Calgary Flames – The Case Of Sven Baertschi

Photo Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

According to the Calgary Flames website, Monahan, the first round pick by the Flames in the 2013 draft, has seemingly sailed through the ranks of becoming a part of the Calgary Flames so far this season while Sven Baertschi, the first round pick in the 2011 draft, has had a tougher time getting accustomed to the NHL.

Baertschi has been a healthy scratch three times recently, much to the chagrin of some fans. I have read a lot of tweets about how frustrated fans are getting with the decisions to bench Baertschi. These fans go on to explain that they feel Baertschi can’t get any better if he’s not on the ice.

Yet, according to Roger Millions on twitter, it has been said that Hartley has been consistently frustrated by Sven.

When Baertschi plays, it seems that he’s not performing the way the coaching staff have expected, yet he’s gaining much-needed experience and hopefully learning from his mistakes. When he doesn’t play and the Flames decide to bench him for his unstructured performance, he loses the experience that could potentially be gained by another game.

To me, it seems to be a matter of commitment vs. experience for Baertschi that can only be solved by his own actions. If he works hard every game then Hartley will have no reason to bench him, but if he doesn’t listen to the coaching staff, he could possibly be scratched more often.

During Monday night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets, it seemed that Sven did well in almost every possible way. He blocked shots in the Flames zone, he shot the puck more often in the Jets zone, and he hustled better than I have seen from him in a while.

So that leaves one very important question…

Should Baertschi sit as discipline for his inadequate play or should he play and gain more experience?