Quote:
Originally Posted by MillerTime GFG
Umm. Did you ever play sports growing up? And if you did, did you ever play with guys that had all the talent in the world, but they were frustrating as #### because they had such a low effort level?
Sometimes those guys get to the show on skill alone. This is definitely not a cliche. You hear people talk about it all the time, including ex players, coaches etc. I don’t even think this can be argued.
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I did but those things aren’t even comparable, these are the top .1% hockey players in the world, not some guy that played Junior A or was a third liner in the WHL before washing out.
For the most part unless you have the work ethic you aren’t making the NHL, and anybody who doesn’t put in that effort washes out way before that level. And those guys certainly don’t become top line players in the league.
Sure it happens with the odd guy like Alex Semin or Alexei Yashin but those guys are the exception and are usually so ultra talented that even with low effort they were able to produce - I don’t see any of those guys on this roster.
Most of this core has played through a major injury over the last two seasons at some point in time to help the team. A lot of this core has overcome a lot of adversity to make it where they are (Gio, and Johnny specifically), and I don’t think any of them are so naturally talented that they floated their way to NHL success.
IMO effort is the most overused cliche by coaches pro sports, and usually it’s system, confidence in playing that system, and confidence in your own ability that is what we are really looking at.
I’m not sure a team has ever actually won a pro championship by just “working harder than the other team”, no matter how much the coaches would want you to believe in that. Teams that win championships tend to play aggressive and dictate play, even the 03-04 Flames who weren’t the most talented tried to play aggressive and dictate play. They weren’t the most talented but they were aggressive with their systems on the forecheck and in the breakout.
If you are playing passive and aren’t playing with confidence that means you are reacting instead of anticipating. And then if you are reacting that usually means you’re probably hesitating a bit too, and if you’re doing either of those things (reacting or hesitating) then you’re probably going to get beat to a loose puck.
I don’t care how much effort you put in - if your opponent is being the aggressor, and dictating and anticipating the play, while you’re playing passive and reacting to a play then you’re never going to win that race.
The fans will say you’re just working hard enough or that you’re too slow, when really you’re just not thinking the game at the right speed or being put in a position to be able to be the aggressor.
And that’s the biggest problem with this system. What about this system says the Flames are going to try to be aggressive and dictate the game?
Is it the ultra passive net front collapse in the defensive zone?
How about the labeled break out up the strong side where they just try to shove the puck through players? (Link for reference
https://jmalloryhockey.substack.com/...used-cgy-needs)
Maybe it’s the ultra passive neutral zone play where the defenders give up our blueline at a rate that’s the 3rd worst in the league?
Or maybe it’s the fact that our defenders don’t seem to jump into the rush as much to help in the neutral zone anymore?
No! it must be the ultra passive zone entries that too frequently end with a soft dump to the corner that the forechecker has no chance to get to first?
People need to realize that this ultra passive system we are playing doesn’t work with this roster, and might not work with any roster in this NHL to be honest.
