MacLean has plenty to say after latest ugly display
You’ve got to give Ottawa Senators coach Paul MacLean credit for something. At least he has a sense of humour.
You’ve got to give Ottawa Senators coach Paul MacLean credit for something.
At least he has a sense of humour.
When first asked about his impressions of the latest Senators collapse – Tuesday’s atrocious 7-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at Scotiabank Place – MacLean muttered a few words under his mustache.
“Is my mother listening?”
MacLean was, in fact, able to stay away from the obscenities, but he did have plenty to say. None of it positive.
Where, oh, where to start?
How about his thoughts on the players-only meeting immediately following the game?
“We’ll find out as we progress,” said MacLean. “But I think it’s time for some self-evaluation and looks into the mirror and asking the guy there if you’re doing enough. The coaching staff is going to have to do that itself, because obviously what we’re doing isn’t translating from practices into games and we need to re-evaluate. We have to have a self-evaluation of ourselves and make sure we’re doing the right things.”
Makes sense. The Senators have been outscored 14-3 in their past two home games. They’ve allowed five or more goals in four of their first six games and 30 overall.
The loss to Philadelphia was much like the opening two losses to Detroit and Toronto. In all three, the Senators folded under early pressure and then rallied. The difference against the Flyers was that the Senators collapsed a second time, allowing three late goals in the third period.
“I thought we stopped playing in the first period after they scored the (first) goal and allowed them to get three more (in the first period),” the coach said. “And then we got playing in the second when the pressure was off and in the third period, they score again and we stop playing again. They end up getting three more on us. We’re not very pleased at all with the game and the effort and we need to have an evaluation of our team and how we want to play and work it, because now we’re not doing a very good job of it.”
MacLean isn’t fooling himself. He says some of the second-period rally may have been due to the Flyers backing off because they had such a big lead.
“Once they get the (early) goals on us, I guess the pressure is off and we can play. We respond and we play, but we have to play at the start of the game and we have to play when it’s hard. It’s not getting any easier after tonight. It’s getting harder and we have to be ready to play and play the whole game and play hard for the whole game.”
The one thing MacLean didn’t do was throw goaltender Alex Auld under the team bus. While Auld said he needed to make a big save early to help his team – Matt Read’s game opening shortside goal was an inexcusable shot to allow at the NHL level – the coach said it’s one for all and all for one.
Or, in the case of the Senators record now, 1-5.
“You win and lose as a team and when you’re inconsistent, things go wrong,” MacLean said. “And everything goes wrong. The coaching hasn’t been very good. The forwards haven’t been any good, the defence no good and the goalie is no good when it’s going on. We’re in it together. We’re going to win together. We’re going to lose together. And we’re going to fix it together.”
“I thought we stopped playing in the first period after they scored the (first) goal and allowed them to get three more (in the first period),” the coach said”. Really. Did you stop paying them then? These guys are supposed to be (supposed to be) professionals. Highly paid professionals. Don’t you think it is long past the time they started acting like it?
Professionalism has zero to do with it. Redefining the team and rebuilding with few familiar pieces is absolutely part of the game. Don’t take the loss so seriously. They will rebound eventually. In the meantime, assassinating the team’s character never helps even after 50-games let alone under 10.
I would argue that the right chemistry is yet to be found for such talented players and we all know that they have the talent.
Be patient young Jedi.
This team never started to play. Terrible effort by all players.
Perhaps figure skating would be a better fit for some or most of the team. There are supposed to be well oiled highly paid athletes.
Dear Coach MacLean,
As the newest victim in Bryan Murray’s “THIS Coach is Right!” rest assured that you’ve been provided with a good core of comfortable, no-trade protected, bunny-slipper wearing veterans that know they can kill another first-time coach’s career because they are beloved in the community and part of “the future”, nebulous as that future is.
How can one possibly be upset with the one-dimensional Erik Karlsson and his great hair, allowing forwards to whack at pucks in front of an overmatched Alex Auld (He’s big, he’s bald, he’s not entirely at fault!) while doing the most casual job of a stick check? How can you be angry at Jason Spezza, that vaunted leader and future captain, that shows up for his power play shift so he can say he’s a point per game, while totally dogging it for the other 18 minutes he plays? How can one be disheartened at Chris Neil picking his spots, playing hard against former teammate Heatley and looking completely disinterested the rest of the time? What’s the problem with Daniel Alfredsson (PRAAAAAAAAISE ALFIE!!!) looking as if he’d rather be in front of the hearth than with this bunch? Who can blame him? Let’s not forget lovable “Big Rig”, who should rename himself to “Big DIG”, as in digging yourself a deeper hole each period with your lackluster play.
