Everyone could take that cop out if they wanted. There are always unknowns.
Would it be that ballsy/crazy for him to say I expect this team to make the playoffs after we had 93 points last year and saw some good growth from Raymond and Seider? Or if not this year, I’d expect us to be a playoff team the year after and beyond.
Do you just expect the fans to sit here til whenever? Because that’s how I take these answers at this point in time.
So you want the GM to lie to you just so you can hear something you like? If he doesn't expect it, he doesn't expect it, same as last season, Now, you tell me that they scrape into the playoffs (either last season or next) and he's telling the
team and/or press after, say, a close loss of round 1 game 2 that it's no biggie - he never "expected them to be in that situation anyway"?
That's completely different. Between seasons it's
mostly about setting expectations - it's a message mostly directed outwards to fans, press, even upper management and owners. "Here's what to expect." If the
team is tired of hearing "we're just not good enough" and you get a fire lit in their bellies? Excellent.
But do you really think that a guy who essentially had his leg sawed in half so he could play on the 4th line at the close of his 22-year career with
his effing team is sending TEAM-facing messages of "I have no expectations"? Really? Team-facing is about management and, yes, morale.
Maybe that makes me McCarty-esque, even though I don't have quite enough hair left for the pigtails, but man, some folks need to understand basic teams management.
Fan expectations? We're not on the team - we're butts-in-seats and die-hard fans and internet losers and weirdoes and normies - but we never hear what the team hears unless The Captain decides we should. But our "job" is to scream and dance and hope, to keep the team motivated.
What kind of fan base do you want us to be? Toronto?