I've heard all this from the casual fan and even from sports radio. But never an actual coach. Not publicly. Heard about this on local radio this morning.
Angry coach blasts lethargic players for not wanting 'to pay the price' for a victory
It wasn't so much that his Blackhawks had just lost 1-0 to the Columbus Blue Jackets that made coach Denis Savard as mad as he has ever been at his team Thursday.
It was his team's lack of aggression to fight for loose pucks, drawing boos at times from the crowd of 16,094 at the United Center, especially during futile power plays.
''Unacceptable'' was Savard's nicest rebuke in his postgame interview. Then came the anger from knowing his team had the skill, but lacked the will, to do better.
''I'm pissed off,'' he said. ''[We] just didn't want to battle. You've got to want it. Skill or no skill, to gain an inch in this league, you've got to pay the price. You might get cut. You might get a bruise. So what?''
The game distilled down to a goalies' duel won by one goal: Jared Boll's redirection of Ole-Kristian Tollefsen's pass from the boards just above the left faceoff circle at 7:20 of the second period.
Blue Jackets goalie Pascal Leclaire, who stopped 30 shots, had mixed feelings about how the lone goal made him the winner and Hawks veteran Nikolai Khabibulin, 33, the loser in his return from a five-game rest.
''I'm a young guy in this league, and I still look up to guys like Khabby,'' said Leclaire, 25, who got his league-leading eighth shutout. ''He's done it all. He's won the Stanley Cup. He's one of my idols.
''But it turned out to be a goalies' duel. He and I had good games. It could have gone either way but went my way.''
Khabibulin showed no rust whatsoever.
''He was outstanding,'' Savard said.
But Khabibulin wasn't happy.
''I wanted to come back with a win, and I thought I played well,'' he said. ''I just feel bad that we lost after we had so many good chances.''
His teammates felt for him, too.
''I just wish we could have given him some goals,'' forward Patrick Sharp said. ''He did a fine job and deserved to win. We just ran into a hot goalie who played a great game for them.''
Forward Adam Burish also said Khabibulin deserved the win after facing 27 shots and fighting off seven penalties.
But Savard ripped his players for a lackluster effort that included a power play that is scoreless in its last 12 tries overall and 18 tries against the Blue Jackets, second in the league in penalty killing.
''Some guys don't want to chip pucks in deep because they don't want to go get it,'' Savard said. ''They don't want to get hit. You've got to be willing to get a cut in your face to get rewarded at the end of the night. If you don't want to do it, you're not going to win the Stanley Cup.
''Last time I checked, [our players] are getting pretty good money to do it. We've got three days off here. We come out in front of our crowd, a good crowd, and this is what we give them? Unacceptable. And they're going to hear it when they come back.
''This is a classy organization that has made some commitments to the players for two years, three years. Now they've got to commit to us. They've got to commit to the Indian [team logo]. If they don't want to ... we'll get them out of here.''
Angry coach blasts lethargic players for not wanting 'to pay the price' for a victory
It wasn't so much that his Blackhawks had just lost 1-0 to the Columbus Blue Jackets that made coach Denis Savard as mad as he has ever been at his team Thursday.
It was his team's lack of aggression to fight for loose pucks, drawing boos at times from the crowd of 16,094 at the United Center, especially during futile power plays.
''Unacceptable'' was Savard's nicest rebuke in his postgame interview. Then came the anger from knowing his team had the skill, but lacked the will, to do better.
''I'm pissed off,'' he said. ''[We] just didn't want to battle. You've got to want it. Skill or no skill, to gain an inch in this league, you've got to pay the price. You might get cut. You might get a bruise. So what?''
The game distilled down to a goalies' duel won by one goal: Jared Boll's redirection of Ole-Kristian Tollefsen's pass from the boards just above the left faceoff circle at 7:20 of the second period.
Blue Jackets goalie Pascal Leclaire, who stopped 30 shots, had mixed feelings about how the lone goal made him the winner and Hawks veteran Nikolai Khabibulin, 33, the loser in his return from a five-game rest.
''I'm a young guy in this league, and I still look up to guys like Khabby,'' said Leclaire, 25, who got his league-leading eighth shutout. ''He's done it all. He's won the Stanley Cup. He's one of my idols.
''But it turned out to be a goalies' duel. He and I had good games. It could have gone either way but went my way.''
Khabibulin showed no rust whatsoever.
''He was outstanding,'' Savard said.
But Khabibulin wasn't happy.
''I wanted to come back with a win, and I thought I played well,'' he said. ''I just feel bad that we lost after we had so many good chances.''
His teammates felt for him, too.
''I just wish we could have given him some goals,'' forward Patrick Sharp said. ''He did a fine job and deserved to win. We just ran into a hot goalie who played a great game for them.''
Forward Adam Burish also said Khabibulin deserved the win after facing 27 shots and fighting off seven penalties.
But Savard ripped his players for a lackluster effort that included a power play that is scoreless in its last 12 tries overall and 18 tries against the Blue Jackets, second in the league in penalty killing.
''Some guys don't want to chip pucks in deep because they don't want to go get it,'' Savard said. ''They don't want to get hit. You've got to be willing to get a cut in your face to get rewarded at the end of the night. If you don't want to do it, you're not going to win the Stanley Cup.
''Last time I checked, [our players] are getting pretty good money to do it. We've got three days off here. We come out in front of our crowd, a good crowd, and this is what we give them? Unacceptable. And they're going to hear it when they come back.
''This is a classy organization that has made some commitments to the players for two years, three years. Now they've got to commit to us. They've got to commit to the Indian [team logo]. If they don't want to ... we'll get them out of here.''
