frag2
Registered User
- Mar 8, 2006
- 19,221
- 7,368
i do think the culture was better in 2016-17 but i knew part of it was a bit of a fluke. i was harping on that even during the last 1/4 of that season and still, after the playoff run, wasn't completely convinced the team was going to be as going to be as good in 17-18. i was pleading for them to add quality veteran fwd depth. chia sat on his hands, the summer of 2017. maybe there was no deal or signing to be had, who knows.
16-17, they came together and felt tighter knit and even keep quoting that that year they were playing for each other more (almost certainly rallying around getting rid of a controversial figure in hall that summer). so ya there was definitely that improvement in unity and culture that i knew was temporary. which was why i begged for additions of quality leadership vet fwd presence after the season.
sure enough they were overconfident the following season (as todd mclellan and even the players said) and things fell apart. i knew it was partly to do with the lack of good quality experienced veteran leadership and voices in the room that should have been pounding it home to the team that "we still need to work hard, we need to build on last year and not get complacent and listen to all the bs the media is saying about how we're the greatest team and a cup contender "etc etc. They clearly did not have enough of that voice and vet presence and along with injuries they reverted back to their mentally weak form and the culture sank back down.
culture is complex. it's not as black and white as people want to make it. i DO think at times that winning can help create a good contributions to culture, for sure. you can roll that dice and hope that these young guys develop that winning culture on their own and i'm not going to say for sure that won't work because it certainly can.... we've seen young groups figure it out. however, the safer and prudent way is to ensure you have enough good leader veteran voices on the team to AID the youngsters in developing the proper culture and habits and off ice unity etc etc etc. many times even the young groups who seemingly figure it out always refer to those 1, 2 or 3 great vets that helped mentor them along.
quality leaders who've been there before and know how to create a good atmosphere with good hard working habits and showing other players how they should conduct themselves etc is huge to building a good team culture. when things are good and stable it really helps with performance on the ice. people always forget that these are human beings and they need to feel comfort and stability and a strong sense of buy in to the team culture in their daily lives to be able to perform close to peak as possible. a united team of 75 out of 100 skill guys are going to outperform a fragmented group of 88/100 players more often than not.
you joined march 28, 2017. oilers had 5 regular season games left that season. to whom were you exactly harping to for the 'last 1/4 of the season' because it's obviously not here? unless you were banned and rejoined later...
