Quote:
Originally Posted by FanIn80
This part bothers me. In short, the answer to this question is "yes."
The people running the team/org are there to make the right, logical decisions. That's why they're there. What's more important for the good of this franchise? Playing all the vets and trying to win every game so the fans can be "entertained" by the same quality of hockey that failed to make the playoffs? Or... Is it better to "say FU" to all that, and use the post-elimination games as a mini training camp for some of the kids who might've earned it?
What is the downside of cycling vets between the pressbox and the ice for the last 10 games of the season? Are people actually paying money specifically to see Huberdeau play like a 3rd line winger? I think they're paying money in spite of Huberdeau playing. Is a fan being upset because Backlund didn't play in a meaningless game worth icing a vet-heavy lineup full of players that we already know what to expect from?
The only real downside would be in maybe pissing off a few of the players... but here's the thing... a couple things, actually...
1. I'm 100% fine with pissing off Huberdeau. Good, hopefully he demands a trade, so we can inform him of how many teams are willing to trade for him. In fact, hopefully he gets so mad by all of that, that he comes back next season and lights up the league for the first couple months, making it possible to actually get rid of that contract. This is not a downside.
2. It's a pretty easy way of weeding out the players who trully are more interested in themselves than the team. I imagine a guy like Andersson would actually be more mad that we're playing him instead of a younger guy. The players who "get it" and understand/appreciate the importance of using the post-elimination games to help speed up our re-whatever... those are the ones that wouldn't be pissed off at all, and (not coincidentally) are the right kind of players to have on the team.
So... we piss off some fans in the -extremely- short term, and piss off the kind of players we really shouldn't care about pissing off anyway... and in exchange for that, we get some advance looks at some of the kids on the Wranglers, and maybe also pick 5th overall instead of possibly 12th overall.
The point is, the guys that run this whole thing are getting millions of dollars to be the ones that stand up and say... in your words... "fu" to whomever they need to, in order to turn this team around... and turning this team around means getting younger and cheaper and drafting as high as we can, and then using the cap space to KEEP those players (instead of using it to keep an aging winger and letting a franchise player go 4-5 years yearly).
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Why have a coach then?
Because no coach is going to want to sit there behind the bench and do a zero achievement job that will be a red mark on his resume.
And which coach would want to come here knowing that management might just suddenly tell them to not do anything and stand around as if they are? Gonna look really great for a coach to go to a next job interview and be like 'honest, i want to win'
None of the tank brigade really have a proper *working* proposal for how you practically do it. Just vibes.