I love that clip of Alfie there. These guys all need to some tough love to get them to play tough, and to play in all three zones. Kastelic better smarten up because he has sucked, not bringing a single element we need from him or the fourth line.
Alfie has the clout to criticize guys who don’t play hard, especially when you’re one of the biggest guys on the team, are on the team for your physical play, and aren’t finishing easy checks.
These guys are going to find themselves out of the line up on the fourth line because they aren’t brining energy or physicality on any basis, let alone on a consistent basis.
Obviously there are other issues with skilled guys, but our tough energy guys aren’t doing their jobs at all. This team NEEDS guys who will come out and create momentum, fire up the team during lulls, and cause some pain. For all his faults Watty was that type of guy and we miss that.
JM is going to show each player some puck management details that they need to adopt, then he will start reminding, and then ice time will be affected.
All this before making any changes to the system. I suspect they will wait to see if the interim tag comes off before spending the time to change the system. It’s all good for now though because the players to a man need to focus on the details of their game regardless of the system.
Finish your f***ing checks, stop making low percentage plays with the puck. Start with that.
