Silver Nuggets: A look inside the Ottawa Senators closed-door meeting
In the immediate aftermath of their 7-2 thrashing against the Philadelphia Flyers, head coach of the Ottawa Senators Paul MacLean closed the doors and held a 20-minute closed-door meeting to deal with some... issues. Notably, the team's horrendous 1-5-0 start.
Although the media was barred from the meeting, I've been given access to locker room video of the proceedings, and have transcribed the meeting here so we can all reap the fruits of stealing Down Goes Brown schtick get an inside look at how the team's leadership addresses the issues on the team.
Alex Auld: Can someone remind me when the regular season starts, again? I'm getting tired of playing split games, looking forward to the opportunity to play a couple full ones.
[Extended silence... ]
Paul MacLean: WHAT THE HELL.
Daniel Alfredsson: Guys, I think you all know why we've got this closed-door meeting right now. Aside from some periods of decent hockey, we simply haven't been doing what Coach MacLean has told us we need to do to...
MacLean: FULL SIXTY MINUTES. BOTH ENDS OF THE RINK. SHOOT THE PUCK. WHAT ARE YOU NOT GETTING ABOUT THIS?
Chris Phillips: We've got to move the puck out of our zone more quickly, guys. Get our feet moving. I'm trying the best I can to show you guys the ropes, but it doesn't seem to be working; is there something that would be more effective?
David Rundblad: Excuse me, Mr. Phillips? Perhaps if you lead by example, instead of trying to show us what not to do, we'd learn more efficientl...
Phillips: Yeah, shut up, rookie. Talk to me when you've played over 900 games.
Spartacat: [Stomps floor furiously, makes wild hand gestures.]
Alfredsson: Spartacat's right. We're spending way too much time waiting for the perfect scoring opportunity to come along, and not enough time working hard for those opportunities. We need to give our goaltenders a bit of support, too.
Craig Anderson and Auld: [Nod heads in unison.]
Alfredsson: And you guys need to make a save here and there. You look like you're terrified of playing competent goaltending, for some reason.
Robin Lehner: [Peers around a corner, makes eye contact with Anderson and Auld, and makes a throat-slitting gesture.]
Anderson: Wha... ? Hehehe.. no, it's not anything like that...
Erik Karlsson: What more can I do, Papa Alfie? Even when I send teammates in on clear breakaways, I can't make them score. I score when I can, but I can't always score.
Alfredsson: I know, Champ. It's tough sometimes.
MacLean: SIXTY. MINUTES. BOTH. ENDS.
Alfredsson: Bottom line, guys: We need to be better.
Zenon Konopka: What about bottom-line guys?
Alfredsson: Look in the mirror, men. Analyze your game with the coaches, and work on getting better. We need to play the full...
MacLean: SIXTY MINUTES.
Alfredsson: ... and we need to backcheck, forecheck, get some saves, throw some hits, take more shots, and score more goals. We need to be more resilient, and to show some backbone and bounce back, instead of getting down on ourselves when we give up the lead. We're a better team than we've been playing, we just need to put everything together in...
MacLean: BOTH ENDS OF THE RINK.
Alfredsson: Yeah, what he said.
Konopka: Good meeting, guys. Anyone need a hug?
Links after the jump.
Ottawa Senators headlines:
- Recaps: Silver Seven | Broad Street Hockey | Ottawa Sun | Ottawa Citizen
- Harrison Zolnierczyk scored. (The 6th Sens)
- Head coach Paul MacLean didn't pull any punches after last night's game. (Senators Extra)
- Varada appears to have fully bought in to the Fail For Nail campaign (or completely lost his mind) in his reverse-mentality recap. (WTYKY)
- Yeah, Karlsson has had an alright start...
General hockey headlines:
- Kris Letang was Shanabanned two games for a boarding-from-behind infraction on Alex Burmistrov that was reminiscent of his "hit" on Nate Thompson in the playoffs last year (for which he was fined) and another on Jason Spezza in December of last year (for which he was given two minutes). (Puck Daddy)
- Friend of the blog JoNana is now kicking into gear with her new site, The Backhand Shelf. Check out her first post there. (The Backhand Shelf)
And here's some Daniel Alfredsson post-game insight: