Associate coach Tom Renney barked out Ales Hemsky in practice yesterday for not showing enough focus in the drills. It was a full-throated scolding, much of it not suitable for print.
Hemsky's practice habits --he is always the first player off the ice, seconds after the whistle goes -- and those of other veterans, have come in question before. Later on Pat Quinn said players have to start working harder in practice if they're ever going to play harder in games.
"Our job is to help these guys get better," he said. "When you're putting in effort to help them get better and some guys don't seem to value that effort because they have their own habits or maybe they don't need to practice that hard, they think in their mind that game day is tomorrow, I'll turn it on tomorrow. They're the guys who often kid themselves.
"Yes they have great talent but you know what, we've missed the playoffs three bloody years in a row and five of the last eight years. So at the end of the day you have to start saying talent is what? Talent is part of it but we need a bigger package. How do you get a bigger package? You ask people to work."
