Quote:
Originally Posted by Voodooman
What makes me crazy (and this isn’t just the Flames, it’s league wide) is the absolute lack of accountability the players are held to. Peters first statement in the post-game should have been “Mike Smith cost us this game.”
Forget all this team building BS, and not losing the room, blah, blah, blah. These guys are being paid millions of dollars per year to perform, and if they don’t, they should be called out. Don’t say things like “We have confidence that Smitty can find his game.” No you don’t.
At least call the guy out and see if he has any pride at all, and responds to a public dressing down.
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No....just no.
You want t have good relationships with your players? The ONE thing you dont do is blast them in the media. Its a very poor way of handling guys who know they are struggling. the other guys in the room know Smith is fighting it, Smith knows he is fighting it,,, so who is it going to benefit to throw Smith under the bus? It's just a form of blood lust by fans.
Peters did this to Lack in Carolina and really quickly realized what a mistake it was.
Quote:
“You won’t get the Eddie Lack sound bite so play that today and move on,” said Peters Monday of the 51-second clip in which he talks about how Lack had to earn the respect of his teammates for being ranked 60th in save percentage in a 30-team league.
“I learned from that. Not a proud moment as a coach. It was a little over the top. I apologized to Eddie that day. I apologized to (Carolina GM) Ronnie (Francis) when it happened, so let’s get that one out of the way.
“First call after I leave here is get ahold of Smitty (Mike Smith), (David) Rittich, (Tyler) Parsons and (Jon) Gillies and make sure they know they’re not going to get that one. You’ve got to build relationships with these guys and get on the same page and accomplish things together as a team.”
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https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/...past-mistakes/
Just give Rittich the reins the next 3 or 4 games, see if Smith can find his game in practice and go from there.....but do it all within the room and not on the radio/tv/newspapers etc.