I am sorry, through all your rambling all I heard was excuses and pretty much a desire to sacrifice the health and success of the TEAM for one player. One unproven kid.
That's odd, you should consider having your hearing checked, cause no such thing would have occurred. Team would have been fine.
Kreider should have just been moved to the 3rd line for an unproven kid when he has been a top 6 player his whole career? Am I reading that right?
In my visualization of things the top 3 lines would have been more or less interchangeable instead of a 1-through-3 pecking order, so I don't really consider it some sort of demotion to play Kreider there, but yes, I think a line with Kreider-Chytil-Blais/Goodrow made the most sense coming out of training camp, with Kravtsov either on the Panarin line or the Zibanejad line. Kreider still grabs the lion's share of PP time so he is not wasted one bit.
I also think this outcome was essentially on the table had Kravtsov not thrown his temper tantrum, so I don't think it was far fetched. Which goes back to the part where I keep saying, Kravtsov is to blame here.
Kravtsov should have been handed his spot because he is a “ticking time bomb” aka an immature child?
Yes.
You cannot stand on principal and lose the asset. It's cutting off your nose to spite your face. You don't gain anything. People keep whining about how he didn't "earn," it. Again, (a) that's nonsense, he deserves a spot on the active roster more than Hunt, Reaves or McKegg, (b) taking a hardline stance with these players is not setting a precedent and keeping other players from acting up (see Lias and DeAngelo), and (c) giving Kravtsov a break would not have caused a locker room revolt. He either would have eventually earned the spot when he got into shape, injuries would have opened a spot for him organically, or he could have been traded before it became an issue.
Sammy Blais should have been put on the 4th line even though he outperformed Kravtsov and Blais has been a key reason as to why we are 5-2-1 right now?
Heaven forfend career fourth liner Sammy Blais play on, and substantially enhance by the way, an otherwise lackluster fourth line. Having depth is bad apparently. You're gonna need to explain to me why Blais on the fourth line is bad. He's like a perfect elite fourth line player.
Where I am getting lost is why Blais is sacredly entitled to more time just because he had one better camp than an injured Kravtsov. Assuming VK eventually gets into shape, are we not a better and deeper team with Kravtsov doing a decent job on a top 9 spot and Blais dominating on the fourth line? And....
wasn't that the plan anyway??? And if so (which simple math makes indisputable), why is it so offensive to tell Blais you are going to play him where you acquired him to play?
Guy, you are going off the deep end at this point. Straight up asinine positions to take for the purpose of defending a KID. A spoiled, whiny kid.
I think the same of your position.
But I’ll give you one small amount of agreement, the organization does deserve some blame. Yes, the Scouts and Gorton for not doing their homework enough that they used two Top 10 picks on spoiled, immature kids. And also probably not setting realistic expectations for them, not that these kids couldn’t be normal human beings and understand things change, plans change, and you have to continue to work to adapt to those changes. Blame goes both ways. But I refuse to blame Drury for not coddling and catering to Kravtsov. We dont have a need for players who need to be pacified on their way to the NHL. I dont blame Gallant for looking at the TC and Preseason and selecting who he did to make this team.
We have a need for future top 6 skilled players badly. Kravtsov retains the possibility of being one.
There was no harm in massaging this situation. People keep yelping about "not earning it," but there is nothing to indicate any kind of long term locker room damage, and frankly, plenty of evidence to suggest that their drawing lines in the sand with these kids doesn't work. They needed to try something else for once and didn't.
If it didn't work even after trying something else it's way more forgiveable, but once again their lack of flexibility has proven costly to our talent level.
And there's nothing to say that if things aren't working out a month into the season you can't demote him then and let him bail. At least then they can argue they did bend over backwards trying.
They didn't even try. They wanted to be righteous instead of right for the future health of the team. It was stubborn, obstinate, and wrong.
