FINALLY RENNEY SNAPS
By Jason Gregor
13 years ago
Tom Renney has seen some horrendous performances this season, and he has remained rather calm throughout the first 19 games, but tonight’s performance in Phoenix finally pushed him over the edge. I’m amazed his patience lasted this long.
After their second 5-0 loss in their past four games, Renney finally publicly berated them. I’d love to know what he said to them behind closed doors, but here’s a snippet of what he said after the game.
"The starts start in the morning when you come to the morning skate, that’s when they start. You have a night to take a breather or what not, but the next morning when you get up it is game day. Boy it is game on, it doesn’t matter what time of day it is. It’s game day. Period.
"We win a game and we figure we are going to be hosting the Cup or something…I don’t know, I don’t know. It’s a joke….
"The battle level was non-existent tonight. The pride in the jersey was not even close to what it needed to be. It was an absolute joke, a travesty."
Renney gave them the benefit of the doubt after their embarrassing 5-0 loss to Chicago last Wednesday, by playing four-on-four shinny, but I don’t see him being so nice this time around. Slow starts have plaqued this team all year, excluding maybe three games, so it is clear they don’t know how to get prepared on game day.
This is not part of the process, and calling up Linus Omark or Liam Reddox won’t fix this problem. It could help, but it won’t fix the lack of heart across the lineup.
It is on the players to be better
Act like professionals and be ready to play from the opening whistle. These players need to find the heart, determination, preparation and hockey-sense necessary to compete in the NHL, because in five of their last seven starts they haven’t come close to even competing.
Tonight’s game was a joke and it is time the players do more than just talk about they got off to a slow start.
Show some pride!
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