Last night I paid my debt to the boys on the Backhand Shelf Podcast and settled in to do my Forced Watching duties, which entailed watching and writing about the Colorado/Calgary game. That post will run shortly after this one, but Giguere’s comments seemed a little more newsworthy than my thoughts, so we’ll start with those.
The facts:
* The Colorado Avalanche are in 30th place of 30 NHL teams, a full three points behind Florida & Calgary for 28th/29th
* Last night they lost to Calgary, moving closer to their “goal” of last place and the highest pick in the draft
* A draft system that rewards team for losing is bulls**t
* Any man or woman who doesn’t have enough personal pride to say “I’m too proud to roll over and not give it my best is also bulls**t, and JS Giguere called his team on it last night.
In two of my four college seasons, our team finished last in the conference. It’s not fun. Last most bad teams, the cause was mostly being less talented than our opponents, but problems snowball, and that’s what Giguere got at. The games move from your top priority to a hindrance to your social schedule (especially for young bucks), and when you have some guys checked out and others not…inner-dressing room fireworks ensue.
After a lengthy quote about them having to be better in their d-zone, here’s what he said to Adrian Dater (full post here): Read the rest of this entry »
