Given Bednar’s performance as well as the team’s performance over the last three years, I would put him in the Jack Adams conversation right now. He got dealt a really crappy hand that first year with a team who’s coach quit on them right before camp, a toxic locker room, and no winning culture. I’m not in that room, but I have been in plenty of high level locker rooms, he seems to have done a really good job of identifying his leadership group. He trusts those guys, they seem to get legitimate input on what happens with the team, they work hard for him, and he in return protects them publicly when needed, gives honest criticism where appropriate, and generally seems to communicate really well with them. Bottom line with him is that I think he truly believes in the “team” concept and that he is merely a part of the team and not above or apart from it. Yes, he’s the coach, but I get the impression that he thinks of that as more of his position in the lineup rather than an all mighty being reigning over the team. The buy in I’ve seen from this squad this year has been amazing, and I really think that he is a big part of that and deserves his fair share of the credit.

I’m a couple pods behind, but I just listened to y’all talk about how Graves’ penalties have been concerning and that the penalties have been happening by chasing the play after he’s already been beat. Here’s my question: it seems like his penalties have begun to increase in the last 10 or so games… right as Makar is skyrocketing and showing great defensive improvements. So my question: is Graves looking over at what Makar is doing and hurting his own game by mentally comparing himself to Makar as the fellow young guy in the D core? I wonder if he might be desperately trying to fix his mistakes to keep up with Makar’s progression. If I were in Graves’ shoes, no doubt I’d do the same thing!