As others have said already, what annoys me about this team is the easy way they brush off disasters without much emotion. It’s like they are going through the motions on ice and simply regurgitating canned media responses after the game. No heart, no fire, no fight....and it shows.
What should they say or do to satisfy you that they have heart? People always get mad when players give clichéd responses, but what else are you going to say. You can't throw your coaches, teammates, GM under the bus. Clichéd responses are clichéd because that is about all players are allowed to say with out being roasted....except they get roasted for being clichéd. Do you want Petro to say "f*** this shit. I am sick of this. You want to know why we lost? Yeo is f***ing moron who can't run a powerplay to save his life, Allen is a basket case and I'm so worried about him being a basket case that I'm a basket case. I need a partner who can push someone out of the crease and they keep partnering me with that creepy guy who does my taxes. Our GM trades away all our RHS for over-paid third liners who can only play LW. And we are a mid-market team so unless we get lucky in the draft, we are basically screwed from the jump." He'd be gone the next off-season/trade deadline.
Oshie spoke his mind and said Hitch had lost the room. He got shipped out the next opportunity and has the stigma of being a locker room cancer among some. So players that show emotion get lambasted too.
What did Backes ever say to be such a great captain and leader? Show me one play-off loss exit interview where Backes ever said something real besides crying and saying it wasn't good enough. Do you want Petro to cry? Will that convince you he cares?
You want to know what's clichéd? An whiny, entitled fan fan who doesn't know enough about the team or sport to recognize the real faults laying the blame on heart. That is clichéd as anything. So your favorite team didn't make the playoffs? So what, put on your big boy britches and deal with it. Roughly half the hockey fans in the world go through that. That doesn't mean the players don't care because they are not risking their jobs to throw a temper tantrum.