I think Lucic made some really good points in that presser. In particular, how he compared losing and underachieving to being stuck in quicksand – the harder you dig, the more you sink. I suspect he might agree with me that if the schedule had allowed more of a regular practice routine, Sutter might have done more to help the team focus their effort on the right things instead of just thrashing. Instead, they just kept playing game after game and making bad habits worse.
I was nodding my head when he said the big problem is ‘between the ears’, and later when he mentioned how detrimental it was for the players not to be able to spend time together off the ice, bonding or blowing off steam or what have you. As fans, we keep hearing talk about how this is a close-knit team, and because of their lack of success we tend to think, ‘Aha! Country club!’ Whether that's true or not, this season the ‘club’ never had a proper meeting, and the members appeared to drift apart. It's hard to function as a team when the only time you spend together is the time spent losing.
What made the most impression on me was when Lucic talked about ‘setting a standard’ in Boston – how the Bruins made it clear to every player the kind of effort and attention to detail that was needed to win, and how that standard has been maintained for all these years since their last championship. I don't honestly know if Lucic should be a candidate for the next captain – I lean towards Lindholm or Tanev – but I'd love to see him as a clear leader on the team, helping to communicate that standard to his teammates. If he can do that, he might even come close to earning that huge salary this coming year.
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