Nay, the radio media, the rival paper, the team’s management has assured us this is the most skilled, deepest group this team has EVER seen. Yes folks, this team is better than the Cup finalists, better than the multiple 100 point teams, better than ANYONE previously playing here.
We just don’t know it yet.
Be patient, they say.
Keep giving us hundreds of dollars for an abysmal product, we promise it will get better…whenever; is what they should be saying.
I hope most of this is tonque in cheek .. I saw no where were this tem was over hyped going into the season… there was no big snow job.. it is a fragile rebuilding team… and yes some of the vets have been under achieving for sure . .
“some of the vets have been underachieving…” try ALL of the vets. It is absolutely embarrassing and inexcusable
Read the papers and listen to the radio.
We were told by Sens management and even Mr. Scanland that this is the deepest, most talented group the Senators have ever seen. We’re being told by AJ Jakubec on Team 1200 that Mark Stone is the next coming of BRett Hull, that Rundblad is the next coming of Salming, that Karlsson and Rundblad will be the next Redden/Chara, and so on.
The proof is in the pudding Mr. Murray and this pudding is ROTTEN.
all ur talk seems pretty moronic now, don’t it?
They are what we thought they were. Time to make a trade
Excellent analysis Recal Sentrant. “They were so good at the end of last year” when teams were going into the playoffs. They were so good in the 2nd period last nite when the opponents took their foot off the gas. I must admit we have a lot of offensive defencemen. Remember Volchenkov and Phillips how they stabilized things. So sad..
Guys, it’s the first year of a rebuilding project. It takes time and patience. Yep, they played terrible, yep they can play with flashes of brilliance, but that’s what the next two years are all about. Learning to play with brilliance for the whole game. Great teams come with great fans who support them through both good and bad times. And these times, they are a’tryin’! Go Sens!
I remember, as a young girl, watching my now-late-grandfather watching hockey. He only watched TV for hockey and the news. It was hilarious to me as a young child. He’d start watching the beginning of the game, comfortably sitting on the couch. As the game got more exciting, he’d be sitting on the edge of the couch. When his favorite team “Montreal Canadians’ scored, he’d almost fall off the couch. I didn’t understand the game, but would fake watching the game, just so that I could watch him. What a wonderful memory of him.
In the days of Rocket Richard, the Mohovalich Brothers, etc, they weren’t paid much. They played because they loved the game. They didn’t have pensions, or benefits or whatever. It wasn’t a business, it was a game/hobby, which they loved. There wasn’t many rules (ie:no helmets) and they could play.
Somehow, somewhere along the way, hockey became a business, with huge salaries, lots of rules and just about everykind of hockey gear imaginable, pensions, benefits, etc.
It is still called a GAME, it is still advertised as ‘such a team will be PLAYING at a certain place’, etc. It is not a game/hobby anymore. When Gretzky got 27 million to PLAY for 3 or 4 years, that’s when hockey changed. Players didn’t play for one team anymore. They all get traded so you can’t really cheer for a team when your favorite player is playing on one team one year and another team the next, like when I was a young girl.
You would have never seen Rocket Richard playing for the Montreal Canadians one year and then play for the Philadelphia Flyers the next. It would have been unheard of. You not only cheered for a player but for the same team year after year.
The more they get paid, the less that the players do. Its sad. Our national game is now nothing but a joke. They get paid huge amounts of money to chase a puck when our Prime Minister gets less than a third for being responsible to a whole country and its safety. Things have got to change.
Hockey has got to go back to what it was, the love of the game and the players have got to get that loving feeling of the sport again. I can no longer follow my favorite player or team anymore because it is no longer players loyal to a team. They get traded for big bucks. The love of the sport is lost and it must return. Only then, will Canadian teams win again. Until then, it remains a joke.
Sad but true. That, and teams in places where they have no reason – other than Bettman’s desire for expansion fees – to be. And let’s not forget an insanely long season. They had no ‘pre-season’ then, and the year didn’t run into June. I remember the Canadiens having no less than THREE five hundred goal scorers at one time. Maybe four for a year? How many teams today have one, much less two or three? Dilution of talent to the point of it being dull, dull, dull.
Spezza is just terrible, just awful. How you people will defend him forever is beyond me.
Obviously he can’t be traded (no one wants him), so fire him. Fire him. Bring in players who want to play and will fight for the puck – not simply throw the puck in front of the net hoping for a miracle like Spaz does.
Have you ever noticed that when the puck is in the corner he turns away and won’t go in for it? He thinks he’s too precious to actually fight and push for it.
well said Northern Princess!
When a team is telling its fans, we are in a rebuilding mode, then don’t put a competitive team on the ice, the fans feel cheated. The naysayers jump in. I guess maybe I have low expectations for Ottawa, I don’t expect young and upcoming players to win every game, but I do expect they will at least be competitive. Each time we lose, we can learn from it and do better the next time.
