What I remember most from this playoff run is the Senators up 3-2 in series and pulling Stone from the lineup and replacing him with a guy
— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerCBC) June 15, 2012
from Sweden who didn’t contriubte one bit of blood, sweat or tears for the club.I can’t imagine how Stone felt. So proud to set up Spezza
— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerCBC) June 15, 2012
For whatever reason, Don Cherry used today as an opportunity to heave excrement on Paul MacLean’s decision to insert Jakob Silfverberg, a more accomplished and polished hockey product, for Mark Stone, a player who had a resounding 8 minutes and 43 seconds of professional experience.
Despite medical evidence supporting the fact that one’s vision deteriorates as they age, Don Cherry’s 20/20 hindsight still seems to be working. Go figure.
With his reference to Silfverberg as ‘a guy from Sweden‘, Don’s philosophy of Canadian hegemony over the rest of the hockey world has clouded his common sense. We get that enough on Coach’s Corner, but now it’s apparently permeating his Twitter feed.
This argument that MacLean should have kept the game five winning roster intact just doesn’t fly.
While it makes for water cooler conversation, the insertion of either Stone or Silfverberg into the lineup was such an inconsequential decision. If the Senators were really depending on either one of these players to be key contributors in either of the last two games, then they had already lost.
A head coach should always put his best lineup on the ice to give his organization the best opportunity to win and in my opinion, Paul MacLean did just that. Unfortunately for MacLean, the players and the fans, it simply didn’t work out for our benefit.
Grapes brain is a flow chart with one question: Does this person have maple syrup flowing through their veins?
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