News Article: Ottawa Senators' Craig Anderson rips his mates

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

There has been a lack of scraaaaaaaaambles this year.

 

[HSF]

Neil and Smith should not be lumped together at all.

Neil busts his ass on the ice, always finishes his checks, and seems to enjoy crashing the net. Big guys like Chia and Stone don't enjoy it, and never do it with relish. It's the same knock on Greening, who at least gets fired up on the ice.

I fear that Chia will soon wear out his welcome, though Stone will be fine as long as he's able to put up points.

Like Cameron said, maybe it's getting slapped around by your brothers. It's an attitude, and it can't be taught.

Imagine if Stone had a fraction of Neil's attitude, or even Cowen had Boro's? They would be such better players.

Gryba, Cowen, Chia, Stone, all big guys with little natural aggression. Phillips, Pageau, and Ryan are the most aggressive guys on the team, with honourable mention to Mac, and Michalek.

Can you imagine how aggravating it must be to watch a soft team play in front of you while you bail them out over and over again..

agreed with the neil and smith thing

neil and boro are a different breed

Which is why i am a big fan of stewart he would be top 10 on our team in hits and has more fights this year then Smith and the same as Neil

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Neil and Smith should not be lumped together at all.

Neil busts his ass on the ice, always finishes his checks, and seems to enjoy crashing the net. Big guys like Chia and Stone don't enjoy it, and never do it with relish. It's the same knock on Greening, who at least gets fired up on the ice.

I fear that Chia will soon wear out his welcome, though Stone will be fine as long as he's able to put up points.

Like Cameron said, maybe it's getting slapped around by your brothers. It's an attitude, and it can't be taught.

Imagine if Stone had a fraction of Neil's attitude, or even Cowen had Boro's? They would be such better players.

Gryba, Cowen, Chia, Stone, all big guys with little natural aggression. Phillips, Pageau, and Ryan are the most aggressive guys on the team, with honourable mention to Mac, and Michalek.

Can you imagine how aggravating it must be to watch a soft team play in front of you while you bail them out over and over again..

Really? Phillips one of the most aggressive guys on the team?

 

[Busboy]

Bad healine, simple click bait.

I'm sure everyone agrees with what Anderson is saying, or at least I hope so. At this point it doesn't matter though, the season is done for the Sens. I guess it's not too late to start establishing a better team identity though because if this play keeps up next year then we're looking at some rough times ahead.

 

[ChocolateLeclaire]

Ironically, Bingo just signed the guy, who in his prime, was the perfect power forward.

Maybe Bert can come up and coach this roster into player meaner, harder and tougher around the boards.

I would love to have teams refer to this roster as "hard to play against" like the old school Philadelphia teams or Boston two years ago before Montreal neutered them.

 

[Push540]

Well calling out players in Ottawa, it's not news. But what can the players do? They need some help on the ice.

 

[Ice-Tray]

Really? Phillips one of the most aggressive guys on the team?

Yes really. Watch him play. He goes out of his way to put players on their *****. He puts the heat on forwards in front of our goaltender. You may not like him for his errant passes, and general decline in play, etc, but the man knows how to put the body on a player in the D zone. Not only that be he gets a lot more heated in post play scrums these days than anyone else on D.

Philips being one of the most aggressive players on the team wasn't so much singing his praise, though it is a little, but is more about how nice we are. I mean half the time I see flashes of anger on this squad its from Michalek.

 

[Boud]

Bah.. Ripping.. Every player does that when asked in an interview. Usually it's something like "we've got to be harder on the puck and work hard defensively bla bla bla". Pretty much the same thing here with different terms. I'm happy Andy is showing frustration, it shows he has some leadership in him and that he wants to win. Sometimes you hear it from the coach all the time so it becomes redundant and the message passes from one ear to the other but when the goalie says something like that, you need to think the players will want to watch out for him more.

Usually goalies focus on themselves in interviews but Andy has nothing to focus on, he does his job and many others don't.

 

[Korpse]

I agree that the team needs to get dirtier, but adding Neil and Smith will not accomplish this. Don't think the 9 min per game for those two will somehow translate into more goals.

What we need is for Chia, Stone, Ryan and all of our bigger forwards to go in front of the net more and score some dirty goals.

When you have a guy like Neil or Boro out there who are constantly battling and giving the other guys a hard time it tends to rub off. I'd say Smith if it were 2013 but he hasnt been consisntently doing it since.

 

[Baby Ryan]

Really? Phillips one of the most aggressive guys on the team?

Aggressive as in not afraid to play the body and fight hard in front of the net rather than mean-aggressive in your face, Gallagher/Marchand style.

Which Phillips does do quite well (the first part).

 

[StefanW]

I don't blame Andy for getting a bit frustrated. He is standing on his head most nights, and the rest of the team is not getting the job done.