It is obvious, we are not learning. Having watched the games, the forwards are afraid to shoot the puck on net, rather “cycle” the puck, it has to be shot toward the net in order to even have a remote chance of going in. There is no perfect shot, just perfect breakdowns in not doing the job you were given.
The coachs role is to guide the players on the how to improve their individual jobs. The players role is to be responsible and carry out their jobs both offensively and defensively.
JUST DO YOUR JOB and the rest will follow.
The team is slow and sloppy. A bunch of individual efforts from the 4th line and the save Alfie the other high priced players wouldn’t make the NHL on a try out. What is upsetting as a fan is not win or losing, but watching the poor effort.
Most of these guys play less than 20 minutes and if these players put it all out there then the coach can tune the team. Right now we need players that want to play every second of the game.
Then we can talk about win/losing and playing good hockey.
It bad when even I think the Leafs have a better team.
The name on their sweaters, says it all. The big Zero.
I was interested in watching the Senators and to see if they made any improvement. My initial reaction was whether Bryan Murray even has a one ounce of common sense so he can see what type of team he has put together. The guy is absolutley clueless and frankly the game has passed him by. Plain and simple the Senators need a new general manager, who understands the premise of forming a competetive team.
Secondly, get rid of Chris Neil, not only does he look and act like Bozo the clown his selfishness kills the Senators. Tough only goes so far in the NHL and his inability to even be a marginal contributor makes his presence on the roster suspect. Get rid of Konopka too as he is another Bryan Murray “tough guy” who should be in the ECHL.
I’m not a fan of the Senasnores, but even I recall they did manage to make it to the Cup Finals. Once. Thing is, Melnyck then ‘rewarded’ the coach who got them there by … promoting him to GM. And it’s been downhill ever since. So what’s Melnyck waiting for to admit his mistake and reinstate Murray as coach?
I am thoroughly enjoying watching this train wreck unfold. Management cries of attendance issues and negative media coverage are sure to follow soon. They need more than just the All-Star game to entice/blackmail fans into buying seats this season.
Spezza might get a point every so often, but he sure costs them points to, with these garbage BLIND PASSES…
Philips, kuba, and gonchar are garbage….GARBAGE, players out skate them, they always miss the net,(i think the whole team needs target practice)….these guys should have been traded, NOT RE SIGNED
just alot of stupid plays are coming out of what could be so simple…
they dont need defencemen who get under ten points a year playing 82 games, shoulda kept mazzaros and got rid of philips….just the same as kept chara instead of redden,( i know that couldnt be predicted )
So now this team plans to hide behind the “rebuilding” excuse every time they play horribly? Here’s an idea, stop charging people to come and watch until this supposed “rebuild” is complete!! Until then, count me out.
I get a kick out of you peeps saying get rid of spezza and crying about things. Try putting on skates and get on the ice see what u pansies can do….I do agree with no effort part of the whole team…and no defense and yes the goalies need to picket up a lot lol
See folks, another spaz lover. You don’t have to be a professional hockey player to be able to see the relative weaknesses of players on the ice. Spezza sucks, period. He’s useless. Completely useless. He whines, cries, moans, and above all else he sucks! When Heatley left, spaz got exposed for the loser he is.
Lol cry a river get over it GO SENS GO
Take a deep breath, cmon we’ve only had 6 games! This team will turn it around and things will be better (although another top draft pick wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen either). Of course fans find it hard to watch their team lose, and bashing and blaming is human nature I guess. But it doesnt help buld a fan base, when young prospective fans hear all of this constant negative bashing and complaining about our team. What is really sad is how the majority of kids on my sons house league hockey teams the past few years are commenting about how much the “Sens suck”, and they don’t even want to go to, or watch the games. Yes the Leafs suck and some of their fans are obnoxious a-holes, but at least they stick by their team through good and bad. I just hope that Sens fans will have the chance to get to that stage. GO SENS GO
Wow. You negatives are losers. This is the NHL. It’s not easy to win. Pitt, Bos, anyone that has won the cup over the past several years were bottom dwellers for a spell. It’s a natural cycle. As for speeza hating, I’m speechless. The guy is terrific and makes all around him better. So much fun to watch. And the healthy thing, what did speeza do? He was a man,defended his team and did his job. I know TML become a playoff threat is JS is there centre.
Really people, it’s entertainment. Enjoy the ride. Support your team and be happy with daily progress. We’ll get another high draft pick and in a couple years be very competitive.
Stay negative and you will lose your team to another city. Just support and enjoy the development of some young players. It makes it much more fun. You remember fun, don’t you ?