Little something different today, as the Yotes don’t really drum up the emotions. Though we could go off on Zac Rinaldo on another day. But this caught our eye yesterday:
Ryan Hartman told me he was scratched last night because of the high-sticking double-minor he took in Washington. "Bad luck. Kind of got slew-footed and fell backward. It happens."
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) December 9, 2017
What kind of horseshit is this? Let’s run through all the possibilities and just wonder how this benefits a young player who is only in his second year.
One, Hartman really was scratched due to a high-sticking penalty. A great majority of those are simply bad luck, as Hartman puts it. Trying to lift a stick, play the puck, falling over. This was the case on Wednesday, as Hartman never saw the player behind him. Is he really being punished for luck. How’s that going to instill any confidence in him when he returns to the ice?
Second possibility: No one’s told Hartman why he was scratched, so he’s left to guess why. How’s that help? What’s he going to work on? And if he thinks it’s because of a high-sticking penalty, what kind of message is he getting the rest of the time?
Third possibility: Q and/or the coaches have told Hartman why he’s been scratched–and they’d have plenty of ammo–and he still thinks this is the reason. So they have no idea how to get through to him. Or Hartman is just rock stupid and isn’t hearing what they’re saying.
If you want to know why young players have a tendency to stall-out on the Hawks after initial promise, might this be a clue? They’re not getting any message? Or the right one? Feel frozen out? Quite the insight a simple quote can give, no?
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