Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaybird
Quite frankly, I have been wondering about the Heat coach for a while now. He seems to really like certain players and not others without any concrete reason or at the very least with little thought. He seems to pigeon hole guys into what role he thinks they should have and doesn't waiver from that. I am have not been impressed with how he has been handling the Heat's latest losing streak. It is easy to be a good coach when a team is winning, but when they are losing a coach has to rise to the occasion. I am starting to wonder if he is "losing the room". Hopefully Captain Laing can help the group out when he returns.
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I don't know. I'll respectfully disagree.
I think that Ward is following the meritocracy system laid out by the Flames organization to a tee.
I remember the Rheault-Walter-Kolanos line getting sat for a whole period and a half at a couple of points in time when they've been playing weak. Ward pulled Danny Taylor, when he was struggling a couple of weeks back, and didn't hesitate to do so even though Taylor was a beast. He's given Laing chances on the top lines to see if he can do something, and when he didn't, he dropped down to the 3rd line again.
Aliu has had tremendous work ethic at times and has been rewarded for it by being put on the 2nd and 3rd lines when he was destined for the 4th line. As Breen started to play better these last couple of months, he's been given more ice time plus PK minutes that he was deprived of in the beginning of the season.
I just see a meritocracy being followed. Perhaps Ortio could've gotten a few more starts, but if you've got a hot goalie, I don't think you take him out.
Sorry, I just can't think of any situations or circumstances in which Ward has played favouritism.
With that said though, I kind of agree with you about "losing the room". I don't think he's "losing the players," but I do think he might be "losing the room". What I mean by this is that the players still have trust in him and his abilities, but I think on the whole, he needs to do something with this team to get them out of their rut.
He had responded in a post-game interview (I believe in one of the last games against the Chicago Wolves) to a question about how he plans on getting out of their slump by saying something along the lines of "eventually we'll get out of it. We're not going to change anything. We just need to keep on with what we're doing and stay the course".
At the time, they weren't in as deep of a slump as they are now and I think that was smart of Ward to "stay the course". But now, they've gone 4-11-1 in the new year. That's unacceptable. I know alot of it has to do with callups and injuries, but wow.
It's time for Ward to do something, but I don't know if anyone has that answer, not even Ward.
EDIT - I stand corrected. In tonight's post-game interview Ward said he adjusted the systems yesterday in practice and despite the loss he believes they paid off, especially defensively because they only allowed 21 shots. He also said that he thinks they played a good game despite the loss. Maybe things will turn around soon.
