I feel 'insulted' as a fan. Before anyone accuses me of trying to dig deep to prove some bias on my part, you can research my posting history and you will see that I was complimentary of Maloney, and felt that the organization needed an experienced POHO at the moment to steady the boat, and get Conroy more experience as a GM. I took his side in the battle that he had with Tippet in Arizona, and felt he got the short end of the stick there too.
What I found to be the worst parts of the interview, and why:
Quote:
Sportsnet: What is your assessment of the first quarter?
Don Maloney: It's been poor, and unexpected.
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Has it REALLY been unexpected, or are you lying about expectations here? Or are you simply incompetent? For me, I don't see a third option - you are either lying about the expectations, or you are incompetent. Judging by the way this team is built, how they haven't spent to the cap, and haven't traded any futures-for-now players, I would assume - just like most posters on this board - that the team was expected to do poorly. So why call it 'unexpected'?
Quote:
SN: Is the narrative accurate that the directive from ownership is that there's not going to be a reset or a rebuild?
DM: (clipped) Yet we, there's a dynamic in Canada, you have 82 games, you want to sell tickets and get people to come to your games.
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So you are lying to your customer base, telling them that the expectation is to 'win', and getting them to buy tickets based on that lie? Or, again, are you simply incompetent (you being the management team overall)?
Personally I found this to be rather egregious. Don't say anything - that's fine. Even his awful interview between periods didn't even start to make me upset at all. I found it rather embarrassing for him, but aside from that, absolutely no harm, no foul, and felt everyone was overreacting to it.
I know that they are in a rebuild. That's the actions that they have been taking. There are no other explanations other than this team is in the midst of a rebuild. It is fine to not declare it if you are so afraid of your season ticket holder base not buying tickets. I just 100% disagree with the organization coming out and either directly LYING about it to their fan base, or making themselves look like incompetent buffoons running the team. This organization has had some lengthy moments were it was a laughing-stock of the league, right? It got so bad that Burke was brought-in with the intention of saving Calgary's reputation. We (organization + fans) don't need or want to go through yet another 'embarrassingly cringey' period.
I think at this point, they should just shut up. Don't say anything. I no longer believe that after this interview, the team can trot-out anyone and make it better. I think it would be an embarrassment to even come out and admit: "We are rebuilding". Why? Because you are trying to appease the fans, and you just decided to shift the plan now, or because you are admitting to lying to your fan base?
Listen, I never needed (or felt the need) for this team to come out and explicitly state what they are doing. I think they SHOULD have been honest, but they weren't. I get it. A bunch of players decided that they only wanted to play in Calgary for more than they were worth, and left. Gaudreau left even after Calgary offered him a lot of money, and he took less to play somewhere else - I get it wasn't about money, and it probably wasn't even anything wrong with Calgary itself, but rather family-first. Tkachuk was all about getting out of Calgary. There was a mass-exodus here. I get why Conroy (or whomever) didn't want to announce a rebuild after going through that.
It begs the question - were the ticket sales through the last rebuild THAT bad, that they now fear a significant drop in sales and revenue? They are operating well under the cap (+ Markstrom's remaining dollars). However, they are also getting their new arena - which will be a money-maker - mostly paid for with public dollars, and it goes up in 2 seasons.
Do you really need to lie to your fan-base? In my opinion, these are the levels of respect that people (and organizations) should have:
1) Be honest. This builds trust, as well as respect.
2) Don't say anything. Not quite lying, but it is sometimes fine for people to make their own assumptions. Not ideal, but in some circumstances, it is acceptable.
3) Don't ever lie. Period.
I simply go back to the above: Is this organization incompetent, are is this organization disrespecting its fan-base (including season ticket holders) and deciding to outright lie?
I do believe they should have announced a rebuild. However, I get why they didn't, and was perfectly fine with them with them making obvious rebuild moves out in the open, and making the entire world confused (kind of funny, actually). Lying? I think they crossed a line there, and it all feels rather 'greasy', if you catch my drift. Calgary has (almost) always been a classy organization. This just feels like they pulled something on us fans (and are still trying to pull something over us), that's all.