Vermie's pissed, too

Remember a couple of weeks ago, when Daniel Alfredsson was so pissed he smashed a pane of glass at Scotiabank Place? Well, now Antoine Vermette is at least as pissed as Alfie was, as he smashed his stick to pieces after a(nother) failed 2-on-1, this time in practice. According to the Ottawa Sun:

"It's not easy," he said of battling through this lean stretch. "We're all human here. On that 2-on-1, I really wanted to score and I missed the net there so I wasn't too happy. I think it was the stick. We got it straightened out. The next 2-on-1 we scored."

Vermette, back on a line with Chris Kelly, has had some chances lately, for whatever that's worth.

"You're going to hit stretches like that in a season where things don't go your way. Eventually you get one or two and it falls into place," he said. "It's not easy. At the same time, you don't want to fall into the mistake of being frustrated. It just generates
negativity and you don't need that at all."

Who can blame Vermette? He's getting shit on everywhere, by fans as well as by the media (from that same Sun article: "At least the Senators winger hit the net with something."), and his name is constantly being churned through the rumour mill. The criticism he's taking is somewhat justified, because Vermette's got a big role to play on this team and he's not fulfilling it yet, but no one knows that more than he does. The only people defending him are the ones who count--his teammates and his coach, Craig Hartsburg, who said that he's just got to get back to the two-way play that made him valuable in the past, and his points will come.