But I guess the counter would be that that talent has had many opportunities and just hasn’t gotten over the hump. At what point do you say, “You know what, we’ve gotta switch a little something here” but at the risk of making your team worse? How do you balance that?
To do something like that, I want to know more about it. And I guess I would push back on that narrative that they haven’t gotten it done. Go back and study any team, any business, they don’t get to the end goal overnight. Look at the Detroit teams. There was a time when (people said), “No way you’re going to win with (Pavel) Datsyuk and (Henrik) Zetterberg.” After the fact, it’s always easy right? After the fact it’s, Well, of course (Alex) Ovechkin is going to win a Cup. It’s Ovechkin! But there was a long period of time before (they won) when people questioned the mid-90s Detroit Red Wings. All teams that have had success, or companies, or whoever’s reached the mountaintop, there is a step to go through that process.
And, it’s been a damn good team. Yeah, so they haven’t won a Cup. If that’s what we’re solely basing it on and saying, “Well, if we don’t win it, then we’ve got to blow it all up.” In the last five years, when this team’s been really good, we’ve had a team that’s repeated — so we’ve had what, (four) Cup champs in the last five years. So you take out the teams that were rebuilding, so there are 20 teams that should be blown up every year? It doesn’t work that way. To me, coming in and not having an inside view and just saying, “I’ve got to do something just because of the narrative here” doesn’t make any sense. I have to get to know it. I have to know where we can improve. But to do something, to take a really good piece and say, “I’m moving it so I can stand up and say, ‘I made a change’” doesn’t make sense to me.