somewhat disagree that its not also on Cassidy. I will point to our own previous Coach Julien who sat over paid/underperforming Karl Alzner at the start of the year. Who would have thought an old dinosaur like Claude would sit a vet. I think a coach needs to play the best available, when you say the team is run based on meritocracy yet don't give Cehlerik and Senyshen amongst others some kind of a chance and continue to try and plug in Backes well that's on the coach in my opinion.
that being said, I agree that Sweeney perhaps put to much into hoping his second year players and potentially rookies could grow.
If DKH reads this he's gonna fall out of his chair, but I think we are being overly critical of Backes here.
You won't find many folks who were more critical of that signing by Sweeney, and clearly Backes hasn't been anywhere near a $6M player here, but is he really the one who comes to mind first when calling this a meritocracy? Some nights he's been the worst on the ice, sure, but not that many IMO. I look at guys like Acciari, Donato, JFK, Cave, Heinen, etc. as guys who've frequently passed the baton for worst player on the ice on a given night. And while I argue all the time that Backes wasn't worth his salary and the "leadership" argument is overrated, give me a great bench guy who does very little on the ice over a new guy who does very little any day of the week.
If the argument is that you want to see more kids over him, fine. I can live with that. But I don't think a "meritocracy" means he's the healthy scratch very often.
