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Thursday, February 21, 2008
Kicking Complacency Squarely In The…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning Bobby Holik, was interviewed on the flagship station of the Thrashers, 680 The Fan. The captain of the team was very candid in his remarks regarding the lack of effort his mates tend to show on the ice from time to time…most recently last Saturday night on Long Island. One of the reasons for the inconsistent play, he indicated, was that a lot of the guys have become “complacent” in the attitude toward playing.
“We get paid to play good”, is what I also believe I heard Holik say.
He went on to discuss the fact that players in this league can never allow themselves to become comfortable at whatever level they are at. Even if you are in the Stanley Cup Finals…you can’t be happy to just be there, you have to want to win.
When pressed by hosts Christopher Rude and Perry Laurentino to give ways that players can elevate their level up to a point where, night in and night out, they are putting out a complete and total effort that is needed to compete they way it should, the captain responded in a factual… yet telling… manner. He said that he felt it had to come from within the individual player.
While true, I feel as though this also very indicative of what the main problem has been with the team so far this season. Outside of a defender or center possibly, the talent is there, no doubt…but there has not been that one person who, when it was really needed, could draw forth from the squad that certain “something”…a fire, a desire, an emotion…that was required to prepare them for the battle that was about to be waged on a regular basis.
Last year, there was Bob Hartley. As the head Coach of the Thrashers he knew that sometimes a player needed a pat on the back…other times a swift kick in the butt. Just ask Ilya Kovalchuk, who a few times felt the sting of Hartley’s bite. There was also, Scott Mellanby, the team captain whose presence was felt from time to time by the younger players. But they are both gone now.
Now…who is there? There isn’t a coach…at least in the official capacity. Don Waddell is acting as one…but he is first and foremost the general manager. There is Brad McCrimmon…but when the organization had the chance to place him in the head coach position…they balked, opting instead to elevate him to associate coach. Is essence, they said to him, “We like you, Brad…but we don’t trust you with it…at least not yet”. In doing so they denied him that one final ounce of credibility to the team that comes with being the “head” coach.
In the early 1940’s, during the battle of Britain, Winston Churchill was the figure that led his nation through its darkest hour. Instilled within each and every citizen was the natural instinct to be resolute and persevere through the onslaught that was being inflicted upon their nation by an army intent upon invading the island nation. It was Churchill that pulled that God-given ability from them and held his nation in tact during the hard times and abated the advance of Nazi Germany.
Later in the war, when the aggressors had to be forced out of Africa, Italy, Belgium and France…back across the Rhine into Germany, it took an army led by a supreme motivator. Someone who not only could kick the tails of every foot soldier…but saw it as mandatory to get all he could out of them in order to conduct and complete the mission. To force out of his men the drive, desire and fight require do the tough job at hand was his duty to them, his army and his nation.
One such type of person…Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
Today, we need the personification of both of these historic figures in one man…a Coach Winston Patton, if you will. Someone who can set the course and tone of a team, an organization and its fan-base with his calm resiliency and motivational prowess.
One who could do so by asserting, “…we shall not flag or fail. We will go on to the end. We will fight in the face off circle, we will fight in the corners and in the crease, we will fight with growing confidence and growing strength in center ice, we shall defend our home ice, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight in front of our net, we shall fight to win every lose puck, we shall fight along the boards and through the lanes, and we will fight behind the nets, we will never surrender…” as Churchill would.
A commanding figure who could pull from the bellies of players the fire and will to fight in a Patton-esque manner as this…”My God, I actually pity those poor morons we’re going up against. My God, I do. We’re not just going to check them, we’re going to check out their living guts and use them to wax the blades of our sticks. We’re going to score goals by the bushel. The other players are the enemy. Wade into them. Spill their blood, shoot at THEIR goal. When you see a pile of goo, that a moment before was your teammates face, before it was put into the plexiglass, you’ll know what to do. We are attacking constantly, and we’re not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We’re going to hold onto him by the nose, and we’re going to kick him in the butt. We’re going to kick the heck out of him all the time, and we’re going to go through him like crap through a goose”!
This is how they must see their mission…this is how they must play. If you don’t want to lay everything you have out there, then make way for someone who does!
Now, Thrashers…..21 games to glory!
Go EARN it!
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