I just said not to kill them over it?
Sorry, the second part is my disdain for the organizational philosophy, not for your, or Claypool's, comment.
But he also said, "those guys are accountable are accountable guys and work hard and they don't got to apologize to me." Everyone screws up, it's inevitable. The problem with someone like AA is he hasn't been accountable or worked hard. It's a different set of parameters. Mantha wasn't always accountable and working hard to improve, but he has figured things out with Blashill and developed a process to be a better player....exactly what the coaching should be accomplishing.
Except it often doesn't feel like Mantha and AA were being held accountable for working hard, but simply for making a mistake. Bad turnover? On the bench. Mental error? You're back to the 4th line, playing grinder minutes. I should also be clear that this isn't a Blashill problem, as Babcock pulled the same crap.
If you demonstrate that you bust your ass and cover your responsibilities in damn near every single case, then one mistake isn't going to be the end of the world. But what happens if you aren't covering your responsibilities even 50% of the time like Athanasiou, when his shortcomings are apparent in nearly every single game? Coaches are just supposed to throw him out for 18 minutes a night?
If you're screwing up that often, you should be off the team. There's no benefit to anyone in just jamming you back to the 4th line, over and over. We either accept that you're a certain type of player, and figure out how to let you play that way, or we accept that you're never going to play the way we want, and we move on. It's not like AA, for instance, is suddenly going to come into camp this year as a different player with a different personality.
I'm not saying bury them alive on the first mistake they make, because **** happens as Gallant pointed out, but if you are habitual offender, you probably don't deserve the benefit of the doubt.
If every kid is an habitual offender (AA, Mantha, Smith), there's probably something going badly wrong on the development side.
Just to make it clear, not working hard and making mistakes are two entirely different things. Making mistakes is bad only if you learn nothing from them and they keep repeating. Not working hard is never ok. I don't want to see young players benched for making a mistake (or two) no matter how horrible it is. That's just bad coaching imo. So grill the young guys for a lack of work ethic, but never for making mistakes.
Absolutely agree. If AA comes in and won't work hard or backcheck or whatever, fine, staple him to the bench or move him when it becomes clear it's not changing. When he makes a dumb turnover at mid-ice that leads to a goal, don't yank his ice time immediately.[/quote][/QUOTE]
