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Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Yeah this has been a puzzling season from Darryl. The team has played poor defensively but it's kind of his job to get the players playing the team game as it's something he's been very good at most of his career. The rolling of four lines late into games is simply idiotic and Huberdeau hasn't been bad enough to warrant only 16 minutes per game which is the lowest for him since the 2014/15 season. He's starting to remind me of his GM days in the 2nd half of his tenure where it was like he was lost grip of things. Still I'm not panicking as usually there's a method to his madness. I just hope the method pays off and we aren't left with the madness that defined the 2nd half of his days as Flames GM.
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He did the same thing when he first joined the Flames mid-season.
Tkachuk getting benched/little ice time, Monahan demoted, etc.
Even just the start of last season I recall people being crazy about how he was using Lewis, Richardson, Zadorov, and Gudbranson too much.
It seems as if he almost does this early in the season as part of the method to his madness.
But while it's happening it's super frustrating since it feels like you're throwing points away.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HighLifeMan
Personally I think Sutter really fumbled the ball to start the year, and should take some responsibility for the past stretch. His utilization of a talent like Huberdeau has so far been poor, and I think training camp was a complete disaster from the get go. There was virtually zero competition for jobs (despite what was publically said), and very little movement among the lineup to see what could, and couldn't work.
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This training camp was too static from the start with the "Veterans" and "AHLers" split and it should be no surprise that both sides seemed to suffer from some complacency to start the year.
NHLers knew there was no risk to their jobs / ice time.
AHLer knew they had no shot of getting a chance anyways.
