Culture Club - Karma Cam Neelium

I'm wondering if the culture of the club has anything to do with this mess.

How many NHL teams out there has a goal song for each "special" player? Only Ottawa comes to mind. I think the marketing branch of the Sens, who have come up with winners like Flabbius the Spartan, has gone a long way to create this divisive culture. You drive down the road to Scotiabank and you see player flags. You get to the front doors and you see the "Golden boys" larger than life. I say in a process to market the "Golden Boys", the culture of the team has changed from being one team, to the special kids and the other guys. Hardly a force united. Scoff if you will, but I think there's meat to my theory.

This is only what I can see on the surface. I'm sure there is other special treatment that goes on (heated towels and bon bons) behind the scene that further reinforces the team class division.

Sure the team will likely be blown up, but mark my words, when the nobodys become somebodys, if this culture remains, we'll be right back to where we are today.

Tampa Bay is another example or marketing of a special few. Look where they are today as well. Same with the Canadiens. They're in their 100th Season, their heads are getting swollen and they will likely soil the mattress as well.

Coaching is about managing egos. Hard to manage an ego monster when marketing is feeding it daily, right?

Cloustin = Win.

Seriously though I think you may have a point. The problem is the marketing department are doing what works right? Will the team concept and removing focus on individuals work here? I don't know but I'm also not in marketing.

the marketing department is there to get "bums on seats", however, the spin off might be the players starting to "believe their own ink" - and therefore "it shouldn't be this hard to win" (Spezza quote)

Now every time I see that avatar of Crosby crying, the tears look like ***.

S-pizz-unk

I think you may be on to something.
No matter how hard they try, they are going to hear/read/see their press reports, and the special treatment they receive is not only going to affect them, but it will affect the others too. I can't imagine that the lack of accountability by Hartsburg helped either - Smith isn't a golden boy, so he could be sat, but god forbid one of the big three be benched for anything more than a few shifts.

That is sure to breed resentment.