Message from Above - "Be patient, I got this"
ESPN's spectacular overwhelming hockey coverage provided some very interesting insight into the Cigar's mentality. Courtesy of Pierre LeBrun:
"Fans, for the most part, aren't very patient," Sather said.
Ok, so I cherry-picked a quote out of an article built around a much larger focus, which is to shed some light on the organizational gameplan, specially when it comes to the youth movement going on. Rob previously wrote about one ESPN writer's feelings on how the Rangers should build. Dave has also looked at the shift in mentalities to one the Devils employed for years. Here's what Mr. Glen Sather had to say on the subject:
"It really hasn't been a change from anything we've tried to do," Sather told ESPN.com from his team office Wednesday. "It takes time for these kids to develop. The problem with free agents is, if you don't have kids that are ready to play, you have to fill the holes with somebody. I don't think the market in New York is a place where people are patient, so you try to build from within and build from without at the same time, all the while not giving up your draft picks and not trying to restrict the development of the players."
The reality, despite Glen's first words there, is that it has been a change. At the very least, a change from the pre-lockout days where Glen both boasted about and tried building a roster with money alone. Post lockout, we have Dan Girardi since 2006, Ryan Callahan since 2007, Brandon Dubinsky and Marc Staal since 2008, Michael Del Zotto and Artem Anisimov since last year, and now Derek Stepan and Mike Sauer. We still have a pipeline of kids behind these players that are willing and (should be) able to step in. On that subject, Glen does give another nugget of optimism:
"I think [Roman] Horak is going to be a good player, [Chris] Kreider for sure, [Carl] Hagelin has a good opportunity. We've got lots of good kids coming," Sather said.
I think it says a lot that Glen specifically mentioned these players. We talk often about Evgeny Grachev, Ethan Werek, and Mats Zuccarello-Aasen as having an impact, but we see two players here that the organization also sees having spots, and with good reason. Carl Hagelin especially is a player very far under the radar, when all he is doing is putting up significant offense for the University of Michigan, while being a very responsible two way forward (a formula that has seemed to work for one very key line these days) Roman Horak is a faceoff winning machine that is scoring the mythical "big" goal seemingly every night (10 in 13 games all told).
All of this gets me back to the initial quote.
"Fans, for the most part, aren't very patient," Sather said. "But I think they can see the development we've got going on here. A lot of these guys have been drafted by us, and we're still waiting for other players to come up."
He's right. The message to take from this, Glen, is that the fans will be patient, if you give them hope. With the extensive youth in the lineup these days, there is a lot of reason to be hopeful. We just have to hope you will stay the course.
