Quote:
Originally Posted by Miller Time
it's not about "throwing crap" at anyone, player or management/coach...
it's about trying to understand why the same situation keeps repeating itself so frequently. Individually, one could try to make a case to blame either management-coach or player in all of these situations, but that doesn't solve the problem as to why it happens so frequently with our franchise.
league-wide, i don't know if any team has had as many problems over the past few years over the same type of issue (young roster player feeling disgruntled with way team treats/communicates with them).
i follow the flames quite closely (living in Calgary), and even under Darryl Sutter (who is about the hardest type of individual to communicate with on the planet), you rarely saw these kinds of problems emerge.
there is a problem with the culture of the habs organization, and wether the blame lies more with certain players or with the leadership structure, ultimately it's up to the leadership structure to address the issue.
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I don't think it's a problem with the habs organization on this one. Cue Kostitsyn's comments saying that he didn't start playing bad, but he was pretty much demoted to the 3rd/4th line for no reason. Same problem we had with Sergei. They want ice-time, the coach wants results...but if the results are not there, they still want the ice-time. Kostitsyn is just frustrated as most of us are with the way things are going in his career, he knows he can be a 30 goal scorer and a star in this league. But instead of using that frustration as motivation to perform at his peak level, he's just taking it out in public, hoping that the coach will hear him and give him what he wants.
I suppose he sees guys like Gomez and Cammalleri getting ice-time despite having horrible seasons and he questions the coach's decisions. Andrei fails to realize that Cammalleri and Gomez have earned that kind of latitude in the NHL for their individual accomplishements and status in the league. Cammalleri has been one of the NHL's top playoff performers 2 years in a row and Gomez has won the cup while being one of the top playmakers in the NHL (back then). What has Kostitsyn done? Might sound harsh or simple-minded, but it's like that. He's not the first one on the ice in the morning during practice, not the last to leave, his stats are nothing to write home about, he's not in great shape (he's lost a step since his first full season) and he's being demoted because the coach wants him to work harder. Doesn't look too good on a player's CV.
Again, I disagree with the notion that the habs are doing something wrong with this guy, he's been given a lot of chances, maybe too many and hasn't delivered. Every situation is different and were evaluated by the organization individually, so let's not compare what happened with Lapierre, Laraque and Sergei.