Quote:
Originally Posted by SportsJunky
Let's remember that Paul Maurice isn't exactly a fun loving coach either. Not a touchy feely guy. Hell, he all but called Tkachuk a serial killer a couple of years back. I think Tkachuk just doesn't much care if the coach is pissed at his on ice decision making. Matthew is confident in his own game. Here, guys like Huberdeau seem to be scared to play outside the box in case they incur the wrath of Sutter. Who was it early this season (maybe Sarich) that said the players are afraid of Sutter and aren't allowing themselves to be creative with the puck because of it?
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Teemu Selanne put up 24g and 19a for 43pt in 16:34 ATOI during his first 70 games under Sutter in 2001-02. If you adjust the points for era, it's almost exactly the same number of points as Huberdeau's 49 pts in his first 70 games under Sutter. About the same ATOI as Huberdeau and limited PP opportunities as well.
Sutter was also notoriously hard on Teemu, which Teemu had also verified in interviews later on.
There is no guarantee that Huberdeau bounces back to ppg+ next season. Some players, which mostly seems to be pure offensive players, just cannot exist in Sutter's system...for better or for worse.