Giguere goes off on his team

[yave1964]

J.S. Giguere, 15 year veteran goalie who currently toils for the Colorado Avalanche has finally had it.

The Lanche have packed it in, you can tell that zero effort from too many players is common, Sacco is gonna get sacked at seasons end, the team is just punching the clock and looking forward to a late April tee time. And Giguere after a 3-1 loss to the wretched Calgary Flames spoke his mind about it. Here are his quotes after the game:

“As long as we don’t understand that we have to play better in our zone, we’ll never win any games. We have to do a better job in our own zone. That’s where it starts. We have to learn this at some point.”

“The (allowing) the first goal is one part of it (problems), but I think it comes down to us not playing very well defensively. We spend too much time in our own zone, and that’s hard. That’s where it’s hard. We know we can score some goals, we have some offensive tools. But when you spend part of the second period in your zone and give up too many scoring chances, you’re not going to win games like that.

“We talk about it every day. At some point, we have to understand. There’s no more excuses. It’s not about being young, it’s not about … we have to put our head into the game.”

“Some guys are more worried about their Vegas trip at the end of the season than playing the games, than playing every minute of the games. Quite frankly, I don’t care about your Vegas trip right now.”

“It’s not constructive. We have to find a way to get out of this losing mentality, you know? It starts with me and the guy beside me and everyone has to do their part.”“It’s embarrassing. I’m embarrassed to be here right now. It’s not even funny.”

“I don’t know what it is. I’ve been around for 15 years in this league and I don’t know what it is. I don’t know why we seem like we don’t care at points. I don’t know, I don’t know we seem like, you know — some guys are fighting to show that they belong in the NHL, some guys are fighting for contracts. And it’s just embarrassing, the way we, you know, the energy we have in the room and the way we approach practices and the way we approach this game. It’s not how you’re going to win any games in this league. I mean, this is a team (Calgary) that we can beat if we set our minds to it, and every day is the same story. I don’t know what to say. I’m beyond words right now.”

“But that was just one game. It’s easy to get going when you play a team that is going to embarrass you if you don’t play well. You’ve got to play like this against every team in this league. There’s not one easy game in this league, so you’ve got to play hard and you’ve got to play well every night. You’ve got to find a way to get yourself motivated and focused. It has nothing to do with who you’re playing. It’s about how you prepare yourself and how you approach the game. It’s not about which team you’re playing. Yeah, everybody’s going to get motivated when you play the Hawks. I mean, the building is full and that’s easy to do. But can you get yourself going when you play the Calgary Flames? Can you do that right now? And obviously, we’re too immature to do that.”

Wow. An NHLer calling out his team for effort or lack thereof, personally, I am blown away, glad to see it. Plus, subtly digging in the side of the Flames, basicly saying no way no how should anyone lose to that rag tag bunch. Good for him.

Today, Giguere has not backed down from his comments, and the Avalanche players say he is right and they need to play better as a team. he called them out and with nine games to go lets see how they respond. I know some will rip Giguere for his comments but personally I get it, he is frustrated over a lost season, and frustrated by players who have just quit. Reading between the lines, I think he is calling out the blue liners pretty hard for not clearing the puck, no names mentioned but they know who they are.