I say we "Dive for a Top 5"!!!!!

[IrMitchell]

Originally Posted by SirClintonPortis

Management(top dogs) certaintly did by deliberately removing the good players from the roster. I'm ok with that.

But I'm talking about the players and coaches. Were the players just plain ass or did they not give any effort? It's not hard to find the scrub hockey players in your system.

Considering I was a Leafs fan who finished 4th last, I followed it closely. I remember their team was constantly being switched around. 3rd line center played 10 games as the 1st line center while the 4th line center played as the 2nd line center, and so on... They just did everything they could to lose more games than New Jersey who were also unexpectedly terrible. The fans and players didn't complain because they had Lemieux to look forward too.. What did he do the year after he was drafted? Scored 100 points, won rookie of the year, the next year he had 141, and within five years he had back to back stanley cup championships.

You can't exactly say it didn't work for them, or their players went into a "losing mentality".

Quarterbacks are game changers, Andrew Luck can turn a team around.

I love London Fletcher as much as the next guy, he will always be my favorite linebacker... But he's 36 years old and our team sucks, we need a quarterback. You can be our linebacker coach London, but this team won't make the playoffs while you're here.

[SouperMeister]

Originally Posted by IrMitchell

...I love London Fletcher as much as the next guy, he will always be my favorite linebacker... But he's 36 years old and our team sucks, we need a quarterback. You can be our linebacker coach London, but this team won't make the playoffs while you're here.

Fletcher's situation seems likely to play out like Ken Harvey's - the Skins didn't get to the playoffs under Norv until the year after Harvey was done. In hindsight, Shanny would have been much better off keeping Jason Campbell as the caretaker at QB until he found his "franchise" player. You can never convince me that Rex or Beck are better options than Campbell.

[IrMitchell]

Originally Posted by SouperMeister

Fletcher's situation seems likely to play out like Ken Harvey's - the Skins didn't get to the playoffs under Norv until the year after Harvey was done. In hindsight, Shanny would have been much better off keeping Jason Campbell as the caretaker at QB until he found his "franchise" player. You can never convince me that Rex or Beck are better options than Campbell.

Absolutely, Jason Campbell wasn't in those MVP talks (not that they were completely serious) that one season for nothing. He can make the throws with an offensive line.

[SirClintonPortis]

Originally Posted by IrMitchell

Considering I was a Leafs fan who finished 4th last, I followed it closely. I remember their team was constantly being switched around. 3rd line center played 10 games as the 1st line center while the 4th line center played as the 2nd line center, and so on... They just did everything they could to lose more games than New Jersey who were also unexpectedly terrible. The fans and players didn't complain because they had Lemieux to look forward too.. What did he do the year after he was drafted? Scored 100 points, won rookie of the year, the next year he had 141, and within five years he had back to back stanley cup championships.

You can't exactly say it didn't work for them, or their players went into a "losing mentality".

Quarterbacks are game changers, Andrew Luck can turn a team around.

I love London Fletcher as much as the next guy, he will always be my favorite linebacker... But he's 36 years old and our team sucks, we need a quarterback. You can be our linebacker coach London, but this team won't make the playoffs while you're here.

Well, upon looking at the careers of the players on the 1983 and 1984 rosters at Pro Hockey Refernce, I see that almost all of the Penguins on the '83 roster that made it to the '84 roster never got to bask Lemieux's glory after his rookie season. And the coach didn't come back either. So it was hardly profitable for most involved, the exceptions being Denis Herron and the GM.