Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathgod
Explain to me then, exactly which times did the Flames have a good culture and which times did they not have a good culture? And if you think they have a good culture now, how do they upgrade their talent and become a contender without endangering the culture?
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They had a great culture in '03-04, and parlayed that into a run to the SCF with only one star forward and a killer goalie. A lot of the players who made that work left during the lockout or were traded.
After Sutter stepped down as coach to become full-time GM, the culture simply rotted. Coaches didn't get respect, offensive players wanted to do their thing without paying attention to defence, defensive players resented having to carry the load alone. Nobody really bought into being part of a 5-man attack and a 5-man defence every shift.
When Giordano and Backlund emerged as leaders and mentors in the last rebuild, the culture improved. The team had a string of coaches who understood the value of those two players (and a few others who came and went) as mentors, and routinely put them on the ice with promising rookies to give them live experience of the little things they needed to do to make their skills effective at the NHL level. The most obvious beneficiary of this was Tkachuk, but there were others.
That culture went into a decline when Tkachuk, Gaudreau, and Monahan left, and took another hit with the loss of Tanev. There really isn't a defenceman left who can play the role with young D that Giordano and then Tanev used to; Weegar is the only one who comes close. Backlund is still there and still effective. Kadri sets a good example, but he tends to play a lone game and doesn't involve his linemates in it the way Backlund does. Huberdeau, I don't know about; I think his game is just too clever for untalented linemates. At least his attitude is good.
Nobody wants to keep all the veterans around for the culture. But you have to keep some. My choice would be to keep Backlund, Coleman, and Weegar, one highly effective player and good communicator at each position. The others can go when teams actually start making trades and there's a market for them, which will probably be after Christmas.
I don't give a damn if the players are unhappy at this point. With a record like that, they shouldn't be happy. Losing is not supposed to be fun. If you can lose without getting frustrated, it shows that you weren't really trying to win, and
that is a sign of a busted culture. You should never lose through lack of effort, and that effort should be intelligently directed into the repeatable things that help a team win.
