According to the Ottawa Sun, Daniel Alfredsson expressed his frustration in practice today by smashing a pane of glass with his stick. Apparently Dany Heatley also had a "heated discussion" with Chris Kelly, and then Heater had a long talk with Craig Hartsburg. You can watch a video on SUN Video here (but don't expect to see the glass actually get smashed).
This is all second-hand information from Bruce Garrioch, so I don't know how 'heated' the discussion was, or exactly what precipitated Alfie's outburst (apparently it was because the team couldn't complete a drill). But I'm not sure it's a bad thing; at least it's some emotion. The team is obviously searching for answers after a pretty thorough beating at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens. Given some criticisms about Alfredsson's leadership or hesitance to make his feelings known, I think everyone knows where he's at right now.
In his search for answers, Hartsburg scrambled the lines today in practice:
Heatley-Spezza-Foligno
Winchester-Fisher-Alfredsson
Donovan-Kelly-Vermette
Ruutu-McAmmond-Neil
Winchester-Fisher-Alfredsson
Donovan-Kelly-Vermette
Ruutu-McAmmond-Neil
Obviously Jarkko Ruutu is now suspended, and it's unclear where callup Ryan Shannon will fit into the lineup. Given his defensive lacking and offensive flair, I think Shannon might pull right up onto a line with Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out for sure.
It was also announced today that Alex Auld will be in nets again on Thursday against the Islanders. He's earned at least a few starts with how he's been playing.
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8 comments:
Nobody should criticize Alfie, if he has gotten upset it is most likely his teammates who are letting him down in my opinion.
Went to the Baby Sens game tonight in St. John's - it seems that the same issues facing the Ottawa group are present down lower. I have only seen one BINGO game, so maybe I saw a bad one, but here are my observations:
1) if anyone thinks Brian Elliott is Ottawa's saviour in the goalie position, look again - I saw several Gerberesque soft goals tonight
2) the defense was brutal - Lee, who many of us wondered why he was sent back down, looked weak - Bell wasn't much use either
3) the only grace was that #19 of the Baby Sens got in a fight! He got the shit kicked out of him, but it's the first spunk I've seen from that number in a while
4) For St. John's - a crowd of just over 3000 for an AHL game - first time hockey's been in that building for a while. It's probably not enough for anybody to get excited about a new team coming there - the crowd was quiet and uninspiring, but it's hard to get excited when you're not vested in either teams
Hartsburg has to stop playing Vermette on the wing if he wants any offence and consistancy out of him at all. Throughout history Vermette has only produced while playing centre, so why force it? Some players don't play well in other positions on the ice, Vermette falls into that category.
I think Alfie was mad because a certain Swiss goalie has not been getting many starts lately. Remember he was very good in the 2006 Olympics!! Gerber for lifetime DiPietro like contract!!
Thanks for the baby-sens feedback. Ya we know about Lee - he's 2 drafts ahead of Luke Schenn and Lee's in the minors and Schenn is playing in the NHL... just goes to show you what a terrible pick Lee was. Unfortunately we could of taken Kopitar, Stall, Latendresse, Stastny, Downie, or Vlasic (40 pnts as a D in 163 games vs 1 in 6 games for Lee)
Personally I am very happy things are starting to boil over in Ottawa 0 glad alfie is frustrated. For over a year now you can see the train has been off the tracks - so many questionable decisions by management.
IT"S TIME TO FIRE MURRAY!!!!
Agreed!
Am I the only person who saw Chirs Kelly light it up playing on the top line two years ago? Worth a shot since he hasn't done a thing all year but kill penalties. I've been saying this for a while but after yeaterdays practice maybe not a good idea.
I agree Vermette needs to play center, he good on faceoffs too.
That hursts to know we could of drafted kopitar before Lee but that's the way she goes. 30 teams passed on Alfie several times before Ottawa picked him. Usually after the first 5-10 picks you never know what you will get.
I wish Alfie would show that much emotion during an actual game.
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