Quote:
Originally Posted by GullFoss
I can understand the glass half full possibility, but Im somewhat skeptical of it. The media and team can spin this how they will, but to me this seems like the following:
1) team is not winning, not a great vibe when you're losing and expectations are high
2) Huby and Kadri want Sutter to adjust the systems and style to suit them and Sutter wants the players to adapt to suit his system.
3) Due to 1 and 2, other players in the dressing room also turn on the coach as the season progresses and frustrations mount
Everyone is focused on (1) and (3) and saying it wasn't working and the players didn't like the coach, which is fair. And with regards to (2) I understand you can't pick an $8m coach over $150m between two players.
But it rubs me the wrong way that the two franchise forwards couldn't play the system or didn't want to. Even after 82 games, they still hadn't mastered it. And when you talk about the Sutter shelf-life, that doesn't apply to Kadri and Huby - two of the three players most responsible for the failed season - because they were in their first season under Sutter.
So did the franchise do what it had to do? Yes. Especially if Huby and Kadri weren't going to adjust. Or couldn't adjust. Doing the same things over again (running with the same coach, system and players) and expecting different results is insanity, especially if no one was willing to adapt.
But to think it's a new day and believe that everything is rosy again is a bridge I cant cross today. There are huge question marks around the teams two highest paid players and they won't go away until they perform well under the system of a high quality coach.
It seems entirely plausible to me that the players in the dressing room and those in the organization (Maloney, etc) are just using Sutter as a scapegoat instead of honestly assessing their inability to play the system and the team's roster construction.
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It's just the inconsistency that I never understood. If players are mad and tanking, sure that's one thing. But going into Vegas and Winnipeg and crushing them and then losing to Anahiem, Chicago and Vancouver? Were the Flames throwing games?