Quote:
Originally Posted by chedder
He gave the team points in every game he played from Nov 29th to the break (23 points vs Marky's 12 in same period). There's no reason he shouldn't have played that next game out of the all star break. He was about to set a team record for consecutive points and the coach sits him. That must be great for confidence. Coach's head games aren't working this year.
|
This is a good example of what I’m talking about. Blaming Sutter for “head games” is ridiculous.
Vladar sat plenty of times while he was in his way to setting a record for consecutive points. In fact, when he played consecutive games during that streak, he also always played worse with each consecutive game (only exception being a .880 performance that followed a .875, both terrible).
When he played 3 games in a row in December, he played worse in the second game and even worse in the third. His performance in consecutive games seems to be good reason not to play him in consecutive games, no? Especially when Markstrom was actually playing better in the two weeks leading up to the All Star break, right? If you’re riding the better goaltender coming out of the break, the choice was Markstrom.
And the point streak doesn’t mean anything because plenty of those points were gained despite Vladar. Vladar played better in November sporting a 1-3-1 record than he did in December where he sported a 3-0-2 record, so you really have to look at more than the game result to understand how a goaltender played.
Blaming Sutter’s “head games” or suggesting he ruined his confidence isn’t based on any observable reality whatsoever.