Thread: News Article: Jacques Martin speaks...
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07-19-2011, 05:44 PM
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Originally Posted by Rutabaga View Post
As far as i know, it seems quite natural to ask more from the young players. They're not established, they're not reliable, usually, and they always should be under pressure.
How many young players believed that their spot was guaranteed and then, stopped to work ?

Its not inconsistency, its just that the status are not the same.
How could you ask the same thing from Gomez and Desharnais ? They dont have at all the same level of experience, the same status within the team, and the same level on the ice, which is the most important !

You could bench Eller, if he's in a bad day, that wont be hard to find somebody to play instead of him.
If you bench Hamrlik, you need to find a top-pairing defenseman. Not the same problem at all !

Im not saying that they should be untouchable, but you cant ask the same things to a guy with 16 years of experience behind him and to the latest rookie in the team.

(Its not a coincidence when the ones who "accept" and understand that kind of things are stronger mentally.)

They're not going to purely weaker teams, but accordingly to their level and style, they're a much better fit than us.
Nashville is used to roll three 2nd lines, St.Louis has been destroyed by the injuries, just like Colorado, and the Avalanche wasnt that great in the first place.
Here, they were struggling, and stagnating. Its not because they are thriving somewhere else, that they would have been as successful here, you need a similar set of circumstances.

The only problem i could possibly understand is the relatively poor value we got back from Kostitsyn.

Of course having young and cheap assets is always interesting, but at the time, they were not really "assets", and their value was slowly declining. They were declining, as players.

If Sergei is still there, for instance, i think that it would have be very difficult for Desharnais to be promoted, as they have a similar style.
D'Agostini is not better than Pacioretty offensively, and he's not reliable enough to be trusted on a consistent basis for a Top-6 position. I dont see him playing on a bottom-6 role either. He only played there on a depleted St.Louis offense, while they were not very good...I cant see him fitting on a role here, honestly.

O'Byrne is not playing the same way Weber does, obviously but with Subban and Weber being ready, plus the other vets under contract, you have to make a decision between the young players.
(I may say something stupid, but does the trade of O'Byrne allowed to dress one more player, which was Desharnais ?)

You are not going to trade Hamrlik or Gill to give a shot to O'Byrne.
And Spacek was not trade-able, otherwise they would have done it.

Being able to put the fire on the young and struggling players, thats difficult. Very very difficult, every team will lose, occasionnally, players like that.
I think that a lot of our vets are playing solid hockey.
Minus Spacek and Hamrlik (but they're over-used), Cammalleri and Gomez, i cant think of a player being not as good as i feel they could be, last year.

Nashville did acquired Sergei ? They've lost Peverley and Santorelli for instance...and i think that we could agree that Trotz is a very good coach. Sometimes, you have to make a choice between young players, which is why you have some losses...

You just cant ask the same thing from each of your players, and its perfectly normal to ask more from the non-established, i just dont see why its a big deal.
completely disagree...

the best teams in every sport have veterans/leaders who set the example and who hold themselves to the highest standards of both work ethic and performance.

the worst thing a coach can do is cut his veterans slack while demanding more from the rookies/young players.

it's not much different in any effective professional environment. Leaders and effective managers know how important it is to set the right examples/standards from the top-down, not the other way around.

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