Colorado Mammoth Message Board

Well I apologize for taking some time to answer the questions posted on this forum. It has taken me a while to sift through what questions are worth answering and which questions actually, were asked to get an answer. It appears that venting here has become the norm so I have just taken a back seat. It appears my answers aren't necessary any longer on this forum, lots of people just answer for me!

These forums were set up for our fans as a place to talk Mammoth, some people have taken the opportunity to use every feature and approach every issue, others have taken a more specific approach. I cherish our fans ability to speak their mind here and do not choose to remove any postings, we allow the people that we have asked to be our administrators to use their best judgements on our behalf.

I have read the comments that some of our "loyal" fans have written and find some of the comments have been beyond good taste and beyond good judgment. With that being said, everyone is entitled to their opinion. It is interesting that the negativity when you lose is so much more intense than the positve comments when you win. I also find it interesting that negative posters will take their shots after a loss and will only surface again after another loss. Such is life, its easy to point out our shortcomings without measure for the toll that it takes to get to success.

I always think of Theodore Roosevelt's speech in 1910, when things aren't going our way, where he said..."It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

And for those of you that aren't in the locker room, Bob McMahon is a great coach, and extremely well respected by our players as well as players and coaches of other teams. His style may not "fit" the expectations of others, but the level of devotion that he garners from his players is like nothing I have seen before. And the moment I beleive that he has lost our players, you will all know it.

Both Bob McMahon and I set out to execute a plan this off season, we decided to focus our efforts on a course of action and stick with it. Losing two games in a row at home was a painful by product of a changing philosophy, will we lose more?, probably, but our focus is on the playoffs and delivering on an implied promise to ourselves, our players, our owner, and our fans, that the end of the season, and our long term success outweighs what we do in the first 3 games of the season.

We are thrilled with the play of our new goaltender in the past 2 and a half games, our defence has new found confidence in front of him. This leads to the ability to transition the ball instead of picking it out of our net and walking to the faceoff spot, we have the athletes that want to run the floor and will have greater opportunity as the confidence in the defensive system grows. Our offense is still trying to create chemistry and buy into a new system with new personel that we ultimately feel will create a very balanced and deadly attack for years to come.

So please continue to ask questions, I will answer the ones I feel are approriate to answer and I will answer them honestly. I won't answer questions about who is starting in goal or why won't I fire the coach. You may not always like the answer but you should expect it to be fair.

Thank you for all your feedback.

SG