 

[Push540]

I don't blame Andy for getting a bit frustrated. He is standing on his head most nights, and the rest of the team is not getting the job done.

I agree but even if they players were playing better, do they have the talent to be a playoff team?

 

[StefanW]

I agree but even if they players were playing better, do they have the talent to be a playoff team?

I'm not sure what this has to do with Andy's comments about the team's play.

 

[Push540]

I'm not sure what this has to do with Andy's comments about the team's play.

Whipping a horse to go faster... ok.... what happens if the horse can't run faster?


Even if the players were playing to their potential most nights? Would we be in the playoffs? I doubt it. I Believe we need a couple of guns on O and a brick wall on D. We don't need the best of the best, just higher caliber than what we have on lines one and two.

 

[StefanW]

Whipping a horse to go faster... ok.... what happens if the horse can't run faster?


Even if the players were playing to their potential most nights? Would we be in the playoffs? I doubt it. I Believe we need a couple of guns on O and a brick wall on D. We don't need the best of the best, just higher caliber than what we have on lines one and two.

I believe the point was that in Andy's view the team was not playing as well as they could/should have been playing. And he was correct.

 

[Push540]

I believe the point was that in Andy's view the team was not playing as well as they could/should have been playing. And he was correct.

Yes, of course they haven't been playing well.

How "well" can they play though? Can this roster be a playoff team? If so, whip them good. If not, then it's best not to whip hard at all.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Neil and Smith should not be lumped together at all.

Neil busts his ass on the ice, always finishes his checks, and seems to enjoy crashing the net. Big guys like Chia and Stone don't enjoy it, and never do it with relish. It's the same knock on Greening, who at least gets fired up on the ice.

I fear that Chia will soon wear out his welcome, though Stone will be fine as long as he's able to put up points.

Like Cameron said, maybe it's getting slapped around by your brothers. It's an attitude, and it can't be taught.

Imagine if Stone had a fraction of Neil's attitude, or even Cowen had Boro's? They would be such better players.

Gryba, Cowen, Chia, Stone, all big guys with little natural aggression. Phillips, Pageau, and Ryan are the most aggressive guys on the team, with honourable mention to Mac, and Michalek.

Can you imagine how aggravating it must be to watch a soft team play in front of you while you bail them out over and over again..

Mostly agree (all except for Greening...his version of fired up is lukewarm at best).

You're either born with that attitude or you're not. You can't really force a guy to play a physical role when it's not in their genes.

We don't have a lot of win-at-all-costs kind of guys on the team. We have a lot of nice guys. Pretty boys.

Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder to find those types of players. With hockey becoming more expensive every year, and elite kids being coddled more and more, the odds of getting a kid who knows what's it's like to battle are getting smaller and smaller.

 

[Icelevel]

If you're implying that the locker room needs an attitude change, I agree with you....

i'm not really talking about anything specific. Just want the team/organization to get to a stable point with a healthy happy environment and a chance to compete with the best.

could be on the right path with the new guys coming up and some management changes. time will tell.

 

[Ice-Tray]

i'm not really talking about anything specific. Just want the team/organization to get to a stable point with a healthy happy environment and a chance to compete with the best.

could be on the right path with the new guys coming up and some management changes. time will tell.

Soooooo, you just want us to be a consistent contender. Welcome to the world of 25 other teams in the league. Seems like it might not be as easy a feat as you make it sound, especially for a team that is fresh off a decade long stint in that very position.


It's great to have long term goals, as long as you have a few short term goals that are attainable as well.

 

[Icelevel]

I just don't want to see the top players consistently getting frustrated eventually.

I'm still confident there is a decent long term plan because there has to be. So I'll wait and stay optimistic.

 

[Derivation]

Give Andy the C.

 

[jbeck5]

Yes, of course they haven't been playing well.

How "well" can they play though? Can this roster be a playoff team? If so, whip them good. If not, then it's best not to whip hard at all.

I was thinking of the exact same thing. Sure we aren't playing well...but how well can we play? Were lacking a lot of top end talent.

After karlsson, we've got 20 point ceci and that's it. We have no star forwards who can come anywhere near a ppg. We just don't have that good of a roster to expect anything more then being within a few point of the wildcard.

Cheer on the boys. Be happy when they win(or lose if you're on the tanking side) but whatever you do, don't expect much success out of this roster because you'll be dissapointed.

 

[Erik Alfredsson]

A bit of a sensationalist title to the article, but I like what Anderson said. "Ripping" on someone is putting someone down, this is just a critique of what the players need to do to be better.

This.

 

[MainDotC]

Give Andy the C.

Agreed. EK has to learn from this.

 

[Hossa]

Where's Gary Roberts when you need to solve all your problems?