Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Unless you’re outright throwing games on purpose, you can’t will a team to lose.
These games might not have been important to fans or the team itself, but they were important to the players. Good luck turning that off and on at will. The players don’t care about draft position, they’re playing for pride, each other, and themselves. If you want them to act like losers, all you’re ever going to get are losers.
The Flames were the 4th worst team after the deadline. When you look at where they were and the team on paper, it’s hard to argue they were anything but as bad as they could possibly be without outright throwing games.
I just hate the “they could have done less” mentality. I think it’s for losers. It’s one thing if the team is just built to be terrible, but having a team play worse than it is on purpose is just pathetic and embarrassing.
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We aren’t going to change our individual views and I know that the majority of CP would agree with you on this.
agree that players are motivated (and paid) to perform. I think that some players are more motivated than others at different times. I think it’s embarrassing and pathetic when players show up when it doesn’t matter. I also don’t know how to intentionally lose without it looking like intentionally losing.
Why the heroic efforts when it’s too late? What is to be gained by playing injured players instead of looking at younger players in different roles or giving them more ice time? Instead of wins, how about development? Have “maintenance days”.
I’ve watched these “wins for pride because we aren’t losers” since 1980. I’ve supported “culture of winning” for years, only to see 2-7-1 starts the following season. How many draft picks over the years have flames won their way out of when the season is done? Remember any of those games?
All of the angst over where the Canucks finish, how far Vegas goes, Dallas going deep, instead of determining what are essentially superior picks that the flames can influence.
Literally we are debating 3 wins that will prolong the rebuild. It’s the Colorado model we should be following as well as the Dallas model.
I’ll give you this though; it’s much more likely that flames finish bottom 10 next season and give up Florida’s pick because flames players couldn’t lose.