Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
He's not wrong, even if he's mistaken when he mentions Hamonic.
I think we do have some ultra competitive players - specifically Andersson, Mangiapane, Tkachuk, Dube, and Bennett (I'd also put Johnny in here, although his effectiveness is definitely muted when things do escalate), but that end of the game spat is just another good example of what is wrong with this team. No one is willing to step up. If you see one of your teammates at the end of the game getting into it the way Tkachuk was - everyone on the ice should immediately be involved. Suspensions/fines? Sure, you deal with what you have to - and any loss or issue you have to deal with as a result is better than what this team deals with night in and night out when they apathetically take the ice and don't start playing until they're down by 1 or 2 goals.
For the most part, this team is gutless - and I think a lot of that comes from 3 of the 4 players in our "leadership group" - Monahan, Backlund, and Giordano. They play with zero emotion, and I absolutely hate it. Yes, "playing your system" night in and night out is important to building consistency, but it is not enough. You need that something extra every night to win. You need players emotionally engaged every night - and this team has a culture of not being emotionally engaged.
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I feel like they have been trying to address this for the future with their drafting the last little stretch. Finding the guys like Mangiapane and Dube. Hopeful that Pelletier and Zary play that way. Seems like a changing of the guard is on the horizon.
Tough doesn't have to necessarily mean big and mean in the new NHL when scrums are mostly glove mashing. I noticed Mangiapane jump in and rip Brodie out of a scrum. He didn't care he was a former teammate. He saw a scrum and got in there.