The accomplishments don’t matter if he can’t get this group of players to perform well. I probably should have been more specific about what I meant about a “few”. I’m thinking til January or so so I guess 10-20 games to get this team to gel and play well. Yes I agree he’s trying to teach good habits by rewarding the people who are giving more effort but that’s a fine line to toe. Even HoF coaches have gone past their expiry date or lost their ability to connect with their players. If this happened with Sutter it would hardly be the first.
Part of it is in no doubt roster construction. There are valid reasons that some players haven’t come up yet. There are certainly players on this roster that don’t seem to gel with his style so far. But this is what they have and they need to make it work. It’s entirely possible this adjustment is a year long thing that only pays off in year 2. Maybe fringe playoff team should have been the expectation going into the year not division winner. And I don’t think Sutter is being fired after extending so recently and what he means to the franchise unless he really loses the locker room. But I think we’ll know by January a more realistic view of are the Flames contenders this year.
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