tired is a reason. passenger is a charge. I see a difference. a team on a road back to back and 3rd game in 4 nights who also played with a short bench the night before has a reason to be tired. calling someone that is worn out a passenger is a low blow. Are you are calling that player out of shape and saying that being tired is unacceptable?
I'm not calling anyone anything. I am trying to interpret what Trotz said. If you're really interested, go check out the video of his remarks and see what you think.
When he said some of the top guys looked 'a little tired,' i'm not sure that was the full extent of his feelings. It looked to me like he just settled on a 'little tired' rather than elaborating or critiquing individuals. Further, he said
some of the top guys looked tired. So that would leave room for other top guys to be described as passengers.
Overall, Trotz spoke generally about the team being sloppy and not battling hard enough. I don't think he was limiting that general view to just Chimmer (if your conjecture is right) and one other 'passenger.' (Nor am i even sure that when he said there 'were a couple passengers,' he meant exactly two.)
He definitely did mention how hard back-to-backs are. So you are right to emphasize that factor.
But that fact alone -- fatigue from back-to-back -- isn't the beginning and end of all analysis. The game is still, technically, winnable, right? (Even the wretched Pens won the back end of a B2B on the road, same night as we faced Canes.) Even if players are tired, they are still supposed to battle their hardest, right? I don't see why a coach couldn't hold both opinions about a particular player -- a) he was tired; AND b) even taking into account his fatigue, he didn't try his hardest. I just don't see those two as mutually exclusive.
Oh well, let's see how the boys rebound against Blue Jax. I'm particularly excited to watch some of the guys who are getting new opportunities or expanded roles due to injuries, e.g. Bura, Latta, Sill, Carrick.
