I dont understand your irrational emotionalism. We don't need to see Ristolainen put on a Flyers jersey to know that he has sucked for 8 full years of his professional career. We also know that putting on a Flyers sweater doesn't give him magical superpowers.
As just about everyone has said - will he look better here than in Buffalo? Sure, it's possible. Maybe even likely, given he'll be aying with better players. Does playing here mean he'll suddenly morph into a very good hockey player? Very unlikely.
This is science, and I'm not sure what there really is to debate about that. His stats show he's one of the worst defenseman in the league. His stats also show he's a contributor to the team being as bad as it was when he's on the ice. That's not predictive. That's measured off of actual reaults. It's not like he's going from a bottom dweller to a perennial contender and will have an easier go at things. He's going from a bottom dweller to a below average team that is coached by a team who isn't know for his defensive structure. That's not an opinion, and it's not a negative commentary. It's just the truth.
Christ, no it's not. This isn't baseball in which every event is separate. This is hockey, where everything is a fluid mess.
This isn't a game in which you put the 18 best statistical players on the ice and watch them win the cup. Theres a reason that several teams who are regular season offensive powerhouses crumble in the playoffs. Will puting the statistically best players give you a stronger chance to make the playoffs? Absolutely. No one here argues against that, is it a guarantee of success, no.
If this was science, then we would simply be watching the games for nothing short of the freak incidents or outliers. That isn't the case.
My issue with grading Risto as a failure is that he has been playing on a losing franchise his entire professional career, in which, outside of him playing like the best defensive player in the league wasn't going to alter the result in any meaningful way. That level tends to allow errors to manifest in your game, for mistakes to be amplified, and for your care factor to dissapear.
Unless you are about to tell me that you have a season ticket to Buffalo and have seen all of his games, I'm going to make the presumption that you have no idea what he appears to be doing wrong on the ice other than 4 coloured boxes on a twitter image. Are his errors fixable, is it a collection of poor mechanics or decision making, is he trying to overcompensate for poor teammates, or a poor goaltender. Is he being coaches or instructed to perform in a way that doesn't benefit his skill set?
You keep saying that he could improve but never be great. We don't need him to be great. We need a middle of the road middle pairing defenseman, that can handle big lumps in the corners. If the guy tops out as a solid #3 or #4 then it's a successful move and he'll be paid relative to what he brings. If he holds his own and can lead the bottom pairing, then we've have overpaid to bring in a 5th defenseman with a first round pick, there are worst things that could happen, it's not great but it doesn't require months and months of shit posting.
You talk about being irrationally emotive, thats sport, in a nutshell. If you aren't emotionally invested in this then why are you here, on a dedicated team message board constantly shitting on the team, its coaches, owners or even the mascot. Are you trying to tell me that you have no emotional connection to the team whatsoever? Because I'm going to call bullshit. Casual fans don't have thousands of posts here.
This is the exact place that we should be all irrationally emotive because wether I want it to or not, the flyers performance will have a profound impact on my emotional mood through the season. Repeating the same three lines in the offseason f***ing grates people down, people come here, as with watching sport in the first place, to escape reality for a small portion of their day.
The constant negging of enthusiasm I see here is high on the scale of pathetic. I don't know if it makes people feel superior to berate people for being excited about an aspect, but it sure is sad. Like I said. I'm gonna wait for the puck to drop, and if he f***s up then I'll vent like everyone else here. But I try and contain my negativity until they actually get on the ice and prove nothing has changed. But whatever, you got me. Save your counter post of "strawman...., waahh look at him cry...., boomer dumb fan... , hypocrit..... because frankly I couldn't give a shit anymore.
/irrational emotional rant.
