Quote:
Originally Posted by jayswin
I'm not totally convinced of this. Winning is everything in professional sports. If the players had all the same concerns and expressed them at the end of the year but Markstrom had a top 5 save percentage and we played two rounds of playoff hockey because of it, Sutter is still here, imo.
This was as much a performance failure firing as it was one of concern for the locker room culture and treatment of players.
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Yes, unfortunately team performance overshadows all in many cases.
But I also believe that even if the Flames performed well because they got the needed saves, if Sutter had say committed misconduct on the level of Babcock and the flames' brass caught wind of it, that he would be let go regardless of the season.
And I believe this because they did their due diligence with Peters and cut ties promptly in a season following a 2nd overall finish under his leadership.
But sure, if they saw the second round of the playoffs again last year, the Flames would be more inclined to let accounts of strained relationships between him and players in the room slide. But I also think they wouldn't turn a blind eye to those concerns if they were raised, either.