I'm nowhere near naive and I have never said I know what the players are think so if you would kindly stop putting words in my mouth that'd be great. What I said was there are ways to call out the coach without explictly doing it and it's been done by players in the media for decades and I have read enough and TAUGHT enough students what to look for that I know what I'm talking about. First off, again, if the players had an inclination that their coach was the issue, they would not be so eager, whenever asked about it, to focus the blame on themselves. They'd be vague with answers more to the point of "I'm not sure what's wrong right now but something has to change." You are right they wouldn't come right out and say it, they wouldn't have to. Also, players are not so bunny afraid as you may think they are about being the one to out the coach, especially in the age of NTC's and NMC's that make incredibly hard and in some cases impossible to move said player without swallowing a really bad deal (see St. Louis to the Rangers after the Olympic snub for an example). As such, they can stray from the company line if they don't like the direction the company is running because the players the media want to hear from are 99 times out of 100 less expendable than the coach is.I have a pretty extensive experience with professional athletes myself and rule #1 is don't speak out of line! Spew cliches and generic statements and never stray from the company line!
Nobody wants to be THAT guy that called out the coach, gm or owner.
If you wish to be so naive to believe every answer in the locker room is truly what is on the players mind then you go right ahead and do that.
I'm nowhere near naive and I have never said I know what the players are think so if you would kindly stop putting words in my mouth that'd be great. What I said was there are ways to call out the coach without explictly doing it and it's been done by players in the media for decades and I have read enough and TAUGHT enough students what to look for that I know what I'm talking about. First off, again, if the players had an inclination that their coach was the issue, they would not be so eager, whenever asked about it, to focus the blame on themselves. They'd be vague with answers more to the point of "I'm not sure what's wrong right now but something has to change." You are right they wouldn't come right out and say it, they wouldn't have to. Also, players are not so bunny afraid as you may think they are about being the one to out the coach, especially in the age of NTC's and NMC's that make incredibly hard and in some cases impossible to move said player without swallowing a really bad deal (see St. Louis to the Rangers after the Olympic snub for an example). As such, they can stray from the company line if they don't like the direction the company is running because the players the media want to hear from are 99 times out of 100 less expendable than the coach is.
It's not hard at all to criticize the coach and therefore make your feelings known about the current regime if you don't like it without explicitly saying it, it's incredibly easy, especially today with personal PR firms and professional media coaches. If you don't believe that's true, then I'm not the one who is naive here.
And apparently he had been unhappy for sometime and had a nmc, still not a peep about it in public.It is certainly not common for players to call out coaches in the NHL,not that it has never happened but it's pretty rare.You bring up the Martin St. Louis situaution of last year but up until he requested a trade were there any comments made by St. Louis that were even remotely critical of Yzerman?I don't recall St. Louis saying anything at all.If players calling out coaches in the NHL is common please provide some examples.
I miss Parise.
Players don't call out coaches, subtly or directly, except in very rare situations. And even when they do, even if they're right, it almost always has an adverse affect on their reputation.
Let's also consider the culture of our team. Considering how Koivu, Suter, Parise, Pominville, Backstrom, and the majority of the others are, do you think we have a team culture where anyone would feel right about calling out a coach at all? Hell no. These are character and team first guys, these are not selfish, self-involved players. That is the exact culture Fletcher has been fostering here.
And honestly, who gives a **** if Yeo shows emotion on the bench or not. Who ****ing cares if Koivu blows up over a bad call on the ice. I really hate these kinds of expectations some people put on sports pros. These guys ARE professionals. They're on national TV FFS, they need to act professionally. And you damned well know Fletch and Leopold expect them to act like that 99% of the time.
Once in a rare while it wouldn't matter and could even be beneficial, but that's it. Being some emotional fool out there just brings down the whole organization and makes them look like whiney babies. Hell, look at Roy, he just looks out of control and ridiculous he does it so often.
Players lack speed to break free from the defenders so they take bad angle shots from the perimeter.