Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimdon
Veterans maybe, but what about gaudreau can anyone say that implies he was ever a team leader? Team leaders don't do "damage control" to protect their coach and marginalize their younger teammates. Seems kind of counterproductive to earning the respect of your teammates, no?
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Not all leaders are good ones, but given his age and that experience there is no question that Gaudreau would be considered among the "leadership group."
Moreover, I think it is most likely that IN HIS EXPERIENCE—chatting cordially with the new coach about summer, about his family, showing pics of his little girl, etc.—Gaudreau probably did not find any of this invasive. He most likely assumed that his experience was like everyone else's, and we have no idea how much he knew about what happened to all his other teammates in their meetings with Babcock.
I tend to think, though, that Gaudreau (wrongly) also assumed, based on his relatively benign experience, that this was a situation not worth blowing up the season over. A part of him probably saw just how damaging a scandal could be to their success as a team. Not maliciously, I don't think, but very naively, he assumed this was no big deal.
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