Interesting dilemma for North Bay coaches and management:
- With the way the team is playing now and how they're moving up, do they risk all these improvements in the short term and break the team up (by trading the likes of Brazeau, Burghardt and Propp-esp. Brazeau, who with the year he's having, could fetch a king's ransom) in favour of longer term success?
- Or, do they stay the course with the players they have now and take a chance that the group of players "as is" is going to continue to improve and make an impact in the playoffs *now* - but take a greater chance on long term success as a consequence?
On a positive note, loving how the team is playing as of late. Primeau has been a great pick up, and Mitchell Russell is certainly looking that way over his first two games in Green. The way I see it, part of the change to a winning culture starts with a fan base. I've heard a lot of negative too about the Battalion lately, and how people won't be going to the games because the team isn't a "winner" on the level of a London or Ottawa. Getting *that* far is a process - people need to understand that building to that point takes time and patience from everyone involved. Me, I'd love to go to more games than I do - work and school commitments keep me from attending more than the weekend home games I paid for in my ticket package. These kids come to our city at 16 and 17 years old - many of them far from home for the first time. They're big, they're talented...but in the end, they *are* still kids. Positivity is a building block to success - short OR long term.
There needs to be MORE of it in North Bay.