospects the next with PTOs.
Does a guy need to dominate playing with scrubs or like skilled players in order to get to the NHL group? How do you do that when you're the road team that plays against NHLers but not with NHLers?
Seems like a pretty rough hurdle to me.
|
Agreed. It's pretty senseless. It used to be that they would send 2 NHL lines and 2 prospect lines to most of the earlier pre-season games. But these road games with no real NHLers - almost always facing an NHL-laden home team - is just setting the kids up for failure.
Having said that, I don't fully buy the 'Sutter never gave them a chance to succeed' argument. They are at practice every day, they have played games with other players as good or better than them. SHOW SOMETHING! Give the coach a reason to give you the spotlight treatment.
Sutter doesn't want a veteran-laden lineup. He wants a lineup that will win games. Show him you can be part of that.