Yeah, but it's not like Sveddy doesn't have a TV or an internet account or a Twitter account. These comments get back to players, and can undermine the private conversations.
I can't imagine what message Spooner was getting earlier in the year.
Undermine? I don't think so. What is said behind closed doors is what really matters. Everything else is just noise.
From everything the players have said over the years, one of the reasons why they respect Julien is because he's a straight shooter. He's not going to sugarcoat anything, nor is he going to stab a guy in the back. If you're playing badly, he'll tell you to your face. It may not be what a player wants to hear, but it's better than hypocrisy. Or as Jim Bouton put it in "Ball Four," "we call that having smoke blown up your ***."
I'm sure Spooner didn't like being told he had things to work on, and that he was being sent down to do so, but he listened, he did what he was told, and now he's playing significant NHL minutes. These guys are pros, striving to be the best in the world, and they have to be able to take criticism, or they might as well hang it up.
